A HOLE IN THE HEAD (1959)

In what universe was this film even set?!  Full-time loser Frank Sinatra runs a hotel in Miami Beach that somehow doesn't make any money.  He hasn't paid his rent in over 5 months or even paid his employees in 5 weeks(!!!), but instead of trying to get some cash together he's out partying like it's 1999.  A closet full of "$200 suits", dancing at clubs, driving around drunk in his shiny Cadillac convertible with a sloshed beatnik bimbo in his lap.  Oh yeah, he also has an 11-year-old son that seems to pretty much raise himself.  The film opens with Frank finishing up a long night of partying, he comes in at 4 a.m. to find his kid holding an eviction notice.  So what does he do?  Nothing.  Just goes crying to his older brother, Edward G. Robinson, about needing some money.  After a short eternity of pointless talking, Robinson finally agrees to give him some dough if Frank will agree to marry sexy and sweet Eleanor Parker and run a department store that Robinson owns!!!  The story just goes on and on like this until the inevitable happy ending.  It's terrible.

Fantastic cast (except for that annoying little kid), talented director, costume design by Edith Head, nice photography...I was really hoping to like this movie, but holy fook that story was horrendous!!!  It seemed like every single decision that Sinatra made was bad.  How did so many talented people sign up for this hokum?

Negatives aside, I did enjoy watching Edward G. Robinson and Thelma Ritter.  The Miami locations were cool too.  I was also interested in Carolyn Jones' beatnik character with her blue nail polish, bongos and free spirit.  Kinda unique for a mainstream movie from 1959.

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)

What a movie!  Set in 1941 on a military base in Hawaii, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY tells the story of a hardheaded soldier named Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) who always seems to do things the hard way.  As the film opens, he's losing his Corporal rank as a bugler to transfer to a rifle company as a buck private.  Once there's he's pretty much told by the Captain that he'll be promoted to Sergeant within a year if he joins the regimental boxing team.  Prew refuses and is then given "the treatment".  Meanwhile, the First Sergeant (Burt Lancaster) is getting sick and tired of being the Captain's work bitch and starts making googly eyes at the Captain's broken wife.

Having just finished the novel I was curious to see how they even made it into a mainstream movie back in 1953 since the novel itself is grim and sexually explicit, but they did a great job.  Yeah, a lot of stuff was cut out or changed completely, but the dismal feel is still there.  And the acting!  It's easy to see why this film received five Oscar nominations for Acting and won two...if Ernest Borgnine's role had been bigger he probably would have been nominated also! I don't even know who's performance was my favorite.  Montgomery Clift was great, especially at portraying the internal (almost suicidal?) struggles of Prewitt, Burt Lancaster was just straight up awesome, Donna Reed (who I mostly know from her show and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE) was surprisingly adult.  Seeing her here as a jaded hostess at private gentlemen's club was quite an eye-opener!

Beautiful B&W photography, Claude Akins screen debut, Frank Sinatra showing his acting chops, Deborah Kerr being sexy, excellent story, great pace, beautiful Hawaiian scenery.  If the story wasn't so censored, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY would be close to going on my Best Movies list, but as it is I think the majority of modern audiences would find the whole thing too dated.  Highly recommended though for classic movie fans.