TCM Schedule for Friday, August 28 -- Summer Under the Stars--Frank Sinatra

[Staph]

Today's star is Francis Albert Sinatra -- Ol' Blue Eyes himself. Enjoy!


6:00am -- Higher And Higher (1944)
Servants pass off one of their own as an heiress in hopes of winning her a wealthy husband.
Cast: Michèle Morgan, Jack Haley, Frank Sinatra, Leon Errol
Dir: Tim Whelan
BW-90 mins, TV-G

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy McHugh (music) and Harold Adamson (lyrics) for the song "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- C. Bakaleinikoff

RKO purchased the rights to the play for $15,000, specifically to star Frank Sinatra, and the four songs he sings by Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson were written to accommodate his singing style. He was billed third because the contracts with Michèle Morgan's and Jack Haley's prevented higher billing.


7:32am -- Short Film: High Gear (1931)
Hal Roach's comedic team, The Boy Friends, take a borrowed car out for a drive and find trouble at every turn.
Cast: Mickey Daniels, Gertrude Messinger, Betty Bolen, Edgar Kennedy
Dir: George Stevens
BW-25 mins

Fifth episode, and only three-reel entry, in the Boy Friends (otherwise) two-reel comedy series.


8:00am -- Step Lively (1944)
Fly-by-night producers dodge bill collectors while trying for one big hit.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, George Murphy, Adolph Menjou, Gloria De Haven
Dir: Tim Whelan
BW-88 mins, TV-G

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- Albert S. D'Agostino, Carroll Clark, Darrell Silvera and Claude E. Carpenter

Remake of the Marx Brothers comedy Room Service (1938).


9:30am -- The Kissing Bandit (1948)
A timid young man is forced to follow in his father's footsteps as a notorious masked bandit.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, J. Carrol Naish, Mildred Natwick
Dir: Laslo Benedek
C-100 mins, TV-G

The three Fiesta Specialty dancers are Ricardo Montalbon, Ann Miller and Cyd Charisse!


11:19am -- Short Film: The House I Live In (1945)
Singer Frank Sinatra explains the importance of racial tolerance to a group of tough kids.
Cast: Frank Sinatra
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy.
BW-10 mins, TV-G

Sinatra sings If You Are But A Dream and The House I Live In.


11:30am -- Anchors Aweigh (1945)
A pair of sailors on leave try to help a movie extra become a singing star.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly, José Iturbi
Dir: George Sidney
C-139 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- George Stoll (On 10 September 2001 Kevin Spacey purchased Stoll's Oscar statuette at a Butterfields auction in Los Angeles and returned it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gene Kelly, Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert H. Planck and Charles P. Boyle, Best Music, Original Song -- Jule Styne (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "I Fall in Love Too Easily", and Best Picture

For the most famous sequence in the film, Mickey Mouse was originally meant to be the dance partner of Gene Kelly. However, when Walt Disney refused to have his most famous character appear in an MGM film. Kelly turned to MGM's own animation studio and used Jerry Mouse of Tom and Jerry fame. When the dance sequence was screened for MGM executives, someone noticed that although Kelly's reflection shone on the floor during his dancing, Jerry's did not. So all the animators who worked on the sequence had to be rehired to go back in and draw Jerry's reflection on the floor as he was dancing.


2:00pm -- On the Town (1949)
Three sailors wreak havoc as they search for love during a whirlwind 24-hour leave in New York City.
Cast: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, Ann Miller
Dir: Gene Kelly
C-98 mins, TV-G

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Roger Edens and Lennie Hayton

A total of 5 days was spent filming in New York City. The 2 major problems faced by the crew was the weather (it rained for most of the shoot) and the popularity of Frank Sinatra. Gene Kelly explained that the movie was filmed at the height of Sinatra mania and Frank would be instantly recognized by people on the streets. To avoid crowds the cast insisted on taxis instead of limousines for transportation and that the camera be hidden inside a station wagon. During the finale of the "New York, New York" musical number, which takes place in the sunken plaza at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in front of the statue of Prometheus, you can see at the top of the frame of the last shot, the heads of hundreds of curious spectators staring at the three stars over the wall behind the statue.


