Customer Reviews

The Rat Pack: Neon Nights with the Kings of Cool

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1 star:		(15)

 

 

Let's start with the obvious. This book should have been a book about Frank Sinatra not the Rat Pack. It goes on and on about Frank Sinatra. How he was a loyal friend, a sensitive man and a generous person. Then in the next breath it talks about his violent temper, his womanizing and arrogance towards his"friends". The author is quick to come to Frank's rescue. Putting the blame on the other individuals who were involved or pulling excuses out of thin air. The book also downplays the importance of Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. arguably the most entertaining members of the Rat Pack. The book also makes unfair comparissons between Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. Stating that Elvis had an "acceptable" voice but wasn't in any way as "good" as Sinatra. Don't make a comparison where none can be made. The book also gets key dates in Dean Martin's life wrong. How can you say you researched a book about the Rat Pack and get the date of Dean's passing wrong? This book is a travesty. It doesn't inform. It doesn't entertain. It doesn't even bore you. I'm not sure which I'm more embarassed of......the fact that I purchased the book or that I recently rented The Cannonball Run. You're better off renting the Cannonball Run at least the closing credits are funny!

Here is the deal. If you are just starting to get into the Rat Pack or any of the players individually. Then this book is a good start. I would call it the Cliff notes of the individuals and their movies. If you have seen all the movies including the Matt Helm movies or if you have already read books on Dean, Frank, Sammy's biography then you are way ahead of this book and pass it by.

But if you have not seen the movies and want to learn the basics of each man and then from there search into each one of them seperatly then this is a good starter. There are some great books on all the guys but you will finded Sammy's Biography to be the most fun. Remember to check out deanmartinfancenter.com for more info on the Rat Pack. For the guys who wrote this you could have given us some fun facts or answered some questions, instead they read everyone else book and put together their own version.

This book is a waste of money. It is a collection of movie reviews starring Rat Packers strung together and pretending to be a book. Only the very most die hard movie fans should consider checking this out of the library but save your money.

I gave this book 2 stars,because I didn't think it was quite as bad as some of the other reviewers did.(Apparently,some people don't want to hear anything negative about "MR.Sinatra".Still,this was a pretty shallow book.It wasn't anywhere as good as Shawn Levy's book.In fact,I can't say that I learned anything about the Rat Pack that I didn't already know.If you're already pretty familiar with the Rat Pack,you can safely skip this one.

I've always heard about the rat pack and wanted to know more about them. The only thing I learned is that this is not the book to find out anything about the "kings of cool." The aspect of the book that I found most disturbing (perhaps the most telling) is that the authors mention the music of the three main men only in passing. You'd think that the music that three of the great popular singers of the last half century would merit some discussion. Instead the authors concentrate almost entirely on the movies, and then they only seem to care about Frank and Dean bedding so many women during the filming of the movies. A typical chapter mentions that Frank decides to make a movie, all the guys are more interested in partying than in making the movie, the movie is finished and stinks despite an occasional funny moment or glimpse of talent from one of the rat pack or the supporting cast. And by the way, Frank and Dean and Sammy sure had a lot of women during the filming. This is not a good book, and I don't know why I even read the whole thing. I'm ashamed of myself.

Why do people choose to write nonfiction about celebrities they don't seem to like? It makes for spending a lot of research time with their lives. I was VERY disapointed in this book and really would like to have asked for my money back. The commentary was so hostile that I made a mark in the margin when I found the first positive comment (on page 90 something! ). No major new information was within either. Other books on the Rat Pack are available and better. This one was a waste of scarce reading time for me.

The only reason I give this book one star is because zero stars wasn't an option. It took two guys to write this tripe? One monkey could have done a better job. This book is lazy and poorly written and I am ticked off that I wasted my money on it. The definitive book on the Rat Pack has got to be Shawn Levy's. After reading the first two pages of Levy's book I was hooked. The difference between a real writer and a couple of hacks.

The blurb on the cover of THE RAT PACK says "They had fun" but there's precious little fun to be found here. This book is a tedious listing of (mostly negative) events. It lacks any sparkle and vigor, and if I believed half of it, I'd have to wonder just what the appeal of this group of overgrown adolescents could be. There had to be more.

The Chairman of The Board is the centerpiece as an egomaniacal bully who uses his star power to make the world feel indebted to him. His reported temper tantrums seem utterly absurd. Anyone who used his fists or threats of mob violence as much as the authors claim Sinatra did, should have and would have been locked up, "different era" or no. The Frank Sinatra in these pages wouldn't be a "King of Cool". He wouldn't be anything much.

The rest of the boys orbit around Frank like some kind of an inebriated solar system. The boozing and skirt-chasing is leaden, so where's the thrill? Where are the laughs? If this book is at all accurate (and it isn't, listing Dean Martin's date of death incorrectly), it means that this group of supremely talented entertainers valued nothing, not even themselves.

The bulk of the book is made up of mostly scathing summaries of the Rat Pack movies. Nary a word is said about either Frank or Dean's musical careers. Sammy Davis Jr. is dismissed as little more than the Rat Pack houseboy. Peter Lawford is depicted as a sexually confused drug addict craving the attention of the others. Joey Bishop is virtually forgotten. The Rat Pack Mascots (Shirley MacLaine and Angie Dickinson) get barely honorable mentions (MacLaine far more than Dickinson). One has to wonder why Shirley MacLaine would continue to associate with The Rat Pack after being assaulted by mobster Sam Giancana twice in their company. The book begs an answer. MacLaine is no slouch, so obviously more and better was happening with the "Clan" than this sordid book deigns to tell us.

To really appreciate the Rat Pack give a listen to The Rat Pack Live at the Sands or The Ultimate Rat Pack Collection: Live & Swingin (CD & DVD).

This is not worthy of your time or money. There is nothing new here and it really amounts to a critical look at both the Rat Pack and their movies. All Quirk does is savage the films that these guys made as a group or by themselves. I hope the publisher is ashamed. The members deserve so much more than this...

Quirk & Schoell - best known for those photo heavy, poorly researched FILMS OF... coffee table books and trashy "tell-all" unauthorized celeb bios - strike again with a badly written, sloppy account of Frank, Dean & Sammy's days as a trio. Short on facts... long on mistakes... you'd think these ghouls could at least get the day of Dino's death right - since one of them supposedly knew the guy...