Cinema Retro contributing writer Tom Santopietro has a terrific new book out about the film career of Frank Sinatra, an aspect of the Chairman's life that is generally glossed over in other biographies. ABC News film critic Bill Diehl has an insightful interview with Tom. To listen click here
Here's what Kirkus reviews has to say:
The king of the saloon singers was a top-notch actor when he cared to
be. So argues Santopietro (Considering Doris Day, 2007, etc.), who
proves an ideal guide to Ol' Blue Eyes' spotty career as a screen
actor. Combining a fan's ardor and enthusiasm with keen critical
insight, he convincingly makes the case for Sinatra as a major acting
talent while taking the famously mercurial entertainer to task for
wasting his prodigious gifts on frivolous projects. In conversational
prose, Santopietro covers Sinatra's family life, romances and recording
career as they relate to his picture making, demonstrating an
encyclopedic knowledge of every theatrical and television film's
production details. The author analyzes each movie, often
scene-by-scene, wittily explaining what works, what doesn't and why.
Clunkers like The Kissing Bandit receive the same close attention as
triumphs like On the Town and The Man with the Golden Arm, the better
to fully explicate the evolution of Sinatra's craft and attitude toward
the medium. Santopietro is engagingly thoughtful about the sources of
the Sinatra mystique. He draws intriguing parallels between the
singer's storied insistence on "one take" and his neurotic drive to
banish boredom and loneliness. The author relates Sinatra's
distinctively snappy way with a line of dialogue to his masterly
phrasing of lyrics as a singer. Readers less inclined to this sort of
Actors Studio musing will content themselves with irresistible gossip
about Sinatra and various Hollywood legends, plus an authoritative
accounts of the glory days of the MGM musicals that cemented Sinatra's
screen stardom. Film buffs will find much to savor as well. The section
on The Manchurian Candidate, for example, illuminates the greatness of
that strange film and of Sinatra's performance. The Rat Pack, the
Mafia, the washouts and comebacks every aspect of the legend is
intelligently addressed, but Santopietro's interest is in Sinatra's
work. In the final analysis, that's what fascinates.A terrifically
lucid and entertaining look at an undervalued area of Sinatra's
achievement.
TO ORDER THE BOOK DISCOUNTED FROM AMAZON CLICK HERE