Sergeants 3 ** (1962, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Joey Bishop) – Classic Movie Review 4760

Director John Sturges’s easy-going, good-natured 1961 Western comedy adventure movie stars Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jnr and Joey Bishop, as the Rat Pack remake and send up Gunga Din (1939), transplanted to the 1870s American West.

Sergeants 3 is a fairly entertaining tongue-in-cheek adventure spoof, mainly carried by the larky playing. It is all a bit self indulgent and slack, but the performances, stunts and action help.

Sinatra, Martin and Lawford play Mike, Chip and Larry, the three lusty, brawling US Cavalrymen sergeants stationed in Indian Territory in 1870. They fight Indians on the warpath, while Davis Jr plays trumpet-playing former slave Jonah Williams, aka Gunga, who makes a din with his bugle to save them from an ambush. The quartet work together to thwart an Indian chief intent on uniting local tribes against the white man.

Bing Crosby’s sons Phillip Crosby, Dennis Crosby and Lindsay Crosby appear as soldiers.

It is the second of a quartet of popular movies with buddies Sinatra, Martin, Lawford, Davis and Joey Bishop (who plays Sergeant Major Roger Boswell), following Ocean’s 11 (1960). But, after Sinatra fell out with Lawford, it proved the last film to feature all five members of the Rat Pack.

The Rat Pack films all have a number in their title. The others are Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) without Joey Bishop absent and Bing Crosby replacing Lawford), and 4 for Texas (1963).

It is written by W R Burnett, shot in widescreen by Winton C Hoch, produced by Howard H Koch and Frank Sinatra, scored by Billy May and designed by Frank Hotaling.

It is filmed in Kanab, Utah. Gunga Din’s Thugee cult becomes the Ghost dancers, with Michael Pate and Henry Silva appearing as Indians, Watanka and Mountain Hawk.

Also in the cast are Ruta Lee, Buddy Lester, Hank Henry, Dick Simmons, Armand Alzamora, Richard Hale, Mickey Finn, Sonny King, Eddie Little Sky, Rodd Redwing, James Waters, Madge Blake, Dorothy Abbott, Walter Merrill, Joe Gray and Mack Gray.

Sinatra said of his Rat Pack films: ‘Of course they’re not great movies. No one could claim that. But every movie I’ve made through my own company has made money.’

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4760

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