Don’t be a do-badder

Watched Robin and the 7 Hoods last night and it was a hoot! It’s a musical from 1964 about gangsters in Chicago in the 30s. The music is so-so, the plot is thin and the jokes are hit and miss, but those don’t matter. You are watching for the stars. Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Falk and Bing Crosby. So many things can be forgiven when you have this kind of cast!

The musical is known for introducing Sinatra’s hit, “My Kind of Town” but that’s not my favorite song in the film by far. A lot of the songs are weak, but there were a couple that stood out.

This is Bing Crosby’s character, Alan A. Dale, singing about the evils of doing wrong to the orphan boys. It’s not the strongest lyrics but it’s adorable and has a lot of heart.

This song, sung by the main cast, is probably one of the stronger songs in the film, both in lyrics and music and production. Maybe because it’s a song where people are supposed to be singing versus singing-as-plot-exposition that gives it the freedom to be different. With the short ‘testify’ bits to inject jokes, the upbeat music and over the top dancing, it’s easily my favorite.

The best part of watching a movie with these stars is when they sing together and I just sat through “ You’ve either got or you haven’t got style” with a big smile on my face. Seriously, it’s Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin singing and dancing together. The song itself isn’t all that great, but does it really matter?

A special nod to Peter Falk who played Guy Gisborne, who wasn’t in any of the songs that I liked from this film but was easily the funniest actor in the movie. I’m used to him as a dramatic actor so it was great to see him play Gisborne and all his gangster-ness for laughs. All in all, a fun little movie to watch on a day when you feel like watching a popcorn flick.