Pal Joey (film)
Pal Joey is a 1957 American musical comedy film directed by George Sidney, loosely adapted from the Rodgers and Hart musical play of the same name, and starring Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, and Kim Novak.
Pal Joey
Pal Joey
1940 play
Pal Joey
1940 novel
by John O'Hara
Harold Lipstein
- Essex Productions
- George Sidney Productions
- October 25, 1957 (United States)
109 minutes
United States
English
$3 million[1]
$7 million (rentals)[1]
Sinatra won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his role as the wise-cracking, hard-bitten Joey Evans. Along with its strong box-office success, Pal Joey earned four Academy Award nominations and one Golden Globe Award nomination.
Jo Ann Greer sang for Hayworth, as she had done in Affair in Trinidad (1952) and Miss Sadie Thompson (1953). Novak's singing voice was dubbed by Trudy Stevens.[2] The choreography was managed by Hermes Pan. Nelson Riddle handled the musical arrangements for the Rodgers and Hart standards "The Lady Is a Tramp", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", "I Could Write a Book", and "There's a Small Hotel".
Pal Joey is one of Sinatra's few post-From Here to Eternity films that did not give him top billing, which went to Hayworth. Sinatra was, by this time, a bigger star. When asked about the billing, Sinatra replied, "Ladies first." He said as it was a Columbia Pictures film, Hayworth should have top billing because "For years, she was Columbia Pictures" and being billed "between" Hayworth and Novak was "a sandwich I don't mind being stuck in the middle of." Hayworth had garnered top-billing status in Columbia Pictures' films starting in 1944's Cover Girl through the 1959 film They Came to Cordura with Gary Cooper.
Sinatra's earnings from the film paid for his new home in Palm Springs. He was so delighted that he also built a restaurant there dedicated to the film, named Pal Joey's.[3]
Note: Robert Reed made his unbilled feature film debut as the boy friend sitting at the front couple's table while Sinatra sang "I Didn't Know What Time It Was."
Production[edit]
According to Dorothy Kingsley, who wrote the script, the film was going to be made starring Kirk Douglas and directed by George Cukor. However Lilian Burns, who was Harry Cohn's assistant, felt only Frank Sinatra could play the role. Sinatra and Cohn were feuding but Kingsley and Burns persuaded Cohn to accept Sinatra. Burns' husband George Sidney ultimately directed the film.[4]
George Sidney enjoyed working with Frank Sinatra. They would film in the afternoon as that was when Sinatra preferred to work and film until early in the morning.[5]
Notable changes[edit]
The happy ending of the film contrasts with the conclusion of the stage musical, where Joey is left alone at the end.
The transformation of Joey into a "nice guy" diverges from the stage musical, where Joey's character is an anti-hero. Joey is also older in the film—on stage he was played by 28-year old Gene Kelly; here, 42-year old Sinatra takes the reins.
The film differs from the stage musical in other key points: the setting was moved from Chicago to San Francisco, and on stage Joey was a dancer. The plot of the film drops a blackmail attempt, and two roles prominent on stage were changed: Melba (a reporter) was cut, and Gladys became a minor character. Linda became a naive chorus girl instead of an innocent stenographer and some of the lyrics to "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" were changed. Also in the film, Vera Prentice-Simpson is a wealthy widow and former stripper (billed as Vanessa the Undresser) and thus gets to sing the song "Zip". (Since that number requires an authentic burlesque drummer to mime the bumps and grinds, the extra playing the drums is disconcertingly swapped with a professional session musician Jimmy Fernandes in a jump cut).
Critical reception and box office[edit]
Opening to positive reviews on October 25, 1957, Pal Joey was an instant success with critics and the general public alike. Variety stated, "Pal Joey is a strong, funny entertainment. Dorothy Kingsley's screenplay, from John O'Hara's book, is skillful rewriting, with colorful characters and solid story built around the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart songs. Total of 14 tunes are intertwined with the plot, 10 of them being reprised from the original. Others by the same team of cleffers are 'I Didn't Know What Time It Was', 'The Lady Is a Tramp', 'There's a Small Hotel' and 'Funny Valentine'."[12]
The New York Times stated, "This is largely Mr. Sinatra's show...he projects a distinctly bouncy likeable personality into an unusual role. And his rendition of the top tunes, notably "The Lady Is a Tramp" and "Small Hotel," gives added lustre to these indestructible standards."[13]
With theatrical rentals of $4.7 million in the United States and Canada, Pal Joey was ranked by Variety as one of the 10 highest-earning films of 1957.[14] It earned rentals of $7 million worldwide.[1]
Other honors
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: