• A step back for Mankiewicz after Mrs. Muir, Letter to Three Wives, All About Eve, Julius Caesar and Barefoot Contessa- there are some nice color cinemascope sequences and shots but he’s just not a natural fit for the genre and broader material
  • Lots of trivia here on the two leads- Sinatra and Marlon Brando not getting along- it doesn’t show up on screen- they both come away looking good (aside from one song by Brando)- Sinatra called Brando “mumbles” on set—apparently Sinatra wanted the Sky Masterson role- not the Nathan Detroit secondary role
  • Warranted noms for costume, color cinematography and set design—I think costume is the best of the three
  • Two actors with a ton of juice in 1955—Sinatra is coming off of his career-turning Oscar win for From Here to Eternity and ditto for Brando with On the Waterfront in his sea-changing (for the entire art of acting) run in the early 50’s
  • Couldn’t get Gene Kelly from MGM for Sky Masterson role
  • Love the candy colored sewer pipes
  • Multiple throw-away musical numbers—Sinatra is so good he could sing the phone book and it would be good but the others suffer. The title number is great. The best song tough is “Luck by a Lady” and it’s sung by Brando. He’s not good—but we’ve all also heard Sinatra sing that song 100X since and he’s just so much better—bad look for Brando
  • Great shot of Vivian Blaine from inside the colorful medicine cabinet—but overall- she’s awful- like a comic-voice annoyance/humor—multiple musical solos—just bad
  • Fantastically loud suits and colorful undershirts
  • Brando is magnetic—the way he sincerely delivers “I do not forget a marker” to Jean Simmons
  • The screenplay lacks the trademark Mankiewicz edge
  • The long stretches without Sinatra singing drag—the film is 150 minutes and could be 100.
  • Recommend but not near top 10 of 1955