Tuesday Minute
No. 98 | May 18, 2010

Six Packs

Our theme this week
Rat Packs, and other “Packs” that made movies

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   Holmby Hills Rat Pack

Rat Pack

 

The Holmby Hills Rat Pack was a private group, a mix of friends who spent evenings together mostly out of the spotlight.  The Rat Pack of the 1960s, in contrast, went public.  They dropped in on one another’s shows, performed together on stage, and made movies.  They sang and they joked and they drank, and by all appearances, they enjoyed their time immensely.  They were famously cool, and the standard they set still hasn’t been touched.  

The core members of the group were Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.  Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop were in or out at different times, depending on the whim of Sinatra.  It was an all-guys group, but there were always women around for the womanizing; Shirley MacLaine and Angie Dickinson were often on hand.

Sinatra had been in movies with Martin (Some Came Running, 1958) and Lawford (Never So Few, 1959), but the one that brought them all together was Ocean’s Eleven in 1960.  Set in Las Vegas, Sinatra stars as Danny Ocean, ringleader of a band of World War II vets who set out to rob five casinos on New Year’s Eve.  As you might expect with eleven crooks in on the action, the story is hardly a model of concision.  It didn’t (and wasn’t apparently trying to) win any awards.  Yet the film has its pleasures.  It’s an icon of sorts, an enduring work that hasn’t been forgotten, and an influence on directors Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino, among others.

There would be a few Rat Pack movies to follow, typically with a non-sequential number in the title, including Sergeants 3 (1962), 4 for Texas (1963), Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964), and Marriage on the Rocks (1965).

Not to mention, a generation or two later, there was a remake.  Only Joey Bishop survived to see it.

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Ocean’s Eleven (1960)
Lewis Milestone, director
Trailer

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Ocean’s Eleven
Shirley MacLaine (uncredited cameo), Dean Martin, Richard Conte

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Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964)
Sammy Davis Jr.
“Bang!  Bang!” (Sammy Cahn & Jimmy Van Heusen)

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St. Louis Concert (Kiel Opera House, 1965)
Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Johnny Carson (subbing for Joey Bishop)
“The Birth of the Blues” (Ray Henderson, Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown)

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Quote of Note
Zack Thomas:  Tell me something, Mr. Jarrett.  How many states would you say you’re wanted in?
Joe Jarrett:  How many states are there, Mr. Thomas?
—Zack Thomas (Frank Sinatra), Joe Jarrett (Dean Martin), 4 for Texas (1963)

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