📄 Transcript
Greetings Classic Cinema TV fans, this is Jason Lockhart here with you once again, bringing you another Flashback Friday. And today we're talking about one of my favorite singers of all time. We're talking about Old Blue Eyes, also known as the chairman of the board, also known as The Voice. Yes, I'm talking about Frank Sinatra, one of my absolute favorite singers of all time. I love him. And there's great singers. There's so many great singers. There's Elvis Presley. There's Dean Martin. There's Sammy Davis Jr. I mean, we could go on and on and on and on. But one of my favorites of all time was, of course, Frank Sinatra. I just loved his voice. I just loved the way he sang. But Frank Sinatra was also known for being in many, many films. But he's also known as the leader of the Rat Pack. Now, many of you that don't know history about films and classic Hollywood may not know who the Rat Pack is. So let's do a quick recap of this real quick, and then we're going to jump into our Flashback Friday for today. First off, the Rat Pack was a group of actors and singers and entertainers that kind of just hung out together. This was originally led by Humphrey Bogart. and this group of guys was led by Humphrey Bogart, had Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra and a bunch of different guys just hanging out. And the idea of the Rat Pack came in from Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart's wife at the time. She kind of came in, saw the bunch of guys just in there drinking and having a good time together, and she sat there and looked at them and she said, y'all look like a Rat Pack, you know, and boom, that was it, it stuck, the Rat Pack, and then when Bogart passed away, kind of Frank Sinatra became the unofficial leader, if you will, of the Rat Pack, okay, so that's the little background of what the Rat Pack was, right, Well anyway so Frank Sinatra transitioned from doing records and radio and stuff like that into becoming a movie star And wow what a star he became And he was in so many different great films And Warner Archive has done something very special the last couple months, and that is they've released two amazing Frank Sinatra musicals. we're talking about The Tender Trap and we're talking about Take Me Out to the Ballgame oh, I love these first off we're talking about The Tender Trap The Tender Trap is a really interesting a really interesting Blu-ray release this film stars also Debbie Reynolds in this film and Debbie Reynolds plays Julie Gillis and Julie Gillis has the idea of she's got her whole life planned out she knows exactly what's going to happen to her she knows when she's going to get married she knows all the details of it she's got it all laid out her whole entire life she knows when it's going to be March the 12th that's when I'm going to get married the whole nine yards she even knows that her future husband is going to have blue eyes yes, all blue eyes This is, and so it becomes the Tender Trap She's going to try to trap old blue eyes Well, does she trap old blue eyes? Well, you'll have to watch the film to find out The Tender Trap is a comedy with a lot of romance And a lot of music, a lot of good music And it's just a great, great release Now, Warner Archive did a tremendous job with this This transfer on this Blu-ray is absolutely spectacular It looks so vibrant The colors are so beautiful and so vibrant And there's no damage to the print whatsoever It just looks perfect in every way And it sounds crystal clear It's just a great release And the cool thing about this release Is the special bonus features as well Warner Archive went ahead and put in a lot of cool bonus features on this release We get a featurette Which is Frank in the 50's People going back and talking about Frank Sinatra, how he was a musician or singer and all this type of stuff, and how he transitioned into the movies and how his movies impacted people in the 50s. And it's a really great documentary. Love that. There two excerpts from MGM Parade featuring Debbie Reynolds and George Murphy Very very cool little bonus there and then you also get the theatrical trailer all on this release It is so great I highly recommend if you a fan of Debbie Reynolds or Frank Sinatra or just those old classic Hollywood musicals, The Tender Trap is really something special. It really is a great, great release, and we highly recommend it here on Classic Cinema Plus for movie fans. All right, but that's not all the Frank Sinatra we got this month from Warner Archive or these past two months. Interestingly enough, we also got Esther Williams and Gene Kelly joining up with Frank Sinatra to go out to the ballgame. Yeah, take me out to the ballgame. Wow, this is probably one of my favorite releases. I love this one. Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra play baseball players for a very, very good baseball team but they prefer to be vaudevillian stars that's what they like to do they like to do that and there's this gangster that has an idea that he wants to win a lot of money by betting against the team that they're on, and he wants to make sure that he doesn't lose all this money. So he offers one of them a chance to star in a brand new musical and thus mess up the game so that he wins this huge amount of money. And all the hijinks that goes around that and all that type of stuff. And it's just a really, really fun, fun release. Really, really fun movie. got amazing music and Gene Kelly is always amazing with his dancing and Frank Sinatra is right there with him, it's unbelievable and of course Esther Williams is Esther Williams she's great in everything as well just a great, great release love this and like I said, the same way with the Tender Trap Take Me Out to the Ball Game looks amazing on Blu-ray so spectacular the colors are just vibrant and the audio is as clear as a bell, it is just a beautiful, beautiful release and while that is great to have a spectacular looking take on or copy of the film that not where it ends absolutely not Warner Archive went and put a lot of really cool releases a lot of bonus features on this And let's take a look at it. We get some deleted musical numbers from this film added on this release, which is really, really cool. We get Baby Doll and Boys and Girls Like You and Me. Very, very cool. These were two additional numbers that were put in the film, but were taken out because of maybe time restraints or because they felt it kind of pulled the production down. However, the producers felt they took those two numbers out of the final film. Well, they're back here so that you can see them on this release, which is very, very cool. Then something that I always love is I love the cartoon features. And, you know, Warner Archive gave us a cartoon feature here, which is an old MGM classic Tom and Jerry cartoon, The Cat and the Mermouse. Love that. And then, of course, you get your theatrical trailer as well on this release. So, wow. Warner Archive really bringing the A-game with these Frank Sinatra releases. Love this so very much. I am such a fan of Frank Sinatra That anytime we get Frank Sinatra On Blu-ray That is a win to me It's a win-win all the time All day, every day Anytime we can get Frank Sinatra Love it And I'm hoping there's going to be many, many more Frank Sinatra releases Coming from Warner Archive We'll see I'm sure there'll be some more But I can't wait to see them And yeah So let us know what you think about these. And also, what is your favorite Frank Sinatra film? Let us know in the comments below. We'd like to hear from you. We want to remind you to go to Classic Cinema Plus, the official website, and read reviews for both of these releases as well as so many more releases. Check out our podcast, video features, all kinds of stuff right there on Classic Cinema Plus. be sure to like share and subscribe and until we see you next time with another flashback Friday this is Jason Lockhart Pastor Jay wishing you a blessed day and we will see you next time