Frank Sinatra - The Early Years Collection DVD Credits:

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Frank Sinatra - The Early Years Collection DVD Release Date: 12th May 2008

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Frank Sinatra - The Early Years Collection DVD Review:

Frank Sinatra may have made the girls swoon with his singing early on, but he had to work for good roles on the big screen. The first couple of times Sinatra was on film it was uncredited and his only purpose was to sing, and indeed even in his first credited role he merely plays himself. That first film is Higher and Higher (1943) and Sinatra is the wealthy musician living next door to the wealthy Mr. Drake. When Mr. Drake goes broke his butler has a plan to save the whole household by marrying off the lowest servant as Mr. Drake’s debutant daughter. Frank is the nuisance crooner who keeps distracting the poor girl from falling in love with the wealthier men. There are plenty of musical opportunities for Sinatra in this early film role, but not a whole lot else.

When Sinatra did manage to get bigger roles, he was stilled always cast in films where he sang, even if it was a costume film like The Kissing Bandit (1948). Like many other early films, Sinatra is paired with the operatic singer Kathryn Grayson is The Kissing Bandit, and in this one he is an unlikely bandit taking over the family business in a Spanish-run California. When Sinatra isn’t singing he is put in slapstick mode, made to look completely useless as a thief. This was mostly due to how small the famed singer actually was in his early years. He is hardly seen as confident or capable when he isn’t singing, and in many other roles he is simply a shy kid from Brooklyn looking for love. The sad part is that he is the Baxter in many of these films and doesn’t end up with the leading girl he falls for. Perfect as a side-kick singer Sinatra would also become the perfect sidekick for Gene Kelly as well.

In Step Lively (1944) Sinatra was just another bumbling young kid who could sing, but was also really easy to take advantage of. He is a singer who thinks he has entered the word of theater when a director named Gordon Miller (George Murphy) has agreed to produce his play for a price. Sinatra soon gets caught up in a series of slapstick sequences involving the hotel trying to throw Miller out for being unable to pay the bills. Figuring it is the only way to get his play made Sinatra plays along.

Along with Katheryn Grayson Sinatra was lucky enough to star with Jimmy Durante and Peter Lawford in It Happened in Brooklyn (1947) which is easily one of the best films in the bunch, even if it does begin a tradition of Sinatra losing the girl to his best friend. The last film in the set is another great comedic pairing with Sinatra in Double Dynamite (1951) co-starring Groucho Marx and Jane Russell. Russell and Sinatra are bank workers who don’t make enough to marry until Johnny Dalton (Sinatra) helps a man being attacked in the alley and finds himself betting on a horse that can’t lose. He returns to the bank with high hopes only to find that there has been a bank robbery and he is the obvious suspect with a pocket full of cash.

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Frank Sinatra - The Early Years Collection DVD review written by: Ryan Izay