Nancy Sinatra

  • The Last of the Secret Agents? (1966)

    The Last of the Secret Agents? (1966)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, October 2021) The extraordinary success of the James Bond series at the beginning of the 1960s led to a long, long series of films attempting to replicate or spoof the secret-agent genre throughout the rest of the decade. The Last of the Secret Agents is one of those, and a would-be star vehicle for then-popular comedy duo Allen & Rossi. But here’s the problem: In designing a star vehicle, it’s best if the stars are worth vehiculating, and while straight-man Steve Rossi is agreeable (especially as a signer), the more ridiculous Marty Allen is borderline intolerable. That definitely puts a drag on a film whose best moments do not involve one of its two headliners. Director Norman Abbott gets things off on the right foot, so to speak, with a long one-shot following the transfer of confidential information that leaves a literal trail of bodies, setting the blackly comic tone of the film. Clearly belonging to the school of comedy that states that quantity of gags has a quality of its own, The Last of the Secret Agents throws all sorts of stuff on-screen, parodying and satirizing everything in sight. Some of it works, so there’s at least some value to the entire thing. But other material, often involving Allen, simply falls flat. Nancy Sinatra brings some welcome sex-appeal to the proceedings, with one musical number leading to a lingerie shot. (Sinatra was, at the time of shooting the film, less than a year away from the superstardom of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’”) There’s some additional interest in the atmosphere of the time as portrayed by the film—we often focus on the last years of the 1960s as the defining moment of the decade, but much of the decade in film was a bright optimistic pop-infused concoction that still works well today. The Last of the Secret Agents is not that good of a film, but it does get a few laughs.

  • Marriage on the Rocks (1965)

    Marriage on the Rocks (1965)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, September 2019) While almost forgotten today, Marriage on the Rocks offers the still-amusing spectacle of seeing Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin as romantic rivals — the first one married, the second proudly single but still pining after the other man’s wife (played by Deborah Kerr). An attempt to transpose the 1930s comedy of remarriage in the 1960s, the film gets kicking in high gear when Sinatra’s character and his bored wife accidentally divorce while in Mexico, and she uses the episode to make him squirm a bit. Contrivances happen, and soon enough she’s just as accidentally wedded to her old flame. Don’t fret — there’s not even a suggestion of inappropriate hanky-panky here even as Sinatra’s character takes the accidental marriage in stride, moves out and encourages his friend to take his place as the head of the household. Comedy is often found in aberrant human behaviour and there’s plenty of that at play here, as the characters experience offence, revenge and counter-revenge. It ends a bit abruptly, but happily. Of course, the fun here is in seeing old Rat-packers Sinatra and Martin banter as friends and then rivals. Among minor amusements is the fact that Sinatra’s daughter Nancy plays Sinatra’s character’s daughter, and a pre-Star Trek DeForest Kelly is seen in a minor role. Marriage on the Rocks is hardly a perfect film — it has some curious lulls, and the style of the film seems stuck in that curious mid-1960s period where the studios were creatively exhausted and beginning to see the possibilities offered by New Hollywood, but not yet ready to make the jump. At times, Marriage on the Rocks feels tamer than the 1930s comedies of remarriage despite its 1960s setting, not quite able to take on the naughtiness of the (innocuous) sex comedies of the time. One suspects that any film featuring the biggest two Rat Packers simply could not get away with racier stuff — their audience was older and less forgiving than the teenage hordes that would redefine American cinema a few years later.

  • Get Yourself a College Girl (1964)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, September 2021) If there’s one defining feature to the wave of 1960s movie musicals, it’s the growing acceptance that pop music was fundamentally changing into a teen-driven, hits driven form of entertainment. Never mind sheet music or songs from bandleaders — pop was clearly going for billboard charts and groups singing to the teenagers. You can see this shift being particularly pronounced in such non-prestige pictures as Get Yourself a College Girl, which was as much a musical revue show as any of the classic musicals, but aimed at the new teenage set. Strong similarities with the Bikini Beach series abound — silly plots, young women in bikinis, a slight anti-establishment edge (in this case, dealing with ambitious politicians), many musical performances by artists of the day, and a cheeky approach to courtship and sex that now feels tame despite pushing limits back then. It’s not an unpleasant watch — even if the plot is nothing interesting, there are enough musical acts in varied genres (including The Animals, a young Nancy Sinatra and Astrud Gilberto crooning, “The Girl From Ipanema”) to keep things astonishing throughout. Not cinematically good but almost invaluable from a pop-anthropology viewpoint, Get Yourself a College Girl is a trip back in time that’s worth taking at least once.