The Rat Pack «««½
R, 120m. 1998
Cast & Credits: Ray Liotta (Frank Sinatra), Joe Montegna (Dean Martin), Don Cheadle (Sammy Davis, Jr.), Angus Macfadyen (Peter Lawford), Zeljko Ivanek (Robert Kennedy), William Petersen (President John F. Kennedy), Veronica Cartwright (Rocky Cooper), Deborah Kara Unger (Ava Gardner), Dan O’Herlihy (Joe Kennedy), Bobby Slayton (Joey Bishop), Megan Dodds (May Britt). Screenplay by Kario Salem. Directed by Rob Cohen.
The week after Frank Sinatra died, Time and Newsweek ran cover stories chronicling the many ups and downs in the life of the “Chairman of the Board.”
Among the events both magazines talked about were the highly publicized “Summit Meetings” Sinatra and fellow “Rat Pack” pals, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop held nightly at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas back in the early 1960s.
Those stage performances are authentically recreated in The Rat Pack, one of perhaps two major movies about Frank and Dean. Another project about Dean Martin, based on the 1992 best selling biography Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams by Nick Tosches, isn’t expected to go before cameras until 2000. That is the only time, according to various entertainment magazines, director Martin Scorsese will be able to assemble his dream cast which will reportedly include among them, Tom Hanks as Dino, John Travolta as Sinatra, Hugh Grant as Peter Lawford, and Jim Carrey as Jerry Lewis.
The Scorsese movie will cover Martin’s life. The Rat Pack is about Sinatra and the group’s early days and begins the minute the singer sees Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy (William Petersen) make his bid for the presidency on network television in 1960.
“That’s a big leaguer,” Frank says, who is impressed by JFK’s willingness to answer reporter’s questions about his age. “He knows exactly what everyone is thinking and what does he do? He walks right into the lion’s mouth and pulls up a chair. That’s guts, baby.”
The ambitious, versatile entertainer is played by Ray Liotta who doesn’t look at all like the singer. What makes his performance work is he captures Sinatra’s emotions in his singing, mannerisms, and work methods when it came to shooting films (the actor never did more than one take in any movie he did). But it isn’t until Liotta lip-synchs to such lyrics as “High Hopes” and “Live” that we feel we’re really watching him on screen.
What makes Liotta such a magnetic actor to watch is how unpredictable he is.
“I am 18 karat manic depressive,” Sinatra tells Kennedy brother-in-law, Peter Lawford (Angus MacFadyen) early on in the film.
You never know how Frank is going to react to a situation and since the entertainer in real life was so unpredictable when it came to his attitudes, this role is perfect for Liotta. One minute he is punching out a reporter for writing tabloid gossip about him. In another instant, he is throwing Lawford down the stairs and bringing a sledgehammer to JFK’s heliport after finding out the president will be staying at Bing Crosby’s house in March 1962 instead of his.
According to a variety of books, the president’s decision to stay at Crosby’s was on the advice of his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who knew of Sinatra’s connections to Chicago crime boss Sam Giancana. It is believed the entertainer reportedly asked Giancana to fix the Chicago ballots to get JFK elected.
Half the movie is awash in blue, red, green, and white stage lights that are so hot, we can see the sweat dripping down Sammy Davis, Jr’s (Don Cheadle) face as he performs for the crowds. Newspaper headlines flash across the screen chronicling various events that occurred while the group was together. The film also provides a surprisingly, intimate look at Martin, who’s played with a certain inebriated charm by Joe Montegna, Davis, and Lawford; all of whom look exactly like their real life counterparts.
There is Montegna’s Martin, with curly black hair, whose trademark was to have a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other whenever he performed on stage and off.
The most surprising aspect the movie gives about Dean’s personality was he wasn’t necessarily the womanizer I thought he was. In one scene, as his buddies are out having sex with women in their hotel rooms, Martin is alone in his nursing a drink in bed.
Acting newcomer MacFadyen shows us another side of Lawford obviously not seen in any of his movies. He stutters every time in Sinatra’s presence like a frightened child whose father has struck him one too many times. Lawford’s cowardly actions often irritate the singer, especially when the actor has bad news to deliver from the home front.
Throughout the film, Lawford tires of being a go-between Frank and JFK discussing mob contacts and setting up sexual liaisons yelling, “F-----g Kennedys,” from atop his balcony which overlooks the ocean.