3:39pm -- Short Film: Mighty Manhattan, New York's Wonder City (1949)
This Fitzpatrick travel short visits Manhattan, exploring its history, culture, architecture, and people. The short also pays special visits to come of Manhattan's more famous neighborhoods and landmarks.
Cast: James A. FitzPatrick
Dir: James H Smith
C-20 mins

Although not officially an entry in the Traveltalks series, the same production crew was used for this two-reeler, and the opening credits have the same appearance.


4:00pm -- Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)
A beautiful woman takes over a turn-of-the-century baseball team.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Betty Garrett
Dir: Busby Berkeley
C-93 mins, TV-G

According to Esther Williams in her memoirs, Judy Garland was the original choice for K.C. Higgins but was replaced after she'd become undependable owing to her developing drug habit. June Allyson was also considered but had become pregnant and opted not to work during her pregnancy.


5:45pm -- Never So Few (1959)
A U.S. military troop takes command of a band of Burmese guerillas during World War II.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lawford, Steve McQueen
Dir: John Sturges
C-125 mins, TV-PG

Steve McQueen's role was originally going to be played by Sammy Davis Jr.. A feud had broken out between Davis and Frank Sinatra after Davis had claimed in a radio interview that he was a greater singer than Sinatra. Sinatra demanded he be dropped from the cast, and McQueen got the part.


What's On Tonight: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: FRANK SINATRA


8:00pm -- Some Came Running (1958)
A veteran returns home to deal with family secrets and small-town scandals.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Martha Hyer
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
C-136 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Arthur Kennedy, Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Shirley MacLaine, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Martha Hyer, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White or Color -- Walter Plunkett, and Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "To Love and Be Loved"

"Some Came Running" is taken from the Gospel of St. Mark (Chapter 10:17), which author James Jones used as an epigraph before the beginning of the novel. It reads: "And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" Jones also used the image of running to begin the novel's prologue, as Dave Hirsh remembers German soldiers attacking during the Battle of the Bulge; "They came running through the fog across the snow, lumbering, the long rifles held up awkwardly high..."


10:30pm -- High Society (1956)
In this musical version of The Philadelphia Story, tabloid reporters invade a society wedding.
Cast: Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm
Dir: Charles Walters
C-107 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for Oscars for Best Music, Original Song -- Cole Porter for the song "True Love", and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin

Grace Kelly, recently engaged to Prince Rainier of Monaco, wore her actual engagement ring for as character's engagement ring. This was her last feature film before retiring from acting.


12:30am -- The Tender Trap (1955)
A swinging bachelor finds love when he meets a girl immune to his line.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, David Wayne, Celeste Holm
Dir: Charles Walters
C-111 mins, TV-PG

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics) for the song "(Love Is) The Tender Trap"

The original Broadway production of "The Tender Trap" by Max Shulman and Robert Paul Smith opened at the Longacre Theater on October 13, 1954 and ran for 102 performances. The original cast included Robert Preston and Kim Hunter.


2:30am -- Sergeants 3 (1962)
Three adventurous Cavalry officers and their bugler take on a renegade chief.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford
Dir: John Sturges
C-113 mins, TV-PG

Shortly after this film’s release, Sinatra fell out badly with Lawford (even throwing him down a flight of stairs!) after President Kennedy – who was Lawford’s brother-in-law – choose to stay over at Bing Crosby’s house rather than his (due to recent allegations of Sinatra’s connection with the Mafia being uncovered) and which explains Lawford’s disappearance from subsequent Rat Pack efforts.


4:30am -- Suddenly (1954)
Gunmen take over a suburban home to plot a presidential assassination.
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, James Gleason, Nancy Gates
Dir: Lewis Allen
BW-76 mins, TV-PG

This is the film that Lee Harvey Oswald supposedly watched just a few days before assassinating President John F. Kennedy.

[Staph]

1. Frank Sinatra Profile

* Titles in Bold Type Will Air on 8/28

He was cool before "cool" ever existed. Slight of stature but long on charisma, he was able to caress and phrase a lyric with his velvet baritone in a manner that was uniquely his. Of the pop vocalists that have emerged since the advent of broadcasting, only his idol and friend Bing Crosby could claim as much crossover accomplishment in as many entertainment mediums, and have demonstrated as much skill as a serious actor. He was the Chairman Of The Board, Francis Albert Sinatra, and he left a remarkable legacy from his sixty years in the public eye.

