Rating: R
Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 12/22/1998
SubTitles: English/Espanol/French
Dubbed: English/Espanol
Sound: DS
Run Time: 120 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations
Distributor/Studio: HBO Home Video
Shot in 33 days, this $9.6 million biographical drama of behind-the-scenes interactions within the Rat Pack group of
Frank Sinatra (
Ray Liotta),
Dean Martin (
Joe Mantegna), and
Sammy Davis Jr. (
Don Cheadle) is set against the political backdrop of the '60s, establishing links of singers, gangsters, actors, and politicans (sometimes brushing shoulders in the same rooms). The film also explores
Sinatra's relationship with
John F. Kennedy (
William Peterson). Deciding to support
Kennedy,
Sinatra patches up his feud with
Peter Lawford (
Angus Macfadyen), since
Lawford's wife, Pat (
Phyllis Lyons) is
JFK's sister -- and a
Sinatra-
Kennedy friendship soon follows. However, when
Joe Kennedy (
Dan O'Herlihy) decides
Sinatra's nightclub, mob and commie connections are a no-no for
JFK, the patriarch's interference angers
Sinatra. Meanwhile,
Sammy Davis Jr. enters into an interracial liaison with
May Britt (
Megan Dodds), and the dynamics of the situation are visualized in an imaginative musical fantasy sequence in which
Davis sees himself singing and dancing for an unresponsive line of white supremacists. Broadway's
Savion Glover stepped in with the film's choreography. Substitute singers featured the voice of
Michael Dees for
Sinatra and
Mantegna duplicating Dino. Also covered here are the events that led to the filming of
Ocean's Eleven (1960). For an actual Rat Pack stage performance, see
The Rat Pack Captured (1965). Filmed in LA, the TV movie premiered August 22, 1998 on
HBO.
~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
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