Pal Joey (1957) - film review

Arriving in San Francisco, two-bit cabaret singer Joey Evans soon talks his way into a night club spot, although his reputation as a serial philanderer precedes him.  Can he help it if women find him utterly irresistible?  Within no time, he has hooked two desirable young beauties, chorus girl Linda English and wealthy socialite widow Vera Simpson.  The latter is so smitten with Joey that she agrees to finance his dream project, his own night club.  Alas, Chez Joey looks set to close even before it opens when Vera jealously suspects that her lover only has eyes for Linda...

John O’Hara’s musical play Pal Joey was a massive Broadway hit before it found its way onto the big screen, with Frank Sinatra topping the bill with Rita Hayworth in one of Columbia’s slickest musical extravaganzas.  What the plot lacks in substance, the Rodgers and Hart numbers easily make up for in class.  Sinatra’s presence alone would have made this a classic, but to have Ol’ Blue Eyes sharing the limelight with sex goddess Rita Hayworth and glamour puss Kim Novak is the nearest thing to Heaven for lovers of the old Hollywood musical.

This is the film in which Sinatra sings one of his best known numbers, The Lady is a Tramp, stealing the focus from a suitably sultry Hayworth as only he could.  Other numbers include: There’s A Small Hotel, I Could Write a Book, Funny Valentine and a toned down version of Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.  Every number slots effortlessly into the narrative so that the film glides along as smoothly as a paddle-streamer.

Not only is Frank Sinatra on top form as a singer here, he also turns in a very respectable performance, although he almost allows himself to be outstaged by a cuddly pooch in a few scenes.  The chemistry between him and his two leading ladies is spot on and makes for some interesting character dynamics.  Hayworth has rarely looked this elegant and vulnerable; Novak has never looked more alluring and innocent.  (Who cares if both actresses were dubbed for their songs?)  Basking in the glow of such female pulchritude, Sinatra appears as he must have felt - like a man who had just won the national lottery, and who can blame him?

© Steve Chandler 2010

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