Double Dynamite

Think about it. Sinatra, Groucho, and Jane Russell starring in a movie written by Harry Crane and with songs by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. Sound great. Well, it's not. Sinatra is a bank clerk who is wrongly accused of stealing money from his bank. His singing is great; it's probably never been better. However, instead of the flip Sinatra character of the 1950s, director Cummings asks Sinatra to play a timid young man, a role that never really suited him well. (Think about "The Kissing Bandit"! Compare that to "Meet Danny Wilson", Sinatra's next film where he gets to play that cocky guy!) Groucho is as funny as usual, but the script is contrived, there are too few sight gags, and the direction is slow. We are even cheated on the musical numbers. The two songs, "It's Only Money" (sung by Frank and Groucho) and "Kisses and Tears" (sung by Frank and Jane, accompanied by the jazzy Phil Moore Four) are good, but I wish there were more. Groucho did better with his brothers and Sinatra did better with Nelson Riddle!

Just watched this on a Netflix disc. It's the only teaming of Frank Sinatra, Jane Russell, and Groucho Marx. It's largely because of the last name that I had in interest in seeing this and I wasn't disappointed as he's as funny as you expect him to be with all those wisecracks that cracks me up the way he does them. Sinatra shows his vocal chops to good effect when he duets with both Marx and Ms. Russell on their numbers. The supporting cast is also good of which one of them, William Edmonds, is one of the players from my favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life-he played Mr. Martini there. Here, he has a much bigger role of a restaurateur who's Groucho's boss as Groucho is a waiter here. The plot-about an embezzlement-gambling mixup-gets partially confusing but the way it's performed here, at least it wasn't boring, that's for sure! So on that note, I say Double Dynamite is worth a look.

This move is set some time in the 1940s, so plug that in and go along for the ride. Sinatra stars as an honest man, eking out a living as a bank teller but not enough for marriage. By chance, he's captured by the underworld and makes a mint. He can marry Jane Russell, something the wisecracking waiter, Groucho Marx, seems to want. But there has been an apparent embezzlement at the bank where Sinatra works, and its discovery is timed exactly with Sinatra's underworld winnings. He did not embezzle the money, but he can't rightly say he did come by it. But Groucho is there to help him, and we all know what that means.

This is a nifty film with a few good twists and its share of laughs.

There is a scene where "Johnny Dalton" is lying in his bed in his apartment and Mibs Goodhue in her bed in hers, separated by wall. Dalton starts to sing.

"You know," I teased to my wife, "that guy sounds a lot like Sinatra." "It is," she deadpanned in reply.

"Looks too young to be Sinatra." Yeah, 't was 1951. If you want to go back for a spell, this one will take you there.

then you should check this movie out. First, it might be the best movie Groucho did without his brothers. I know that's not saying much, but he really does a good job without Chico or Harpo. I thought he would be able to get off more double entendres with Jane Russell. I mean the movie is named Double Dynamite because of her.

Sinatra seems out of place playing a meek bank cashier that can't make a commitment to Russell. He's not a guy that would ever be invited to join the Rat Pack. Heck, Jerry Lewis could take on this Sinatra. And Russell probably would want to marry Lewis instead of Frank. How could he have taken this role? Russell does a pretty good job of playing off Sinatra and Groucho. She had a nice comic side that she didn't get to show often enough.

This was the last movie directed by Irving Cummings. Cummings, who started out as an actor in the silent era, doe a good job of keeping the story moving along. He's no Hitchcock or Ford, but he does a pretty good job with a pretty thin story.

I give it 7 out of 10 stars - a passing grade but not enough to make the honor roll.

There is a scene somewhere in the middle of "Double Dynamite" where Frank Sinatra and Jane Russel are lying on their beds in two rooms separated only by a thin wall and start singing to each other; the camera lingers on Jane's face and smile, and it's a delightful moment. The rest of the movie is not quite on that level, but the three stars make it worth watching anyway: Sinatra is likable, Russell is dazzling, and Groucho Marx has some laugh-out-loud zingers ("You're getting married? Where is the ceremony taking place, Alkatraz?"), and does some of his trademarked eyebrow-raising as well. In fact, I would say that this is a better showcase for him than the Marx Brothers' last film "Love Happy", in which he was essentially just a guest star. "Double Dynamite" is a minor film, but it passes the time very easily. (**1/2)