Frank Sinatra makes an excellent performance, but the film is too long. The first 90 minutes are excellent, but then he fails to marry the one he loves and marries the wrong girl instead, and that's not quite out of the ordinary in the night club world. Joe Lewis is successful as a nightclub entertainer in the 20s but gets his vocal chords sliced by mobsters and is put out of business for many years. His faithful accompanist Eddie Albert (in an excellent performance) seeks him out again and again, but Frank with the loss of his vital instrument turns more and more to drinking, and no wonder. He is brought back on stage and starts singing again with a partly broken voice but somehow seems to manage, thanks to drinking, although his doctor tells him it will kill him. The main interest and strength of the film is the very intriguing mixture between comedy and tragedy, as Frank after his fall makes a comeback mainly as a standup comedian, and is tremendously successful. The tragedy is always there in the background, but he gets funnier all the time and finds it his life's meaning to make people laugh. Frank Sinatra made several serious films like this, and they are all unforgettable - I think this was recently after "The Man with the Golden Arm". Being too long it overruns its own merits, but on the whole the panoramic filming of the night club life over three decades is meritorious to say the least - including a very good script and dialog, especially in the first 90 minutes.
Review of The Joker Is Wild
