In the early 1950s,
his battle with a mysterious throat ailment had some folks considering Frank
Sinatra washed up, but before Madonna introduced dramatic and serial
reinvention as a career tonic, Ol’ Blue Eyes merely had don’t-count-me-out
moxie and the persuasiveness of his personality. Of course, it didn’t hurt that
the voice returned intact. And there was another boom too. The ’50s weren’t
known as the golden age of television for nothing; the big name stars of the
day popped up all the time on the small screen, aided by an explosion in
variety shows and specials.
The Frank Sinatra Show was a semi-regular series of live specials
starting in 1957, sponsored by Timex and broadcast on ABC. And if you think
about it, the match made perfect sense. Along with many of his colleagues,
Sinatra had honed his skills in small clubs starting out; playing in an
intimate setting while still being mindful of the camera was an easy feat. This
80-minute segment, with Ella Fitzgerald, showcases two of the past century’s
most popular and enduring performers, singing an impressive list of tracks.
Shot on Dec. 10, 1959 on location on a rare rainy day in Palm Springs (hence
the somewhat slapdash sets and cast ribbing Sinatra about his grand idea of
filming in “good old sunny Palm Springs”), this DVD is re-mastered from the
archive tape of that program, and features the original show in its entirety,
including promotional segments.
While the quality
isn’t the crystalline-clear quality we’ve come to expect from mint digital
print new films, it’s more than adequate given the real appeal of this disc is
its focus on the musical summit itself. There are no extra features, but the
track list includes “You’re Invited to Spend the Afternoon,” a superlative
rendition of “I’ve Got the World on a String,” “Lazy Afternoon,” “There’s Lull
in My Life,” “It’s Alright With Me,” “Too Damn Hot” (previously planned for the
Palm Springs setting, one presumes), “Too Marvelous For Words,” “Just You, Just
Me,” “I’ll Never Smile Again,” “Can’t We Be Friends,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,”
“Love Walked Right In,” “Love Is Sweeping the Country” and “Love Is Here to Stay,”
among others. Sinatra and Fitzgerald trade off on numbers (the Chairman of the
Board is also joined at times, to sometimes painful effect, by Juliet Prowse,
his co-star in Can-Can and girlfriend
at the time) before coming together on “Can’t We Be Friends.” The answer for
old-school music lovers is a no-brainer: Of course we can! To purchase the title, via Amazon, click here. B (Movie) C— (Disc)
