Sinatra in Hollywood

From the Publisher

“It’s high time someone wrote a serious book about Frank Sinatra’s significant movie career. With his knowledge of both movies and music, Santopietro has put one of the biggest careers in Hollywood film history in full perspective.” —Jeanine Basinger, author of The Star Machine “This work is both highly readable and extensively researched….Santopietro ably fills a long-standing gap in Sinatra biography.” –Library Journal (starred review) “A terrifically lucid and entertaining look at an undervalued area of Sinatra’s achievement.” –Kirkus Reviews "This mammoth movie compendium, filled with forgotten facts, fifty-three black-and-white photos, and a detailed filmography, is certain to satisfy Sinatra's legions of fans."--Publishers Weekly  

Publishers Weekly

Santopietro, who spent two decades as the manager of two dozen Broadway shows, has previously delivered well-received biographical career assessments of Doris Day and Barbra Streisand. Although Sinatra is covered in countless books, including several focusing on his films, Santopietro's approach attempts to seamlessly blend Sinatra's life, movies and public persona. Sinatra's tough-guy behavior masked a "wounding tenderness," observed ex-wife Mia Farrow, and an underlying thesis of this book is that a similar quality permeated his onscreen characters, "confident and brash, yet very often vulnerable." Striving for honest critiques and a witty, encyclopedic coverage, Santopietro begins with Sinatra's 1935 short subjects; dances through the grandiose 1940s MGM musicals; documents Sinatra's "professional and personal despair" and decline in such "giant turkey" disasters as The Kissing Bandit(1948); and analyzes his Oscar-winning comeback in From Here to Eternity(1953). The book verges on the speculative ("Sinatra sensed...") as it bounces from heavy hype ("one of the immortals") to pseudo-hip-in a writing style that sometimes works and sometimes simply annoys. Despite such lapses, this mammoth movie compendium, filled with forgotten facts, 53 b&w photos and a detailed filmography, is certain to satisfy Sinatra's legions of fans. (Nov. 11)

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Kirkus Reviews

The king of the saloon singers was a top-notch actor. when he cared to be.
So argues Santopietro (Considering Doris Day, 2007, etc.), who proves an ideal guide to Ol' Blue Eyes' spotty career as a screen actor. Combining a fan's ardor and enthusiasm with keen critical insight, he convincingly makes the case for Sinatra as a major acting talent while taking the famously mercurial entertainer to task for wasting his prodigious gifts on frivolous projects. In conversational prose, Santopietro covers Sinatra's family life, romances and recording career as they relate to his picture making, demonstrating an encyclopedic knowledge of every theatrical and television film's production details. The author analyzes each movie, often scene-by-scene, wittily explaining what works, what doesn't and why. Clunkers like The Kissing Bandit receive the same close attention as triumphs like On the Town and The Man with the Golden Arm, the better to fully explicate the evolution of Sinatra's craft and attitude toward the medium. Santopietro is engagingly thoughtful about the sources of the Sinatra mystique. He draws intriguing parallels between the singer's storied insistence on "one take" and his neurotic drive to banish boredom and loneliness. The author relates Sinatra's distinctively snappy way with a line of dialogue to his masterly phrasing of lyrics as a singer. Readers less inclined to this sort of Actors Studio musing will content themselves with irresistible gossip about Sinatra and various Hollywood legends, plus an authoritative accounts of the glory days of the MGM musicals that cemented Sinatra's screen stardom. Film buffs will find much to savor as well. The section on The ManchurianCandidate, for example, illuminates the greatness of that strange film and of Sinatra's performance. The Rat Pack, the Mafia, the washouts and comebacks. every aspect of the legend is intelligently addressed, but Santopietro's interest is in Sinatra's work. In the final analysis, that's what fascinates.
A terrifically lucid and entertaining look at an undervalued area of Sinatra's achievement.

Library Journal

Countless books have been written about Frank Sinatra, though they typically focus on his music or broad biography. Santopietro (Considering Doris Day) directs his attention to Sinatra's film career with great success. This work is both highly readable and extensively researched, providing an absorbing look at Sinatra's part-time career. Santopietro has crafted a straightforward appreciation of Sinatra's roles, his growth as an actor, and his personal and professional relationships with the men and women he worked on-screen with, thus producing a book that should guarantee a wide readership. This is the second book to be released this year about Sinatra's film work; Karen McNally's When Frankie Went to Hollywood more specifically counterpoints Sinatra's film roles with his influence on male identity in the 1940s and 1950s, and she presents a more academic approach both in content and in writing style. Taking a thorough interest in all of Sinatra's films, successful and otherwise, Santopietro ably fills a long-standing gap in Sinatra biography, and his book is highly recommended for all libraries.
—Peter Thornell

Kirkus Reviews

The king of the saloon singers was a top-notch actor…when he cared to be.

So argues Santopietro (Considering Doris Day, 2007, etc.), who proves an ideal guide to Ol' Blue Eyes' spotty career as a screen actor. Combining a fan's ardor and enthusiasm with keen critical insight, he convincingly makes the case for Sinatra as a major acting talent while taking the famously mercurial entertainer to task for wasting his prodigious gifts on frivolous projects. In conversational prose, Santopietro covers Sinatra's family life, romances and recording career as they relate to his picture making, demonstrating an encyclopedic knowledge of every theatrical and television film's production details. The author analyzes each movie, often scene-by-scene, wittily explaining what works, what doesn't and why. Clunkers like The Kissing Bandit receive the same close attention as triumphs like On the Town and The Man with the Golden Arm, the better to fully explicate the evolution of Sinatra's craft and attitude toward the medium. Santopietro is engagingly thoughtful about the sources of the Sinatra mystique. He draws intriguing parallels between the singer's storied insistence on "one take" and his neurotic drive to banish boredom and loneliness. The author relates Sinatra's distinctively snappy way with a line of dialogue to his masterly phrasing of lyrics as a singer. Readers less inclined to this sort of Actors Studio musing will content themselves with irresistible gossip about Sinatra and various Hollywood legends, plus an authoritative accounts of the glory days of the MGM musicals that cemented Sinatra's screen stardom. Film buffs will find much to savor as well. The section on The ManchurianCandidate, for example, illuminates the greatness of that strange film and of Sinatra's performance. The Rat Pack, the Mafia, the washouts and comebacks…every aspect of the legend is intelligently addressed, but Santopietro's interest is in Sinatra's work. In the final analysis, that's what fascinates.

A terrifically lucid and entertaining look at an undervalued area of Sinatra's achievement.