- published: 30 Apr 2013
- views: 11070
Pal Joey is a 1957 American Technicolor musical film, loosely adapted from the musical play of the same name, and starring Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, and Kim Novak. Jo Ann Greer sang for Hayworth, as she had done previously in Affair in Trinidad and Miss Sadie Thompson. Kim Novak's singing voice was dubbed by Trudy Erwin. George Sidney directed, with the choreography managed by Hermes Pan. Nelson Riddle handled the musical arrangements for the Rodgers and Hart standards "The Lady is a Tramp", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," "I Could Write a Book" and "There's A Small Hotel."
The film is considered by many critics to be the definitive Sinatra vehicle. Sinatra won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his role as the wise-cracking, hard-bitten Joey Evans. Along with its strong box office success, Pal Joey also earned four Academy Award nominations and one Golden Globe nomination.
Pal Joey is one of Sinatra's few post-From Here to Eternity movies in which he did not receive top billing, which surprisingly went to Hayworth. Sinatra was, by that time, a bigger star, and his title role was predominant. When asked about the billing, Sinatra replied, "Ladies first." He was also quoted as saying that, as it was a Columbia film, Hayworth should have top billing because, "For years, she WAS Columbia Pictures", and that with regard to being billed "between" Hayworth and Novak, "That's a sandwich I don't mind being stuck in the middle of." As Columbia’s biggest star, Hayworth had been top billed in every film since Cover Girl in 1944, but her tenure was soon to end, in 1959 with Gary Cooper in They Came to Cordura.
Joey Evans is charming, handsome, funny, talented, and a first class, A-number-one heel. When Joey meets the former chorus girl ("She used to be 'Vera...with the Vanishing Veils'") and now rich widow Vera Simpson, the two lecherous souls seem made for each other. That is, until Linda English comes along. Linda is a "mouse on the
Keywords: backstage, based-on-novel, based-on-stage-musical, based-on-stage-musical-based-on-novel, bathtub, character-name-in-title, charity-auction, chorus-girl, dog, dowager
Linda English: I'm never drinking again.::Joey Evans: First hangover?::Linda English: Why does it feel so bad?::Joey Evans: It only feels so bad in the morning cause it feels so good the night before.
Linda English: My mother always says a lady's a lady wherever she goes::Joey Evans: And a bum's a bum wherever he goes.
Vera Simpson: Me and Joey are the same type of cat, we understand each other.
Vera Simpson: Who's she?::Joey Evans: She's just a mouse.
Joey Evans: Good Morning!::Linda English: What's good about it?::Joey Evans: First hangover? Well, there's a first time for everything.::Linda English: Why do people drink when you feel so awful the morning after?::Joey Evans: Maybe because it feels so good the night before.
Linda English: What did I do last night?::Joey Evans: You kissed me.::Linda English: I wasn't myself.::Joey Evans: Whoever you were, you were great!
Joey Evans: The only thing I'm superstitious about is 13 in a bed.
Joey Evans: After all, two years is a long time between... drinks.
He's a fool and don't I know it
But a fool can have his charms
I'm in love and don't I show it, like a babe in arms?
Love's the same old sad sensation
Lately I've not slept a wink
Since this half-pint imitation put me on the blink
I'm wild again, beguiled again
A simpering, whimpering child again
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I
Couldn't sleep and wouldn't sleep
When love came and told me O shouldn't sleep
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I
Lost my heart, but what of it?
He is cold I agree
He can laugh but I love it
Although the laugh's on me
I'll sing to him, each spring to him
And love for the day when I'll cling to him