1h 51min | Comedy, Musical, Romance | 4 November 1955 | Color, WS
Director: Charles Walters
Stars: Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, David Wayne, Celeste Holm.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048705/
1 song in the Soundtrack, and it's a musical? The song is performed by FS, DR, and the quartet of FS, DR, CH & Tom Helmore. Here's the list: FS before the opening credits, DR in a rehearsal, FS instructing her right after that, DR later using his instruction, quartet in closing. So I'm not going to argue the genre tag.
This has FS wearing his signature fedora with white band, at least in the opening credits, so it's the beginning of the cynical years. No rat pack yet onscreen, though,
This is a shruggable romcom. FS has several casual relationships with women, who walk his dog, bring him cheese or fish, one who actually dates him (CH), and then he meets DR professionally (agent/actress). DW states in the script that FS is too old for DR. But now, with DW visiting, on vacation from his marriage, and DR's marriage-only attitude, FS realizes (after a lot of resistance) that he might want marriage too. Don't worry about CH; she marries by the end of the film too.
Notice the "not suitable for children" warning on the poster. I would agree; they'd be bored. I wonder if it attracted any extra business.
DVD includes a decent bio featurette (16min) on FS. It's flattering to him, but mentions his hard knocks life informing his acting and his singing. Just no mention about how much of his hard knocks were self-inflicted by the choices he made, moment to moment, by his reactions to life.
MGM, dir. Walters; 6