Born in Hoboken, New Jersey on December 12, 1915, Frank Sinatra was raised in a rough neighborhood, and the skinny kid needed every scrap of his trademark pugnacity to get by. As a teenager, he performed odd jobs for the local newspaper, and his early ambitions leaned toward sports writing. His love of song eventually won out; organizing a quartet dubbed the "Hoboken Four," he swung a 1935 radio appearance on the then-popular "Major Bowes' Amateur Hour," drawing a then-record response of 40,000 callers.

The "Hoboken Four" soon went their separate ways, but the determined Sinatra plugged away as a singing waiter; by early 1939, he married childhood sweetheart Nancy Barbato. Within months, he had received an offer from Benny Goodman sideman Harry James, who was ready to put together his own orchestra and knew he had found his vocalist. Within six months, Frank had taken a better offer from Tommy Dorsey, and the collaboration resulted in a string of hit singles.

By 1941, Frank had made his first screen appearance, as the Dorsey Orchestra provided musical support in Las Vegas Nights (1941). As 1943 dawned, he parted ways with Dorsey and embarked on a solo career, signing a deal with Columbia Records. The following year, he received his first acting opportunity with a tailored role in the light RKO musical Higher and Higher (1944). As the '40s wore on, he became one of the most recognized and frequently caricatured figures in American show business, depicted as leaving hordes of swooning bobbysoxers in his wake. Beyond the chartbusting record sales and concert receipts that he enjoyed, Sinatra graced a broad range of the best-loved RKO and MGM musicals produced during the period (Step Lively (1943), Anchors Aweigh (1945), It Happened in Brooklyn (1947), Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949), On the Town (1949)).

With the dawn of the '50s, however, Frank entered the bleakest period of his personal and professional life. He had divorced Nancy in 1951 to take up a tumultuous union with screen beauty Ava Gardner; they would split within two years, and ultimately divorce in 1957. Filmgoers responded indifferently to Double Dynamite (1951) and Meet Danny Wilson (1952). Worse, after suffering a hemorrhage of his vocal chords in 1952, he was summarily dropped by his label and agent. He begged for the opportunity to play the doomed Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953), and agreed to a payday of a mere $8000. The gamble paid off with a Best Supporting Actor Oscar® and a resuscitation of his career.

Armed with a recovered voice, a new record deal and credibility as a serious actor, Sinatra parlayed this second chance into career security. His matured vocal stylings found a fit with the high-fidelity recording era. He acquired an ownership percentage in the Sands Hotel in Vegas, becoming a local icon while reaping enormous benefits. Further, his schedule in Hollywood was never busier, as he divided his time between frothy musicals (Guys and Dolls (1955), The Tender Trap (1955), High Society (1956), Pal Joey (1957)) and projects that let him show off his acting chops (Suddenly (1954), The Man With the Golden Arm (1955), The Pride and the Passion (1957), Kings Go Forth (1958), Some Came Running (1958)).

In the early '60s, Sinatra and the members of his Hollywood "Rat Pack"-Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford-were favorites of the Kennedy White House, and were enjoying themselves in vehicles like Ocean's Eleven (1960), Sergeants 3 (1962), 4 For Texas (1963) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964). Frank remained active in film for the balance of the '60s, most notably in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Von Ryan's Express (1965). In 1966, he embarked on a two-year marriage to the much younger Mia Farrow. A year after wrapping the western Dirty Dingus Magee (1970), the Chairman made the announcement that he was retiring from show business.

He meant it - at least a little while. By 1973, he was back in the recording studio and touring in concert. 1976 brought him the most successful domestic union he'd ever know with Barbara Marx, ex-wife of Zeppo Marx. While now squarely back in public life, Sinatra would only make one more dramatic appearance onscreen, with the crime melodrama, The First Deadly Sin (1980). As the '80s wore on, he continued to perform to packed houses; while his range was no longer what it was, throngs of adoring fans didn't seem to care.

His reservoir of energy took him into the 1990s, as he joined a slate of contemporary pop singers for a pair of best-selling "Duets" albums that would bring him his tenth and last career Grammy Award at age 80. The Voice was finally stilled on May 14, 1998, as Sinatra was stricken by an acute heart attack. But so long as sound recording endures, generations will enjoy the soulful stylings of the kid from Hoboken who ascended to the top of the heap.

by Jay S. Steinberg