WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
I’m probably going to sound really harsh with what I’m about to say but even though the following films were all great to watch in their own way, I honestly do not rate Frank Sinatra as an actor in any of them – I will go on to explain why below. It’s no surprise that he was cast in a few musicals, including working with Gene Kelly 3 times, as there is no denying the man had a great voice…
Not as a Stranger
It’s funny to think, that from the opening of this film when they focus on the students – I picked Frank Sinatra out straight away from about 20 faces in the frame. Frank plays second string in this film to Robert Mitchum’s Lucas Marsh, and I think he’s supposed to be the funny guy to Mitchum’s straight guy. Especially as, even though they are both medical students, Sinatra’s character of Alfred doesn’t take it as seriously as Lucas does. Of course because he has an ancillary role in this film, Frank actually appears very little – especially in comparison to Mitchum of course but he’s definitely in the film more than Lee Marvin who we see only at the beginning. I like the fact that Alfred doesn’t like the idea of Lucas taking the money from Cristina which sometimes, in films like this, it turns out to be the friend’s idea for the lead to fleece the rich girl out of her money.
Man with the Golden Arm
This doesn’t have much relevance to the film as whole but the opening instrumental reminded me a little of Fever by Peggy Lee. With this film the roles are reversed, Frank is playing patient instead of Doctor – well more ex-patient as this film introduces us to Frankie as he comes back home after being released. We talk now about trigger-warnings and people wanting to get rid of certain shows/films because of the subjects they tackle. We thought this was a new thing but I didn’t realise that the subject of this film was the struggle with drug addiction, which would probably have been taboo back in the ‘50s. I guess this film has two underlying stories – Frankie’s drug addiction and the idea of choosing the right woman. Molly believes in Frankie and his dreams of being a drummer but Zosh just wants to keep him trapped in guilt. I wonder if it’s not only because of the car crash but because she realises he’s still in love with Molly. The one thing I will say, for a man with little money and struggling with withdrawal on and off, Sinatra doesn’t half keep himself looking neat and tidy for the whole film.
Von Ryan’s Express
So I was originally going to watch this film for my based on true stories of war but unfortunately was unable to get hold of it – plus it turns out it’s not a true story. This is also the first film, in this article, of Frank’s that was filmed in colour. Once again Frank plays the lead character, Joseph Ryan, who starts the film having crashed his plane. It’s impressive that with the state of his plane, he only has the smallest graze on his forehead. It’s strange for me that when giving orders early in the film, Sinatra doesn’t seem to actually adopt much of an authoritative tone to his voice. I honestly feel that Major Fincham, played by Trevor Howard, is a much stronger character than that of Sinatra’s Ryan but I wonder if that’s down to the writing or if it’s the delivery of the two actors. If I’m completely honest, the fact that Joseph Ryan is a fictional airman created for this film – I’m not too sure what the necessity for his character actually is. I’m sure they could have had the same story without him.
Honorary Mentions
As I stated at the beginning Sinatra had starred in quite a few musicals during his acting career but as we are looking at his non-singing works, they aren’t really of any importance here. It seems that his first actual step into more serious acting, not to say that musicals don’t have serious undertones, was in From Here to Eternity in 1953 before moving on to a much darker role a year later in Suddenly (which I’m tempted to watch in case he plays a psychopath better than a drug addict). You’ve all heard of Ocean’s 11 with George Clooney and The Manchurian Candidate starring Denzel Washington? But how many of knew that these were remakes of 1960s films starring Frank Sinatra? More on that in future articles…
