HB, Frank!

 Happy 95th birthday to Frank Sinatra, another icon I used to consider terribly overrated. I do admit I have come to like his music and little diva demeanor. The photo of him in this YouTube-age is perfect, yes?

A few months ago, I bought my first Frank album from Borders. It was only $5, so I thought, why not? It turns out, the employee who rang me up was a huge Frank fanatic. He rambled on and on about his admiration and different stories he read that he liked. It was so sweet, I just did not have the heart to contradict him, despite his defense of Frank acting a douche bag several times. And after all, I was buying a CD. Despite Frank's own opinion, I do not believe for one second he could play Terry Malloy better than Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, or even Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, but he still had a lot of talent. It is great to see he still has a ton of loyal fans, especially fans my age.

Kings Go Forth (1958)

In the middle of watching Kings Go Forth on NetFlix Instant, I also caught another amazing Tony Curtis performance when The Boston Strangler (1968) aired on TV. I love being on Thanksgiving Break because I feel I can watch a couple movies at once and not feel lazy. Needless to say, he played wonderfully in both, though when I returned to Kings Go Forth, I felt more underwhelmed, and kept asking questions of Curtis' character like, "Wait, why are you doing this? Are you really just ... clueless? Okay." So that's one downside to watching two movies with the same actor at once. One performance or film may overshadow the other.

Not that I didn't enjoy Kings Go Forth. On the contrary, I became putty in its hands. It contains a lot of "typicals" I look for when choosing sappy movies: the "war plotline" where two soldiers become attracted to the same woman, the Natalie Wood character who crumbles in a moment, the idealized, really annoying maternal figure, and cinematography. Here, it exhibits lots of shots of the French countryside, seaside, and neon-lit dive bars that could not exist past the '50s. Frank Sinatra and Curtis play Sam Loggins and Britt Harris, two American soldiers stationed in Southern France during the end of World War II. Sam plays a tough authority figure to Britt, who, by both his actions and background story, seems flighty, and just ... well, dumb. Sam meets Monique (Natalie Wood), and falls in love, although she refuses his advances. They continue their friendship (under the eye of Monique's mother, played by Leora Dana) until Britt meets Monique in a jazz club. Britt woos her, talks her into marrying him, and then backs out. The film ends with Sam and Britt at odds over Monique, yet forced on a mission together behind enemy lines.

I refrained from including all the plot points here because I did not want to spoil anything. Some aspects, such as Britt's "reasons" for breaking up with Monique, rub me the wrong way, and I realize I need  historical empathy. However, that has more to do with me and not the film. Overall, the plot, while unoriginal, engaged me, as well as the performances. Sinatra gives the best, in my opinion, both on his own, and in his screen time with Curtis. I could not imagine Curtis and Sinatra on screen together, but they achieve chemistry in the odd relationship their characters maintain. The last sequence shows them fighting over Monique, yet still collaborating, which created the most suspense for me. Natalie Wood, on the other hand, plays the fragile character she plays in pretty much all her films. I forgive it because I adore her, but the more films I see, the more I dread seeing her typecast.

The film also has weaknesses. I thought the ending felt rushed, and the "happy" ending forced. I cannot stand it when it happens because it makes the whole film seem awkward. If I had been one of the writers, I would have developed a different ending, but that is just my opinion. I would still recommend this to anyone who likes classic movies.

Oh, and here Frank promotes it!



~F.