Pal Joey ***½ (1957, Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak) – Classic Movie Review 1168

Director George Sidney’s 1957 film musical is a good but annoyingly far from ideal version of the legendary Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart 1940 Broadway show. Frank Sinatra takes over Gene Kelly’s stage role as the womanising anti-hero Joey Evans, a role that fits him like a glove. It’s rightly judged as one Sinatra’s most definitive movies and exciting performances.

Columbia Pictures bought the rights to Pal Joey hoping to pair Hayworth again with Kelly in their movie version of his Broadway show, but MGM refused to loan him after their previous hit together Cover Girl in 1944, so that turned out to be their only movie pairing.

Alas, in Dorothy Kingsley’s otherwise skilful screenplay, too much tinkering has taken place with the stage show, including the ditching of many of its tunes, the forced placing of songs from other musicals, and the cleaning up of the lyrics, story and characters. Of the original 14 Rodgers and Hart Pal Joey songs, eight remained though two of them were only as instrumental background, and four songs were added from other shows.

But the perfectly-cast Sinatra is expectedly outstanding both on the acting and vocal fronts, and Kim Novak does well on the acting front as Linda English, the chorus girl he falls for. However the movie is made most memorable by the sizzling, sultry Rita Hayworth, who’s absolutely stupendous as Vera Simpson, the former stripper turned socialite and rich widow, who offers to buy the charming but lecherous Joey a nightclub.

Among the gorgeous show tunes, Sinatra and Hayworth sing the show-stopping hit, ‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered’, to which ‘The Lady Is a Tramp’ (Sinatra) and ‘My Funny Valentine’ (Novak) have been added from another Rodgers and Hart musical, Babes in Arms. Nelson Riddle’s musical arrangements are particularly distinguished on the standards The Lady Is a Tramp, I Didn’t Know What Time It Was, I Could Write a Book and There’s A Small Hotel.

Novak and Hayworth were both dubbed for singing. Jo Ann Greer sings for Hayworth, as she had done in Affair in Trinidad and Miss Sadie Thompson. Kim Novak’s singing voice is dubbed by Trudy Erwin. The choreographer is Hermes Pan. Pal Joey is based on John O’Hara’s stories and play.

Hayworth surprisingly received top billing over Sinatra, who explained: ‘Ladies first.’ As Columbia’s biggest star, Hayworth had been top billed in every film since Cover Girl in 1944. It’s one of Sinatra’s few post-From Here to Eternity movies where he was not top-billed. About being billed between Hayworth and Novak, he said: ‘That’s a sandwich I don’t mind being stuck in the middle of.’

With box office of $4,700,000, it was one of the ten highest earners of 1957.

There was a memorable London West End stage revival in 1980 with Denis Lawson and Siân Phillips.

http://derekwinnert.com/cover-girl-1944-rita-hayworth-gene-kelly-lee-bowman-phil-silvers-eve-arden-otto-kruger-jinx-falkenburg-leslie-brooks-classic-movie-review-3616/

http://derekwinnert.com/from-here-to-eternity-classic-film-review-128/

http://derekwinnert.com/gilda-classic-film-review-757/

http://derekwinnert.com/the-lady-from-shanghai-classic-film-review-747/

http://derekwinnert.com/vertigo-classic-film-review-48/

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1168

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/