"Never the luck."
In the late fifties and early sixties, a small group of entertainers called the Rat Pack flocked the glorious Vegas Strip to entertain the wealthy and drink with them afterwards. They were generous, memorable, funny, and the best gig that any Vegas Casino could book. Nearly fifty years later, they're still remembered as such, along with all their successful careers, but one stint in particular won them everlasting fame as the best flick they ever did because it was a showcase of their talents. It was released on August 10th 1960 under the title: Ocean's 11.
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Junior, and Peter Lawford were the frontrunners of the Rat Pack, with Joey Bishop joining later in the early sixties, and they all agreed to do a movie together at the end of the fifties which was the brainchild of an unknown gas station attendant who told the story to film director Gilbert Kay in 1958. Little did they know, not only would it become the first Rat Pack movie, but would remain as their most popular one till this very day.
The story follows Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra) on a quest to reunite ten fellow members of WWII's 82nd Airborne who are all down on their luck so they can rob five Vegas Casinos on New Year's Eve. They all agree, as one of them named Vince Massler (Buddy Lester) wants to buy his wife's way out of stripping, while Josh Howard (Sammy Davis Junior) wants to give up his job as a garbage truck driver, and Tony Bergdrof (Richard Conte) wants to get his life as an ex-con back in order. To accomplish this, Danny turns to his friend Sam Harmon (Dean Martin) to recruit the crew while he entices rich Vegas player Spyros Acebos (Akim Tamiroff) to finance the robbery.
Spyros was probably the funniest among the guys, as he just kicks back and let's them do all the work while basking beside his pool looking for headlines of Danny's heist. Though the scene where the heist is pitched in Spyros' billiard's room gives you the sense of how the cast will carry themselves throughout the move. Henry Silva (Roger Corneal), Joey Bishop (Mushy O'Connors), and Peter Lawford (Jimmy Foster) pretty much play themselves in the flick while the remaining cast of thieves is generally made up of unknown actors.
Angie Dickinson plays Beatrice Ocean, Danny's wife who's oblivious to Danny's scheme and is attending a casino on the night of the robbery with reformed gangster Duke Santos (Caesar Romero) who constantly suspects that something's up. Danny and Beatrice go through the same type of banter that most rocky sixties movie relationships go through, and seems to just add time to the flick, as Beatrice doesn't provide much except for a means to introduce Duke Santos, who becomes the villain of the story once figuring out what happened, prompting him to offer the casino bosses a chance to get their money back if he could relinquish 50% of the take.
The planning of the robbery reveals a lot about the main plan, but seamlessly melts away into the remainder of the actual set-up without revealing how they plan to escape with the money (which was also cleverly done in the 2001 remake). Of course what's a caper flick with amateur thieves without a few snafus along the way? That's where the Rat Pack showcase their charm to ensure that things go their way, such as Sam Harmon utilizing said charm to distract an intoxicated woman (Shirley MacLaine) that could be a potential witness to the crime if she's not 'removed from the sidewalk.'
The visuals of the original sixties Vegas are great, as there aren't any hookers or traffic jams, among the other all around bizarre characters that populate the Vegas Strip today, thus adding points to the visual rating. Although the overall sense of pizzazz from the remake is mostly absent from the visuals, as said pizzazz resides more so in the characters. The sound and picture quality is also as top notch as can be. Especially since this B&W flick was restored to its color release version.
The only negative thing about the film was that after the heist, it slowed in pace and seemed to drag on...necessarily for the story, but in more scenes than absolutely needed. Or at least it seemed that way. As for the subplot involving Tony Bergdorf, it seems to come to an abrupt conclusion that's less than satisfactory. So those two things overall hurt the story rating.
Rather than a purely scored film, singer Dean Martin literally takes the stage as part of his cover singing "Ain't that just a kick in the head." And given that Dean Martin entertained in the same routine at casinos, then it was perfect for the movie. Among these colorful showcasing of talent sequences there are cameos by Red Skelton, George Raft, and the aforementioned Shirley MacLaine.
Being a 1960 film, I didn't expect there to be any extras at all, but was surprised by the "Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" excerpt with Frank Sinatra, as well as an interactive tour of the five casinos on the original Vegas Strip when the film took place: the Sands, the Desert Inn, the Flamingo, the Riviera, and the Sahara. A theatrical trailer is also included, plus an audio commentary by actress Angie Dickinson, and Frank Sinatra Junior, whom wasn't in the film granted, but given the death of most of the Rat Pack by this time, he was able to provide memories, and fun bits of data to accompany Angie's points nicely.
Overall, this was a great film that deserves more attention in today's spotlight, as when the remake franchise was debuting, this film wasn't seen or heard anywhere. So it's a great caper flick to add to your collection, and a good film to see at least once in my book.
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