A decade after his death, self-described “saloon singer” Frank Sinatra remains one of the most iconic figures in American entertainment. He might not have taken his work as an actor as seriously as his singing, but his interactions with directors and fellow actors have the potential for a fascinating book.
Unfortunately, Karen McNally’s “When Frankie Went to Hollywood” isn’t it.
McNally’s premise is that Sinatra’s movie roles, in addition to his recordings and television appearances, reflected the changing attitude to traditional male roles after World War II. “Shifting imaging around Sinatra from World War II through the post-war period,” she claims, “occurred in the context of a constant negotiation of meanings about what constituted American male identity.”
So rather than covering Sinatra’s complete film oeuvre, she concentrates on movies he made between 1954 and 1958, when Sinatra embodied how “male film stars expressed their vulnerabilities” while usually playing “the hip bachelor . . . as an alternative to the suburban husband.”
Of the eight films McNally analyzes – “Young at Heart,” “Suddenly,” “The Man with the Golden Arm,” “Kings Go Forth,” “The Tender Trap,” “Pal Joey,” “From Here to Eternity,” and “Some Came Running” – only the last two have stood the test of time, the others are badly dated mediocrities, but all support her premise. In McNally’s analysis, post-war “American male identity” roles became more complex and “vulnerable” than traditional macho stereotypes. For her, Sinatra’s film roles in these eight films reflected that change.
Astonishingly, “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962), which was Sinatra’s most notable cinematic achievement, is allotted only two sentences.
McNally is distracted by entire sub-chapters on Sinatra’s popularity with the Italian-American community, his ties to the mob, his support for the Civil Rights movement, his problems with HUAC and the artwork on his album covers. McNally may teach film at London Metropolitan University, but she is clearly more concerned with sociology than film history and the book is full of stilted academic jargon.
Perhaps someone will write a comprehensive account of Sinatra and his movies complete with juicy backstage trivia and war stories. “When Frankie Went to Hollywood,” meanwhile, is of far more interest to social scientists than the average film buff.
When Frankie Went to Hollywood
Frank Sinatra and American Male Identity
by Karen McNally
University of Illinois Press