Frank Sinatra: His Life & Times

In the opening section of Don DeLillo's National Book Award-nominated Underworld, Frank Sinatra sits in a box seat at NYC's Polo Grounds on October 3, 1951 watching the Dodgers-Giants final playoff game, where he has the dubious pleasure of having his companion Jackie Gleason projectile vomit all over his shoes. That fictional scene is, for the most part, more interesting than anything this terribly arranged assemblage of movie trailers, film clips, interview snippets, and television appearances has to offer about Ol' Blue Eyes. Which is not to say a) that fans won't go gaga over this (they probably will) or that b) regular folks (such as myself) won’t be mightily entertained by some of the sequences here. I particularly enjoyed the duets sung by Frank and Elvis Presley, Sinatra's tribulations with heckler Don Rickles on The Johnny Carson Show and Sinatra interviewing a radiant guest on his own variety show (one Eleanor Roosevelt, to be specific). Still, the first half of cobbled together movie trailer footage is chaotic, at best, and true fans would probably be better off going with the 10-volume set offered by Madacy Entertainment (this 96 minute "collector's edition" is a poorly edited and very compressed version of that series). Although the one-volume version makes for a miserable biography, those who can't afford the entire series will probably want to consider due to the popularity of the subject. (R. Pitman)