By all that’s sacred, postmortem film repertory tributes this month should dwell on James Stewart, whose centennial date arrives May 20. A Stewart retrospective, consisting of 12 titles, will begin on that day at the American Film Institute Silver Theatre, and Turner Classic Movies will devote May 20 to a dozen Stewart films. However, TCM has reserved a more conspicuous showcase for Frank Sinatra, whose centennial is still seven years away.
Mr. Sinatra’s death occurred on May 14, 1998, in Los Angeles. That decade-ago farewell has prompted an eight-part series that begins this evening and continues every Wednesday and Sunday throughout the month. The TCM salute is being coordinated with DVD revivals of about two dozen Sinatra movies by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and MGM Home Entertainment, along with a Reprise Records reissue of “22 classic cuts” called “Nothing but the Best.” The synergy of it all includes the U.S. Postal Service: The CD can be purchased at post offices as well as conventional retail outlets. In addition, a commemorative Sinatra stamp will be available starting May 13.
Sundays on TCM emphasize the subject’s melodic inventory — not only the Sinatra movie musicals, but also a quartet of his television specials. Tonight’s selections hark back to his earliest film appearances during World War II. A bit whimsically, they include two uncredited appearances as the vocalist in Tommy Dorsey’s swing band. The programming also leaps ahead to an Emmy-winning TV hour of 1965, “A Man and His Music.” This show confirmed Mr. Sinatra’s durability and authority as a pop singer at the age of 50, when most of his memorable film credits were behind him.
The first authentic starring vehicles, “Higher and Higher” and “Step Lively,” both directed by Tim Whelan, remain playful, engaging period pieces. James Agee greeted the former (booked for 9 p.m. on today’s TCM schedule) with inspired bemusement on New Year’s Day 1944: “Sinatra adds to his more famous advantages that of being, obviously, a decent enough sort; he also has weird fleeting resemblances to Lincoln, which I think may help out in the audience subconscious. … At the end … he stands without visible support among the clouds, in an effect which could be described only in … terms of an erotic dream, and swells from a pinpoint to a giant. Higher and higher indeed.”
Despite this initial burst of glorification, Mr. Sinatra came closer to musical comedy immortality when he was recruited by MGM to play the adorably shy and skinny sidekick to Gene Kelly in a trio of musicals that also testify to the co-star’s forgotten skill as a part-time hoofer: “Anchors Aweigh” in 1945 and “On the Town” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” in 1949. These movies, also delightful reminders of the zest and ingenuity of the Kelly-Stanley Donen partnership in its early phase, will share the final May 25 Sunday evening on TCM, augmented by the “comeback” TV special of 1974, “Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back.”
Wednesday programming is devoted to the largely dramatic inventory, starting with “From Here to Eternity,” which helped restore Mr. Sinatra’s sputtering career in 1953 and brought him the Academy Award for best supporting actor. In addition, the opening dramatic salvo appears to be “Sinatra at War” night: “Eternity” will be followed by “Kings Go Forth,” “Never So Few” and “None but the Brave,” later fictional evocations of World War II with Mr. Sinatra in starring roles.
A war movie set in the Napoleonic period, “The Pride and the Passion,” has been transposed to the second Wednesday batch, otherwise devoted to romantic comedies, starting with “The Tender Trap,” a CinemaScope-within-the-proscenium milestone of 1955. A war movie that starred Kirk Douglas, “Cast a Giant Shadow,” in which Mr. Sinatra was a ceremonial guest eminence, has been positioned curiously to conclude the series in the wee hours of May 29. You would think the evening would suffice with a quadruple bill of “The Man With the Golden Arm,” “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Not as a Stranger” and “Suddenly,” which definitely boasted Mr. Sinatra in leading roles. Fans who relished him in uniform also may be wondering what became of “Von Ryan’s Express.”
Mr. Sinatra’s children — Nancy, Tina and Frank Jr. — will join host Robert Osborne for introductions and postscripts to several films. During a phone conversation, Frank Jr., who seems to remember favorite scenes verbatim, regaled me with lines entrusted to Khigh Dheigh, who played the communist Chinese menace in “Candidate.” I was surprised to see that he surrendered the commentator role to kid sister Tina, who supervises the Sinatra archives on an ongoing basis and was encouraged to endorse this round of revivals by surveys that indicated an abiding public recognition of and fondness for her father.
“Rat Pack Night,” May 21, begins with “Ocean’s Eleven” — the inimitable prototype, with all grudging deference to the remake franchise engineered by George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh. It concludes with “Some Came Running,” the first cinematic reflection of the Sinatra-Dean Martin partnership but ultimately indebted to the sentimental impact of Shirley MacLaine, then the Pack’s mascot. The evening also accommodates the gang’s most ambitious musical comedy, “Robin and the Seven Hoods,” which permitted a scene-stealing performance from mentor Bing Crosby.
A title that has been out of circulation for decades, “Sergeants 3,” also will resurface on Rat Pack Wednesday. Gorgeously shot in Bryce Canyon, this semifacetious cavalry Western, directed by John Sturges, was a halfhearted remake of “Gunga Din” that proved a big hit in 1962 — far more successful at first blush than “The Manchurian Candidate,” Mr. Sinatra’s enduring classic of the same year. The Sturges feel for Western landscape is ill-matched with his ragged-to-ponderous sense of humor, so this restoration is a mixed blessing. I eagerly await the commentary of Frank Sinatra Jr. Perhaps he can make a case that eludes me 46 years later.
SERIES: “Frank Sinatra”
WHERE: Turner Classic Movies cable channel
WHEN: Sundays and Wednesdays throughout the month
CONTENT: Revivals of 28 movies and four television specials that starred or featured the late Frank Sinatra, commemorating the 10th anniversary of his death
WEB SITE: www.tcm.com
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