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The Joker Is Wild | |
---|---|
Directed by | Charles Vidor |
Screenplay by | Oscar Saul |
Based on | The Joker Is Wild: The Story of Joe E. Lewis by Art Cohn |
Produced by | Samuel J. Briskin |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Daniel L. Fapp |
Edited by | Everett Douglas |
Music by | Walter Scharf |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 126 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $2.4 million [1] |
Box office | $3 million (US and Canadian rentals) [2] |
The Joker Is Wild is a 1957 American musical drama film directed by Charles Vidor, starring Frank Sinatra, Mitzi Gaynor, Jeanne Crain and Eddie Albert, and released by Paramount Pictures. The film is about Joe E. Lewis, the popular singer and comedian who was a major attraction in nightclubs from the 1920s to the early 1950s.
In 1929, Joe E. Lewis is a successful nightclub singer in Chicago while working for the Mob during the Prohibition era. His decision to work elsewhere displeases his Mob employer, who has his thugs assault him by slashing his face and throat, preventing him from continuing his career as a singer.
After many years, he eventually recovers and turns his acerbic and witty sense of humor into an act, when given a break as a stand-up comedian from singer Sophie Tucker. Soon, Lewis makes a career as a comic, but heavy drinking and self-destructive behavior lead him to question what his life has become and how he has hurt the people around him, including his wife Martha and his best friend Austin.
Sinatra read Art Cohn's book, The Joker Is Wild: The Story of Joe E. Lewis, in the mid-1950s, was immediately taken by the story, and bought the rights to the book after Lewis turned down a reported $150,000 from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for the film rights to his story. Variety reported in November 1955 that Paramount Pictures would finance what was, for all intents and purposes, an independent feature film that was headed by Lewis and Sinatra, along with director Charles Vidor and author Art Cohn. Each of the four partners was paid a reported $400,000, along with 75% of the film's net profits. The New York Times reported that Sinatra's share was in the region of $125,000, along with 25% of the film's profits.
The filming of the movie was done mostly later in the day; Sinatra preferred to work at that time, and the filming schedule was tailored around this. Sinatra also insisted that all the musical scenes in the film, and songs therein, be recorded live on set to keep the performances more genuine. Sinatra stated, "When I do a concert and someone coughs, I like that. I like the scraping of chairs. You get the feeling that it's really happening. I've always thought Lewis was one of only about four or five great artists in this century - one of them was Jolson - and I remember him screaming like the devil when he made a soundtrack" (from All the Way: A Biography of Frank Sinatra).
The Joker Is Wild opened to mostly favorable reviews.
Los Angeles Times reviewer Phillip K. Scheuer wrote, "[Sinatra] catches the bitter inner restlessness almost too well...When Lewis, highball in hand, is reciting them [the drunk monologues] his natural clown's grin takes the curse off their cynicism; from Sinatra the gags come out bitter and barbed."
Films and Filming reviewer Gordon Gow stated, "One consolation in the glossy gloom of this downbeat drama is that Frank Sinatra has sufficient talent and taste to break through the wall of embarrassment that is bound to arise between an audience and the film case-history of an unanonymous alcoholic."
Variety commented on the "major job Sinatra does... alternately sympathetic and pathetic, funny and sad".
This movie won the 1957 Academy Award for Best Original Song, for "All the Way", by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn. When the film was re-released some years later, its title was changed for a period to All the Way, due to the immense popularity of the film's theme song, which peaked at number 2 in Billboard .
On Lewis' 1961 comedy album, It Is Now Post Time, he discusses his thoughts on the film:
Sinatra did my life story, ladies and gentlemen, in a picture called The Joker Is Wild. And those of you who saw the picture, it wasn't my true story. Paramount couldn't get a liquor licence. But it was a good picture... There were two girls in the picture, Jeanne Crain and Mitzi Gaynor. They were supposed to be in love with me in my early days of vaudeville. And I must have been stiff - I can't remember these broads at all. But they were in love with me throughout the picture, and sometimes I think Sinatra had more fun playing my life than I had living it. But that's the way the Pepsi pops, you know. [3]
Francis Albert Sinatra was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes," he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of the mid-20th century. Sinatra is among the world's best-selling music artists, with an estimated 150 million record sales globally.
Anchors Aweigh is a 1945 American musical comedy film starring Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, and Gene Kelly, with songs by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. Directed by George Sidney, the film also features José Iturbi, Pamela Britton, and Dean Stockwell.
Dean Martin was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular entertainers of the mid-20th century, he was nicknamed "The King of Cool". Martin gained his career breakthrough together with comedian Jerry Lewis, billed as Martin and Lewis, in 1946. They performed in nightclubs and later had numerous appearances on radio and television and in films.
The year 1957 in film involved some significant events. The Bridge on the River Kwai topped the year's box office in North America, France, and Germany, and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
The year 1953 in film involved some significant events.
The year 1951 in film involved some significant events.
Jeanne Elizabeth Crain was an American actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her title role in Pinky (1949). She also starred in the films In the Meantime, Darling (1944), State Fair (1945), Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Centennial Summer (1946), Margie (1946), Apartment for Peggy (1948), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), People Will Talk (1951), Man Without a Star (1955), Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), The Fastest Gun Alive (1956), and The Joker Is Wild (1957).
Samuel Cohen, known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area. He and his collaborators had a series of hit recordings with Frank Sinatra during the singer's tenure at Capitol Records, but also enjoyed hits with Dean Martin, Doris Day and many others. He played the piano and violin, and won an Oscar four times for his songs, including the popular hit "Three Coins in the Fountain".
James Van Heusen was an American composer. He wrote songs for films, television, and theater, and won an Emmy and four Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his compositions later went on to become jazz standards.
Charles Vidor was a Hungarian film director. Among his film successes are The Bridge (1929), The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942), The Desperadoes (1943), Cover Girl (1944), Together Again (1944), A Song to Remember (1945), Over 21 (1945), Gilda (1946), The Loves of Carmen (1948), Rhapsody (1954), Love Me or Leave Me (1955), The Swan (1956), The Joker Is Wild (1957), and A Farewell to Arms (1957).
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"All the Way" is a song published in 1957 by Maraville Music Corporation. The music was written by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Sammy Cahn.
Mitzi Green was an American child actress and singer for Paramount and RKO, in the early "talkies" era. She then acted on Broadway and in other stage works, as well as in films and on television.
Joe E. Lewis was an American comedian, actor and singer.
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.
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Tom Sawyer is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Jackie Coogan. The screenplay by Grover Jones, William Slavens McNutt, and Sam Mintz is based on the 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
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