{"id":4577,"date":"2012-04-04T02:05:12","date_gmt":"2012-04-04T06:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4577"},"modified":"2012-04-04T21:50:16","modified_gmt":"2012-04-05T01:50:16","slug":"br-pal-joey-1957","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4577","title":{"rendered":"BR: Pal Joey (1957)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>P to R<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Excellent\/ BR Transfer: Excellent\/ BR Extras: Good<\/p>\n

Label: Twilight Time\u00a0\/ Region: All \/\u00a0Released: February, 2012<\/p>\n

Genre: Musical \/ Comedy \/ Stage<\/p>\n

Synopsis: A heel eventually discovers true love and must choose between an aspiring singer and a wealthy ex-burlesque dancer.<\/p>\n

Special Features: \u00a0Isolated Mono Music Score \/ 2010 Featurette: “Backstage and at Home with Kim Novak” (9:25) \/ Theatrical Trailer \/ 8-page colour booklet with liner notes by film historian Julie Kirgo \/ Limited to 3,000 copies \/ Available exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

One of Frank Sinatra\u2019s best films, Columbia\u2019s production of Pal Joey<\/strong> features a perfect string of hit songs, a stellar cast, glossy fifties Technicolor, and sharp dialogue quips filled with risqu\u00e9 attitude.<\/p>\n

Frank Sinatra may never have been better in a dramatic musical, playing big dreamer Joey Evans with a likeable combo of womanizer, louse, and a savvy talent able to turn on the charm, and gamble on his winning abilities as a seasoned emcee, singer, and a lover. No sooner is he booted onto a train and arrives in San Francisco does Joey wander into a burlesque club where an old pal (musician Bobby Sherwood) works as a band leader. After opportunistically snagging a job, he soon steals his friend\u2019s sweet girlfriend Linda English (Kim Novak, with singing dubbed by Trudy Stevens), and entices a former burlesque queen Vera Simpson (Rita Hayworth, with her singing dubbed by Jo Ann Greer), while teasing (and likely sleeping with) the rest of the dancers, except wise Gladys (Woman Obsessed<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s [M<\/a>] Barbara Nichols).<\/p>\n

Things seem to go his way when Vera offers to fund Chez Joey, his dream club, but just as the classy joint is about to open, things come crashing down, causing Joey to rethink his goals, and choose between the women he\u2019s been diddling.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the story in a nutshell, and interwoven are stellar musical numbers which exploit not only the talents of the star performers, but the relationships of their characters, which director George Sidney beautifully handles. Sidney\u2019s the overlooked talent among this perfectly built classic, and while his career was built on bringing musicals to the big screen \u2013 The Harvey Girls<\/a><\/strong> (1946), Annie Get Your Gun <\/strong>(1950), Show Boat<\/strong> (1951), Kiss Me Kate<\/a><\/strong> (1953), and the candy-coloured Viva Las Vegas<\/strong> (1964) \u2013 he knew how to balance all the elements at hand to make a crisp production.<\/p>\n

The musical numbers are elegantly staged, and his use of colour is sublime; Pal Joey<\/strong> is a tasteful representation of the idyllic fifties interior design and costumes, and while clothes and chairs and curtains never, ever<\/em> clash, the design still feels natural. Sidney also holds back on close-ups until they\u2019re strategically advantageous, which ensures they hit audiences hard, and capture each character\u2019s most trying moment (as is the case in the \u201cMy Funny Valentine\u201d number). Less effective is a bizarre dream sequence where Joey trips into a number with a broken glass superimposition and his two main lovers sliding down walls like pole dancers; the sequence comes off as terribly kitschy, and interrupts what\u2019s essentially the character\u2019s most introspective moment in the film.<\/p>\n

Sinatra owns the role of Joey, playing him with confidence and relishing the character\u2019s pattern of wandering through life episodes with a sense of self-effacing humour, whereas Hayworth gives aging Vera sultry sex appeal and personal pride in having transcended the sleazy life that Joey\u2019s chosen to live; she married into money, dumped her stripper days, and at best is willing to relive the teasing thrills exclusively through Joey.<\/p>\n

The middle character is Linda English, and Novak\u2019s performance quirks \u2013 a streak of childish nervousness that manifests through quivering facial expressions and odd body contortions \u2013 work, because Vera represents unspoiled goods; she\u2019s unblemished by the entertainment business\u2019 sleaze, and while she\u2019ll do a strip routine, her aspirations to sing as portrayed in the film are unusually humble. Even in the script, Linda\u2019s yearning to sing doesn\u2019t come off as a clich\u00e9, and there\u2019s no real \u2018big moment\u2019 where her peers recognize her talent and she\u2019s vaunted as a Great Star. Her signature song \u2013 the classic \u201cMy Funny Valentine\u201d \u2013 doesn\u2019t bring her any joy; instead, it sparks a seething jealousy in Vera, and seeds the demise of Chez Joey, as well as giving the club\u2019s entire employ a collective pink slip.<\/p>\n

