Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301587372
Format: Color
ISBN: 6301587375
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Release Date: 1996-11-13
Running Time: 111
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 1957-10-25

First born in the pages of The New Yorker, then translated into a hit Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical, the title character of Pal Joey had undergone quite a transformation by the time he hit the movies in 1957. He was a singer, rather than a dancer, but more importantly he'd had his rough edges sweetly softened; the callous heel dreamed up by novelist John O'Hara was more of a naughty scamp in the film version. However, Pal Joey remains delightfully watchable for two very good reasons: a terrific song score and a surplus of glittering star power. Frank Sinatra, at the zenith of his cocky, world-on-a-string popularity, glides through the film with breezy nonchalance, romancing showgirl Kim Novak (Columbia Pictures' new sex symbol) and wealthy widow Rita Hayworth (Columbia Pictures' former sex symbol). The film also benefits from location shooting in San Francisco, caught in the moonlight-and-supper-club glow of the late '50s. Sinatra does beautifully with the Rodgers and Hart classics "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" and "I Could Write a Book," and his performance of "The Lady Is a Tramp" (evocatively shot by director George Sidney) is flat-out genius. Sinatra's ease with hep-cat lingo nearly outdoes Bing Crosby at his best, and included in the DVD is a trailer in which Sinatra instructs the audience in "Joey's Jargon," a collection of hip slang words such as "gasser" and "mouse." If not one of Sinatra's very best movies, Pal Joey is nevertheless a classy vehicle that fits like a glove. --Robert Horton

Customer Rating:
Summary: Pal Joey
Comment: An absolutely terrific Sinatra classic. He is the perfect "Joey". Kim Novak & Rita Hayworth are just beautiful!
Wish the play in NYC had been this good!!!!!!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Pal Joey
Comment: Pal Joey was filmed in San Francisco and showed off our city nicely. Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak (she is gorgeous)and Rita Hayworth gave outstanding performances to this entertaining musical film. This was Sinatra's crowning achievement, in my opinion.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Life in the Musical Theater
Comment: Pal Joey is thoroughly delightful. I'd forgotten just how much. Even though my favorite song comes from this movie, Frank Sinatra was much too old and didn't have Eddie Fisher's looks for an EF fanclub president like little old me. I certainly thought he was taller (like Michael Feinstein, big talent comes in short people); after all, he was already a star in the entertainment business and movies, not just on television. Though he was not 'bewitching,' he was a bundle of talent and versitility with lots of media attention and some gorgeous ex-wives.

To think that Hitch's blonde in "Vertigo" had music in her veins, Kim Novack was a good foil for Sinatra's antics on and off stage. But it took Rita Hayworth to put him in his place. She was the star from Knob Hill.

Watch and see how good the musicals were fifty years ago and see Sinatra at his best. Thanks to Carlos (not Mark), it was later that I learned to appreciate Frank's perfect enunciation as I aided in his quest for perfect English. No one since has come close to him with the exception of Feinstein, who so graciously sang 'But Not for Me,' a Gershwin song, to me in Nashville. What a night!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Pal Joey DVD
Comment: I love this movie...such a classic, great soundtrack and acting! Both my husband and I have watched this over and over....pure entertainment at its best! Highly rcommend.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Hollywood Whitewash
Comment: "Pal Joey" (1957) makes a sanitized translation to the big screen, with a trio of classic stars - Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak - elevating an uneven, overlong musical. The film is worth seeing for Sinatra's signature tune "The Lady Is a Tramp" and director George Sidney's visual stylishness, yet lacks the hard-edged quality of the stage version. Thanks to the prudish Hays Office, "Pal Joey" emerges as another casualty of Hollywood censorship.

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