Normally this story might be listed on coaxial, but this report comes from a big screen preview in a reel life movie house so I'm including it here. Well Father Geek read this script about 6 months ago. I told Harry that if cast and handled correctly it could end up being one of the best "Hollywood insider" genre films in the last 25 or 30 years, maybe more. I was a teenager when much of this film's action takes place, so I am very familar with the incidents covered in it's plotline and this report from Stax is welcome news to me.
Just call me "Stax", after that way cool 1960s/1970s Memphis soul music label. I'm a long-time reader/first-time poster to your site. I attended a free big-screen showing of the new HBO telepic "The Rat Pack" that Entertainment Weekly held last night (8/13) in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA. The theater was packed and they were awarding cool "Rat Pack" ball caps to those lucky few (including me) whose movie pass was exchanged for an orange ticket by the cashier. It's a pretty well-made cap; no cheapo promo throwaway thing.
If you don't already know (which would be unusual), the cast includes Ray Liotta as Sinatra, Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin, Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis, Jr., Angus MacFayden as Sinatra crony and Kennedy in-law Peter Lawford, William L. Petersen as JFK, and "the pit bull of stand-up comedy" Bobby Slayton as the eternally unfunny Joey Bishop. There are also cameos by Deborah Kara Unger ("The Game") as a boozy, horny Ava Gardner and John Diehl ("Miami Vice", "Stargate", G. Gordon Liddy in "Nixon") as Joe DiMaggio (I forget who played Marilyn but she was as drunk and horny as Unger's Ava). Slayton's role is also essentially a cameo. I think he's in 3 or 4 brief scenes; maybe it's because he's still alive and able to sue but more likely it's because he's just not that interesting.
THE MOVIE: The story is essentially about a powerful, charismatic man who lives the ultimate boyhood fantasy of being able to stay out all night with the boys and be able to nail all the girls, and who ends up still at the top of his game in the end -- but alone. It's pretty good, over all. I'd give it a 6.5 or 7 out of 10. It's a brisk two hours that contains lots of dark humor and appropriate amount of whoring around by the principals. The story is essentially the two or three year period in the early 1960's when Sinatra became enamored of Mass. senator and presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, and used his Rat Pack and Mafia connections to propel his new best friend and fellow womanizer into the Oval Office. Sinatra is deeply moved by the words and charisma of "Chickie Boy", who Frankie sees as the perfect antidote to the stifling atmosphere Eisenhower's 1950s had created in America. In JFK, Frank sees the bright shining future of America and the chance for a fellow Catholic to be Chief Executive. Rekindling his association with B-grade British actor Peter Lawford for the sole purpose of buddying up with his brother-in-law JFK, Sinatra forgives the kow-towing Lawford for being caught "not on a date" a few years back with the lust of Frank's life, Ava Gardner. Once hooked up with JFK, who calls Frank the only man in the world he'd want to change places with, Sinatra's Rat Pack uses their star wattage to get the vote out for Kennedy. When the Protestant-dominated state of West Virginia proves to be a major hurdle for JFK's campaign, patriarch Joe K contacts Sinatra via Lawford to have Sinatra's pal Sam "Momo" Giancana put the squeeze on the unions there to back Jack. Giancana is convinced to help the union-thrashing, Hoffa-hating Kennedys after Frank convinces him it would be a personal favor to him, not to the Kennedys. Later, Giancana helps the dead vote for JFK in Illinois, allowing Jack to win this key electoral state and thus become President. Once in office, however, Kennedy heeds the urgings of his new atty. general, gang buster brother Bobby, to cut himself loose from the Mafia-connected Rat Pack after the FBI catches onto JFK and Giancana sharing the same mistress, Judy Campbell, and the possible money trail between the Kennedys and the Chicago outfit. The film ends with Sinatra angered and devastated by Kennedy's betrayal of their friendship when he opts to stay with Republican Bing Crosby instead of with Sinatra on a California stay, after JFK had given Frank his word and Sinatra had sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars into building an extension onto his home just for the Kennedys. The Pack's long, giddy, dangerous party is over. There is also a poignant subplot about Sammy Davis being the butt of his pals' racist jokes and the public outrage he weathered after falling in love with white actress May Britt.
THE ACTORS:
Liotta's Sinatra is decent but it's essentially Henry Hill if he got made. Outside of his blue eyes, Ray looks nothing like Frank but the film makers were right not to pull a "Hoffa" and put a mask of make-up over him (like Scorsese will have to if he has Tom Hanks play Dino). Liotta seems to have been cast for his eyes, his marquee value for a cable pic, and the "GoodFellas" mystique he lends to the whole endeavor. In fact, I swear he wears some of the same suits he had on in "GoodFellas" in this movie, right down to the silk ties. By the way, no original recordings were used for budgetary reasons and not having to deal with any estates. Guy named Michael Dees dubs Frankie's songs. I think he's done the same thing for other shows and commercials. He's passable.
