So, sue me, it’s not a movie review. But I do like the idea of reviewing movies. This is more of a twit’s ode to Sinatra. 
Kings Go Forth was released in 1958. I won’t go into all the anachronisms and other problems with the film. (Well, just one – Sinatra is 43 in the movie and Natalie Wood is only 20. He’s kind of old for a guy who enlisted in the Army and has never had a girlfriend of note.) What I want to talk about is the “cool” factor and how Frank pretty much epitomizes it in films of that era.
Sinatra did this movie at a point in his career when he could have just phoned it in and left it at that. He did some movies where I wondered if he’d even looked at the script. But Frank was always very smooth in whatever he did. This movie, including an excellent performance by Tony Curtis, was on the leading edge of the Civil Rights Movement. It involved a love affair between a female character who’s half black and a white man. Risky stuff in 1958. But that was Sinatra.
Whatever faults Frank had race wasn’t one of them. He was right out front in his support of civil rights. Frank didn’t put up with the nonsense of discrimination and he wasn’t afraid of what a film like this might do to his career. And I think this was probably a good film for him in that it let him stretch his acting chops beyond his winning smile and voice. He’s a real character in the movie and he’s so good at the role that you lose sight of the fact that it’s Frank Sinatra. When he (WARNING SPOILER (is that possible in a 54 year old film?)) promises to kill Tony Curtis you can see the rage. It’s an icy version but it’s there.
I won’t blow the ending of the flick. But I will endorse it. If you get a chance to watch it it’s two hours well spent. And remember to look for Frank being “cool” throughout the film. And, just because I’m a nerd and have nothing better to do, there’s a bit of foreshadowing in the movie for the actress, Natalie Wood. She almost drowns in a suicide attempt. Funny how life works that stuff out, eh?
I guess I better categorize this post as pure blather. But I just finished watching it and wanted to share my enjoyment of the movie.
Back to important stuff in the next post.
