Review: I'm always looking out for videos to amuse both adults and children, and this is a jewel that my 10 year old adored. The dramatisation of Damon Runyon's classic short stories about small-time crooks, mobsters and chorus girls it starts with a long and very funny sequence tracking a pickpocket ambling through a crowded Times Square and getting away with tourists' wallets etc. The theme of "dolls" having the upper hand over "guys" made into a kind of ballet, and by the time three of the "guys" are gathered to give their illegal betting tips, a mood of 1950s liveliness and innocence established.
Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) runs the "oldest floating crap-game in New York", but gambling is illegal and Brannigan, a cop, is makig life uncomfortable for him just as some big gamblers have flown into town. Nathan can hold his game in a garage only if he pays $1000 to the owner, but how to get the money? He spots Skye Masterson (Brando), who boasts all girls are the same, and bets him that even he can't succeed in getting the prim Salvation Army militant, Sarah Brown, to go out with him that evening. However, Skye succeeds in persuading her by promising to bring "a dozen hardened sinners" to her mission the following night. They go to Havana - only to fall in love. In order to make good his bet, Skye then has to pin his hopes on a single roll fo the dice...The songs, dances, costumes and script crackle with old-fashioned glamour and wit. Brando can't sing for toffee, but it doesn't matter because he's got everything else. Jean Simmons is perfect - sweet and a bit coarse underneath, and Vivian Blaine as Miss Abigail a perfect combination of cat-like shrewdness and kittenish naivety. Ol' Blue Eyes typecast as a seedy low-lifer. Pure joy. |
DVD Films
