It's been ten years since ol' blue eyes checked out of the saloon - leaving a handful of memorable dramatic performances
The Saloon Singer
A decade ago this week, the self-coined "saloon singer" with some of the most memorable nicknames in show business - most notably "ol' blue eyes" and "the chairman of the board" - hung up the Jack Daniels, the hot-tempered starlets, and the smooth-savvy singing for good.
In his wake, Frank Sinatra left an iconic music catalogue, a stack of tabloid headlines as high as The Sands, and - best of all for the Classic Film fan - a handful of screen performances as solid as the gold in his records.
The Musicals
Frank had no need to become a dramatic actor, to render the calibre of performance he did in films like The Man With the Golden Arm, The Manchurian Candidate, or Von Ryan's Express. After all, he had already established himself as a staple of musicals. But attempts at carrying the ball by himself were career embarrassments ; as long as the singing Sinatra was going to be on screen, he would need the shadow of the more versatile Gene Kelly (among others) to protect him from the harsh searchlight of the critics.
Top of the Heap
And so, fuelled by a lifelong drive to sit at "the top of the heap," and in an effort to build something from the ashes of a flagging teen idol career, Frank finagled his way into Fred Zinneman's From Here To Eternity. The methodology by which he won the part has been the subject of much speculation ; it was the basis, in fact, for the famous "horse's head" scene in Francis Coppola's The Godfather. Regardless, this Pearl Harbor set melodrama turned out to be one of the best films of the fifties, and Frank's performance one of the best of all time. Overnight, Sinatra had rewritten his personal history, converting himself from boy singer to Brando-calibre leading man.
The Two Sinatras
Over the course of the next thirty years, Sinatra split his screen career between no-nonsense turns as lonely, driven, introspective urbanites and breezy, workman-like affairs as chummy, self-satisfied heels with heart. Attempts at crossbreeding the two - such as Pal Joey, The Joker Is Wild and A Hole In The Head - never seemed to work. Perhaps that says something about the notorious Sinatra temperament: what you got was one Frank or the other ; Sinatra the Saint or Sinatra the Snake.
Salut!
Whichever you prefer, there are plenty of examples of both to help you commemorate the tenth anniversary of his passing. Take them in with a shot of Jack and cry, "Salut!"
