Sinatra in Hollywood [Hardcover]

Tom Santopietro (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0312362269 | ISBN-13: 978-0312362263 | Edition: 1st

Hollywood legend, Academy Award--winning actor, and recipient of the Golden Globe Award for lifetime achievement in film, Frank Sinatra carved out one of the biggest careers in the history of Hollywood, yet paradoxically his screen legacy has been overshadowed by his extraordinary achievements as a singer and recording artist. Until now.

With the publication of Sinatra in Hollywood, an analytical yet deeply personal look at the screen legend of Frank Sinatra, Sinatra’s standing as a significant, indeed legendary, screen actor has now been placed in full perspective. Examining each of Sinatra’s seventy film appearances in depth, Tom Santopietro traces the arc of his astonishing six-decade run as a film actor, from his rise to stardom in “boy next door” musical films like Anchors Aweigh and On the Town, through his fall from grace with legendary flops like The Kissing Bandit, to the near-mythic comeback with his Oscar-winning performance in From Here to Eternity.

Laced throughout with Sinatra’s own observations on his film work, Sinatra in Hollywood deals head-on with his tumultuous marriages to Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow and directly addresses the rumors of Mob involvement in Sinatra’s Hollywood career. Ranging from the specifics of his controversial acting nickname of One Take Charlie to the iconic Rat Pack film Ocean’s Eleven, from the groundbreaking performance in The Manchurian Candidate to the moving and elegiac late-career roles as tough yet vulnerable detectives, the myths and personal foibles are stripped away, placing the focus squarely on the work.

Oftentimes brilliant, occasionally off-kilter, but always compelling, Frank Sinatra, the film icon who registered as nothing less than emblematic of “The American Century,” here receives his full due as the serious artist he was, the actor about whom director Billy Wilder emphatically stated, “Frank Sinatra is beyond talent.”

Editorial Reviews

From 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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From Booklist

Sinatra’s reputation as America’s greatest pop singer has overshadowed his equally impressive accomplishments as an actor. Santopietro aims to rectify that situation in a biography emphasizing Sinatra’s movies. From his earliest roles, audiences responded well to his screen image of the tough-yet-vulnerable loner, which became his public persona as well. When his recording career hit the skids—along with his movie career, after such bombs as The Kissing Bandit—his Oscar-winning turn in From Here to Eternity put him permanently back on track. Equally impressive roles in such acclaimed films as The Man with the Golden Arm and The Manchurian Candidate followed, and if he began to stop caring by the mid-1960s, his later movies, especially with the Rat Pack, have their charms. With generally incisive readings of the films and a firm grasp of the familiar biographical material, Santopietro makes a compelling argument for Sinatra’s status as a great actor too often saddled with sub-par material, who, contrary to his reputation for indifference, took his film work seriously, knowing that movie stardom “could ensure his immortality.” --Gordon Flagg

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (November 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312362269
• ISBN-13: 978-0312362263
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #206,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( S ) > Sinatra, Frank
  • #23 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Composers & Musicians > Pop

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this Book!, December 7, 2008

By 

EC10023 (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sinatra in Hollywood (Hardcover)

FINALLY, a book for film buffs and Sinatra fans that does justice to the Sinatra mystique and encompasses the full range of his acting career! Tom Santopietro really knows film, celebrities, and cultural history and weaves a narrative combining all three that gives us great insight and affection for Sinatra, the private man and the public talent. This is a book that belongs in the hands of every fan of Ol' Blue Eyes! As with his prior books on Doris Day and Barbara Streisand, Santopietro's work is both entertaining and worthy of a permanent place in the collection of anyone who's a serious fan of 20th century film.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fair Assessment, July 10, 2009

By 

S. W. Best "Avid Reader" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sinatra in Hollywood (Hardcover)

Mr. Santopietro's account of Sinatra's Hollywood years is very entertaining, insightful and often quite funny, especially when describing some of the ludicrous plotting or production problems of some of The Chairman's films. It also deals with Sinatra's personal woes and triumphs as well as his phenomenal recording career. Although concentrating specifically on his films, the book offers much analysis on Sinatra's shining years both on and off the screen. It is a great read for any fan of film in general or Ol' Blue Eyes. Santopietro is especially fair in showing a balanced view of the great entertainer, warts and all.

The only issue I had is the author's often preachy political correctness when complaining of negative racial stereotypes prevalent in films during Hollywood's heyday. Historians and biographers need to stop using 21st-century standards to judge the past and those who came before us. In 50 years, I'm sure some biographer will have something bad to say about our standards today even though we strongly defend those same standards now. Any film fan reading the book knows the stereotypes regrettably existed and doesn't want to believe that the author assumes all readers are blind to, or ignorant of, the past. Times have mercifully changed, but please don't gratuitously preach to the reader about a history that can't be re-written.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile book, March 10, 2010

By 

Edwi R. Spiegel "Edwin" (North Brunswick, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sinatra in Hollywood (Paperback)

Have read the book and find that the auther "gets" Sinatra. I skipped over what were very lengthy synopses of each story. Seemed interminable to me. There were many roles, some of them excellent, that Frank turned down or went after and did not get or just did not happen. Would have liked to have seen more about those although he did write about Frank and "Carousel" as "the single greatest missed opportunity of his film career." At that age and as marvelously as he was acting and singing then, he'd have added so much. There is a lot in the book that you will not find elsewhere and thankfully, it's not one of those kitty kelly type sleaze volumes. However it leaves much unanswered and uncovered.