The most insight we get is from Cheadle’s Davis who practically steals the show as the one-eyed, tap dancer. The film captures his rough life trying to win public acceptance for his African-American/Jewish heritage and being romantically linked to white actress, May Britt (Megan Dodds), whom he eventually marries. The best scene is when Davis has a dream tap dancing, brandishing two pistols in his hands singing, “I got you under my skin” scaring off members of the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazi party.
The most memorable scenes are when the group performs on stage recreating the time Martin called Davis a trophy and offered him to JFK as a “gift on behalf of the NAACP.” The moment Lawford, Davis, and Joey Bishop (Billy Slayton) walked on stage in their tie, dinner jackets, and underwear carrying their trousers in one hand as Dean was singing is reenacted.
Such shots show just how clever and spontaneous these guys probably were in real life delivering quick, witty dialogue. Their comedic timing was never off. As Sinatra tells audience members at the Democratic National Convention the reason why they are there, Dean immediately cuts in and says, “He threatened us.”
“You see what I mean,” Frank jokingly says. “I can’t take these guys anywhere.”
If there is any flaw The Rat Pack has, it’s with Liotta’s Sinatra whom we never quite get the feeling of what made this guy tick. I don’t think anyone who makes a movie about the entertainer will ever be able to pin that down except the “Chairman of the Board” himself. What drives Sinatra’s character here is his desire to win respect in the press which is the reason why he involved himself in politics at the time. The character reminds me of The Godfather’s (1972) Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) who can’t seem to go straight. No matter what he did, people always wondered about the singer’s mob connections and often scandalous romances.
A friend of mine said how much he wished he had been around when Sinatra and his “Rat Pack” buddies were performing.
I have no doubt seeing those guys drink, smoke, sing, and joke about each other’s nationalities entertaining audiences at night would have been a sight. They were one time gigs that would never happen again and the crowds loved it.
Sinatra and Davis, in real life, attempted to recreate some of that magic again in the late 1980s doing concerts nationwide but it probably wasn’t the same. Maybe that’s the reason why Martin bailed out on his pals after the first show when Frank asked him to go on tour with them in 1988.
“We’re just the cocktail of the moment, baby,” Dean says in the film when asked by Bishop on what he thought of one of their late night performances. “One of these days, the world is going to wake up with a heck of a hangover, down two aspirins and a glass of tomato juice and wonder what in the hell the fuss was all about.”
©10/27/98
R, 120m. 1998
Cast & Credits: Ray Liotta (Frank Sinatra), Joe Montegna (Dean Martin), Don Cheadle (Sammy Davis, Jr.), Angus Macfadyen (Peter Lawford), Zeljko Ivanek (Robert Kennedy), William Petersen (President John F. Kennedy), Veronica Cartwright (Rocky Cooper), Deborah Kara Unger (Ava Gardner), Dan O’Herlihy (Joe Kennedy), Bobby Slayton (Joey Bishop), Megan Dodds (May Britt). Screenplay by Kario Salem. Directed by Rob Cohen.
Among the events both magazines talked about were the highly publicized “Summit Meetings” Sinatra and fellow “Rat Pack” pals, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop held nightly at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas back in the early 1960s.
Those stage performances are authentically recreated in The Rat Pack, one of perhaps two major movies about Frank and Dean. Another project about Dean Martin, based on the 1992 best selling biography Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams by Nick Tosches, isn’t expected to go before cameras until 2000. That is the only time, according to various entertainment magazines, director Martin Scorsese will be able to assemble his dream cast which will reportedly include among them, Tom Hanks as Dino, John Travolta as Sinatra, Hugh Grant as Peter Lawford, and Jim Carrey as Jerry Lewis.
The Scorsese movie will cover Martin’s life. The Rat Pack is about Sinatra and the group’s early days and begins the minute the singer sees Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy (William Petersen) make his bid for the presidency on network television in 1960.
“That’s a big leaguer,” Frank says, who is impressed by JFK’s willingness to answer reporter’s questions about his age. “He knows exactly what everyone is thinking and what does he do? He walks right into the lion’s mouth and pulls up a chair. That’s guts, baby.”
The ambitious, versatile entertainer is played by Ray Liotta who doesn’t look at all like the singer. What makes his performance work is he captures Sinatra’s emotions in his singing, mannerisms, and work methods when it came to shooting films (the actor never did more than one take in any movie he did). But it isn’t until Liotta lip-synchs to such lyrics as “High Hopes” and “Live” that we feel we’re really watching him on screen.
What makes Liotta such a magnetic actor to watch is how unpredictable he is.