Dorothy Kingsley\u2019s suave adaptation of the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart\u2019s 1940 stage musical (based on characters and storylines by John O\u2019Hara) makes some radical changes in character tones and the finale, and although there\u2019s less edge in the film version \u2013 the finale and all\u2019s well that ends well\u2019 resolution is frankly ludicrous \u2013 there\u2019s just the right amount of sleazy behaviour without alienating audiences with doomed and broken heroes and heroines.<\/p>\n

(One also can\u2019t help wonder if Steve Kloves was inspired by the Rodgers and Hart musical, reworking the tale of a womanizing dreamer into his 1989 gem The Fabulous Baker Boys<\/strong>. In that film, the Chez Joey dream is represented by the piano playing team of the brothers Baker, and its destruction similarly comes from a womanizing streak and romance with a newbie singer that breaks up several relationships. While all does end well in the finale, like the original stage version, the central heel doesn\u2019t get the girl.)<\/p>\n

The underscore and musical arrangements by Nelson Riddle and George Duning bring out the best in jazzy, burlesque, and melodramatic moments, and Twilight Time\u2019s Blu-ray offers the film\u2019s original mono mix, a gently remixed 5.1 track designed to fill out the room instead of simulate stereo, and an isolated score track that has some of the slight reverb associated with the rear mono surround sound tracks in a Dolby 4.0 mix.<\/p>\n

Twilight Time\u2019s limited Blu-ray includes a production essay by film historian Julie Kirgo, plus the original Sinatra-hosted trailer (in fairly rough shape), and the featurette \u201cBackstage and at Home with Kim Novak,\u201d where the actress discusses her decision to retire form Hollywood in the country, her painting (which goes back to her college years, during which she won several arts scholarships), and Jean Louis\u2019 body-fitting costumes which suited the actress\u2019 \u2018unencumbered\u2019 figure. (If Sony\u2019s HD transfer enhances anything for Novak\u2019s fans, it\u2019s more detail in the upper regions.)<\/p>\n

The featurette is part of several extras Columbia produced for their 2010 Kim Novak Collection, which also included selected scene commentary with Stephen Rebello that remains exclusive to that DVD set which is comprised of Picnic <\/a><\/strong>[M<\/a>] (1955), Jeanne Eagels<\/strong> (1957), Pal Joey<\/strong> (1957), Bell, Book and Candle <\/strong>(1958), and Middle of the Night <\/strong>(1959).<\/p>\n

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Postscript<\/strong><\/p>\n

Other filmed works based on John O\u2019Hara stories include Moontide<\/strong> (1942), The Best Things in Life Are Free<\/strong> (1956), Ten North Frederick<\/strong> (1958), From the Terrace <\/a><\/strong>(1960), Butterfield 8<\/strong> (1960), and A Rage to Live<\/strong> (1965).<\/p>\n

Although better known as a director of musicals, George Sidney also tackled classic adventurism in The Three Musketeers<\/strong> (1948) and Scaramouche<\/strong> (1952), postwar Red Menace in The Red Danube <\/a><\/strong>(1949), and historical melodrama in Young Bess<\/strong> (1953).<\/p>\n

Pal Joey <\/strong>also marked a shift in Columbia\u2019s leading lady roster, with Rita Hayworth leaving to tackle more dramatically meaty roles in Separate Tables<\/strong> (1958), They Came to Cordura<\/strong> (1959) and The Story on Page One<\/strong> (1959), and Kim Novak, who had co-starred with Sinatra in The Man with the Golden Arm<\/strong> (1955), started to get bigger roles in Columbia\u2019s Jeanne Engels <\/strong>(1957) and Bell Book and Candle<\/strong> (1958) before her career high as the ultimate troubled blonde in Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s Vertigo<\/strong> (1958).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2012 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Amazon Links & KQEK.com’s Media Store:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a> —– Amazon.com<\/a> —– Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0P to R<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ P to R . Film: Excellent\/ BR Transfer: Excellent\/ BR Extras: Good Label: Twilight Time\u00a0\/ Region: All \/\u00a0Released: February, 2012 Genre: Musical \/ Comedy \/ Stage Synopsis: A heel eventually discovers true love and must choose between an aspiring singer and a wealthy ex-burlesque dancer. Special Features: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[1174,951,1117,1181,605,1182,1180],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1bP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4577"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4586,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4577\/revisions\/4586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}