Mantegna was surprisingly good as Dino. Joe's one of those actors I like but who has never really blown me away in anything he's been in. Apparently, according to some TV guide articles I read a few months back, Chazz Palminteri was their first choice but I believe he was suffering through throat cancer treatments at the time (is that true?). Mantegna plays Dino as the Doc Holliday of the Rat Pack, the isolated, existential boozer of the Pack who seems in on the cosmic plan for them and floats through life without being too attached to anyone or anything other than Scotch, but is always ready with a cool quip. He looks more like Dino than I thought he would, but the permed pompadour makes it work. When he was introduced, I was afraid Mantegna was lapsing into parody but he soon found his niche. His best work in a long time.
Don Cheadle continues to amaze me. He is one of the most undervalued character actors now working. I really wish this guy all the best in his career. He's a real chameleon. Some of the humility and poignancy of Buck from "Boogie Nights" can be seen in his portrayal as Sammy Davis, Jr. He doesn't particularly sound like Sammy but I bet he felt it wise not to try the voice too hard because, again, a schlock parody would have been just a nuance away. Thank God he didn't go Billy Crystal-mode, as that would have completely belittled the trials Sammy endured. The more I think about it, Cheadle's work had an amazing subtlety to it. He's also the only character we're allowed inside the mind of, as there is an initially disconcerting fantasy Sammy has about tap-dancing away a group of neo-Nazis who've come to protest his show.
William L. Petersen is decent, nothing more, nothing less. I think he was cast as JFK simply because he's the right age and can do a convincing Kennedy accents (as he displayed when he played Joe, Sr in the "Kennedys of Massachusetts" miniseries a few years back). But he's got a soft chin and lacks the presence and charm necessary for making his supporting role stand out. JFK's lecherous side is on display here but is not as shocking or tawdry as it's been portrayed before (and in the age of the Semen-Stained Dress, it seems downright nostalgic). Even Sinatra calls him "a bootlegger's son who fucks 'em two at a time." Petersen never quite captures the magic needed to convince us that this is the guy who bowled over the great Sinatra.
The real surprise stand-out in the cast is Angus MacFayden's turn as Peter Lawford. He perfectly captures Lawford's frustration at being the overwhelmed go-between lackey for Sinatra and the Kennedys, constantly either the victim of Sinatra's wrath and his in-laws' disdain. Lawford is the continual bearer of bad news or ill will and his resentment of his role in the whole scheme is displayed with his mantra of "Fucking Kennedys. Fucking Frank Sinatra." MacFayden's been the highlight of other films before, such as his Robert the Bruce in "Braveheart" and his Richard Burton in that tacky Liz Taylor telepic a few years back. I hope he finally breaks through. He's kind of a cross between Hugh Grant and Russell Crowe, if you can imagine that. He really stole all the scenes he was in and uttered one of the funniest lines I've hear lately in a flick when he finally barks back at Sinatra: "I just want to act and cheat on my wife. Is that too much to ask?!!"
All the female parts are underdeveloped and hardly account for more than 8 minutes of screen time but this, after all, about the most chauvinistic crew of guys to come down the pike so it's sadly fitting. All the female characters, including Ava Gardner and Marilyn Monroe, are variations on the burned-out whore caricature. The guy who played Johnny Depp's FBI contact in "Donnie Brasco" plays Bobby Kennedy. Dan O'Herlihy, Ronny Cox's crusty old corporate boss in "Robocop", plays patriarch Joe Kennedy, Sr. He's portrayed as very cold, amoral, ambitious, and bigoted. From all reports I've heard of the real guy, it seems pretty accurate. Whoever that guy was who played Sam Giancana looked just like him and had an appropriate sense of menace to him.
All in all, this was a fun, breezy two hours that would be worth watching for free on HBO next Saturday 8/22 at 9pm. For die-hard Rat Pack fans, you probably won't learn anything you already haven't heard about them before but its a kick to see the whole experience recreated. The film's like the Rat Pack: sometimes way cool, sometimes bordering on high cheese, always amusing and likeable. After seeing this, however, I realize it will take a Scorsese to pull off his Dean Martin pic. In the hands of any other director with less creative control, the actors could go off on a real self-indulgent lark that would embarrass them all. I can see Tom Hanks, Travolta, Wesley Snipes, Hugh Grant, and Jim Carrey all going into overblown caricatures if there isn't a director there to remind them that these guys were all human. I'm glad now Scorsese's shelfing the project until the script is ready and the dream cast available. I just hope it doesn't become the nadir of all their careers.
All the best, Harry. Please post this review, in some form, on your page as this is a movie that's all about those fellas who were among the first who made others look at them and utter, ain't it cool? -- STAX