“I am 18 karat manic depressive,” Sinatra tells Kennedy brother-in-law, Peter Lawford (Angus MacFadyen) early on in the film.
You never know how Frank is going to react to a situation and since the entertainer in real life was so unpredictable when it came to his attitudes, this role is perfect for Liotta. One minute he is punching out a reporter for writing tabloid gossip about him. In another instant, he is throwing Lawford down the stairs and bringing a sledgehammer to JFK’s heliport after finding out the president will be staying at Bing Crosby’s house in March 1962 instead of his.
According to a variety of books, the president’s decision to stay at Crosby’s was on the advice of his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who knew of Sinatra’s connections to Chicago crime boss Sam Giancana. It is believed the entertainer reportedly asked Giancana to fix the Chicago ballots to get JFK elected.
Half the movie is awash in blue, red, green, and white stage lights that are so hot, we can see the sweat dripping down Sammy Davis, Jr’s (Don Cheadle) face as he performs for the crowds. Newspaper headlines flash across the screen chronicling various events that occurred while the group was together. The film also provides a surprisingly, intimate look at Martin, who’s played with a certain inebriated charm by Joe Montegna, Davis, and Lawford; all of whom look exactly like their real life counterparts.
There is Montegna’s Martin, with curly black hair, whose trademark was to have a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other whenever he performed on stage and off.
The most surprising aspect the movie gives about Dean’s personality was he wasn’t necessarily the womanizer I thought he was. In one scene, as his buddies are out having sex with women in their hotel rooms, Martin is alone in his nursing a drink in bed.
Acting newcomer MacFadyen shows us another side of Lawford obviously not seen in any of his movies. He stutters every time in Sinatra’s presence like a frightened child whose father has struck him one too many times. Lawford’s cowardly actions often irritate the singer, especially when the actor has bad news to deliver from the home front.
Throughout the film, Lawford tires of being a go-between Frank and JFK discussing mob contacts and setting up sexual liaisons yelling, “F-----g Kennedys,” from atop his balcony which overlooks the ocean.
The most insight we get is from Cheadle’s Davis who practically steals the show as the one-eyed, tap dancer. The film captures his rough life trying to win public acceptance for his African-American/Jewish heritage and being romantically linked to white actress, May Britt (Megan Dodds), whom he eventually marries. The best scene is when Davis has a dream tap dancing, brandishing two pistols in his hands singing, “I got you under my skin” scaring off members of the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazi party.
The most memorable scenes are when the group performs on stage recreating the time Martin called Davis a trophy and offered him to JFK as a “gift on behalf of the NAACP.” The moment Lawford, Davis, and Joey Bishop (Billy Slayton) walked on stage in their tie, dinner jackets, and underwear carrying their trousers in one hand as Dean was singing is reenacted.
Such shots show just how clever and spontaneous these guys probably were in real life delivering quick, witty dialogue. Their comedic timing was never off. As Sinatra tells audience members at the Democratic National Convention the reason why they are there, Dean immediately cuts in and says, “He threatened us.”
“You see what I mean,” Frank jokingly says. “I can’t take these guys anywhere.”
If there is any flaw The Rat Pack has, it’s with Liotta’s Sinatra whom we never quite get the feeling of what made this guy tick. I don’t think anyone who makes a movie about the entertainer will ever be able to pin that down except the “Chairman of the Board” himself. What drives Sinatra’s character here is his desire to win respect in the press which is the reason why he involved himself in politics at the time. The character reminds me of The Godfather’s (1972) Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) who can’t seem to go straight. No matter what he did, people always wondered about the singer’s mob connections and often scandalous romances.
A friend of mine said how much he wished he had been around when Sinatra and his “Rat Pack” buddies were performing.
I have no doubt seeing those guys drink, smoke, sing, and joke about each other’s nationalities entertaining audiences at night would have been a sight. They were one time gigs that would never happen again and the crowds loved it.
Sinatra and Davis, in real life, attempted to recreate some of that magic again in the late 1980s doing concerts nationwide but it probably wasn’t the same. Maybe that’s the reason why Martin bailed out on his pals after the first show when Frank asked him to go on tour with them in 1988.
“We’re just the cocktail of the moment, baby,” Dean says in the film when asked by Bishop on what he thought of one of their late night performances. “One of these days, the world is going to wake up with a heck of a hangover, down two aspirins and a glass of tomato juice and wonder what in the hell the fuss was all about.”
©10/27/98
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