Frank Sinatra has had an interesting film career---one that ranged from playing a grimy cowboy in a Western spoof, a Runyonesque character, a Spanish revolutionary, an army misfit, a criminal mastermind, a dope addict, etc. It was not always this way. In the beginning of that career, his handlers created a nice guy image for him, and he usually was cast as a sweet natured, kind, decent, likable and almost asexual fellow who often seemed too good to be believed. It Happened in Brooklyn (IHIB) is a movie from that early period, and is quite typical of the kind of roles he was.accepting before everything changed after he took on the part of Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953). IHIB was made between his appearance in the Jerome Kern biopic Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) and his almost saintly village priest in The Miracle of the Bells (1948).
It is hard to believe that the character Danny Webson Miller in IHIB was played by the same actor who could also make you accept him as a private eye in the manner of Humphrey Bogart's Marlowe in The Big Sleep.(1946). How many moviegoers in 1947 had the foresight to see in Sinatra's nascent film appearances the range and versatility he would repeatedly demonstrate throughout his extensive and remarkable film career?
In any event, IHIB captures an early incarnation of Sinatra in a most enjoyable musical--one of the declining number from this period made by MGM in black and white. His work with the legendary Jimmy Durante confirms just how natural and unassuming he could be on the screen. And once again, Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson complemented each other in producing an entertaining pair of most talented singers on the cusp of breakout stardom. His easy-going charm was so typical of him at this stage of his film work. It is a shame that he would in just a short seven years become Presidential assassin John Baron in Suddenly (1954), and move into a totally different phase of his movie stardom.
Frank Sinatra rose from a bobby sox crooner in the mold of Bing Crosby (his idol) to become one of the most popular movie stars of his generation. He did so primarily on the basis of a huge reserve of latent natural talent. In IHIB, you can see this gift in early bloom. It is a classic entertainment from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
It is hard to believe that the character Danny Webson Miller in IHIB was played by the same actor who could also make you accept him as a private eye in the manner of Humphrey Bogart's Marlowe in The Big Sleep.(1946). How many moviegoers in 1947 had the foresight to see in Sinatra's nascent film appearances the range and versatility he would repeatedly demonstrate throughout his extensive and remarkable film career?
In any event, IHIB captures an early incarnation of Sinatra in a most enjoyable musical--one of the declining number from this period made by MGM in black and white. His work with the legendary Jimmy Durante confirms just how natural and unassuming he could be on the screen. And once again, Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson complemented each other in producing an entertaining pair of most talented singers on the cusp of breakout stardom. His easy-going charm was so typical of him at this stage of his film work. It is a shame that he would in just a short seven years become Presidential assassin John Baron in Suddenly (1954), and move into a totally different phase of his movie stardom.
Frank Sinatra rose from a bobby sox crooner in the mold of Bing Crosby (his idol) to become one of the most popular movie stars of his generation. He did so primarily on the basis of a huge reserve of latent natural talent. In IHIB, you can see this gift in early bloom. It is a classic entertainment from the Golden Age of Hollywood.