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Frank Sinatra Timex Show (The): Bing Crosby And Dean Martin Present - High Hopes (1959)
R0 - America - Quantum Leap/Music Video Distributors Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (12th September 2006). |
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The Show
 Along with "The Frank Sinatra Show" in the period 1950-1952, and also in 1957-1958, Frank Sinatra did a series of TV “Variety Show Specials” for the ABC Television Network in 1959-1960, sponsored by “Timex” (“Takes a licking and keeps on ticking!”). This time the episode is called “Bing Crosby And Dean Martin Present” (the DVD seems to be more commonly known as “High Hopes”) and was aired in October 15, 1959. The show, along with Sinatra, presents two powerhouses when it comes to American entertainment; Bing Crosby and Dean Martin, also featuring the singer/dancer Mitzi Gaynor and a cameo from comedian Jimmy Durante. The show has also the original Timex commercials intact. After the “It's Nice To Go Traveling - Welcome Home Elvis (1960)” Sinatra-show that I reviewed earlier, I didn´t have my hopes that high, and I was expecting pretty much the “same old” stuff; a couple of Sinatra songs, along with “The Rat Pack”-type of comedy and some mediocre dance-numbers. All this is of course usually relatively entertaining, but in a form of TV-show they don´t always work that well. Fortunately with “High Hopes”, we have a show that is pretty much a winner from start to finish. What makes the show work is actually quite simple; there´s plenty of good music and very nice chemistry between the main stars Sinatra, Martin and Crosby. Performances are solid, keeping the right balance of music and humour, not going overboard with jokes that sometimes are almost ruining the actual songs when “The Rat Pack” is on the stage (don´t get me wrong, I enjoy their crazy humour, but often the music suffers in the process). The line up of the show is relatively tight this time, and doesn´t introduce any new artist or “theme” right after the other. In other words, the show is smooth and compact, giving plenty of room for the main stars (since that´s what they are, with a capital “S”). As usual, Dean Martin provides his “king of cool”-presence with a lot of humour and the slightly older Bing Crosby adds that certain gentleman-ish aspect to the show - “The old groaner” was there before “The Voice” and “Dino” after all. Frank Sinatra himself is somewhere in the middle, showing how great he was as a singer and how he could be quite funny and relaxed when he truly wanted. Mitzi Gaynor adds the female flavour and shows that dance numbers can be very entertaining in this type of TV-show, and not something that is merely “killing time”. Here´s the track list of the show that is running 59:15 minutes (NTSC) - not listing the brief comical moments: - Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and Mitzi Gaynor, featuring Frank Sinatra: “High Hopes” - Frank Sinatra: “Day In, Day Out” - Timex “waterproof” commercial - Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Dean Martin: “Together” - Mitzi Gaynor: “Hurricane” - Frank Sinatra, featuring Mitzi Gaynor: “Talk to Me” - Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and Mitzi Gaynor, featuring Frank Sinatra: “Cheek to Cheek” - Timex “self-wind” commercial - Dean Martin: “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams” - Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Dean Martin: “Give Us the Old Songs (Medley)”, featuring “Down by the Old Mill Stream” (Crosby), “The Old Gray Mare” (Sinatra), “In the Shade of the old Apple Tree” (Martin), “That Old Feeling” (Sinatra), “Old Ox Road” (Crosby), “Old Rockin' Chair” (Martin), “Old Devil Moon” (Sinatra), “Smoothie” (Martin), “My Old Flame” (Crosby) and “Ol' Man River” (all) - Frank Sinatra, featuring children: “High Hopes” - Timex “lady´s waterproof” commercial - Frank Sinatra: “Just One of Those Things” - Frank Sinatra: “Angel Eyes” - Frank Sinatra: “The Lady Is a Tramp” - Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Dean Martin, featuring Mitzi Gaynor and Jimmy Durante: “(Medley): “Start Each Day With a Song”, “Ink a Doo”, and “So Baby Won´t You Please Come Home” It´s great to hear several songs from Sinatra as a solo, and the highlight of the show is when he fashions the stage as a moody nightclub with the acclaimed pianist Bill Miller and his combo (Miller worked with Sinatra over 40 years), and performs some classics from his repertoire such as “Angel Eyes” and “The Lady Is a Tramp”. Jazz and saloon singing, with swinging. The lightning (even when the show is B&W) is actually quite a strong aspect of the show, and even when it´s often fairly simple - even naïve, you´ve got to enjoy when Sinatra is singing surrounded by lights while performing “Day In, Day Out”. If that wasn´t “cool” back then on the TV, then I don´t know what was. Sinatra also sings “High Hopes” in a “proper way” with kids singing along, and seems to be enjoying every minute of it. Like already pointed out, Sinatra, Crosby, and Martin work very well together, and e.g. the “Give Us the Old Songs” -medley shows these three legends in very good spirit both professionally and in terms of comedy. Martin has also one solo number (surprisingly Crosby doesn´t), and as again stating that he doesn´t take his profession seriously at all times, he advertises his own restaurant by showing the text “Eat at Dino´s” at the bottom of his shoe. Still, Martin takes his music a bit more seriously than many times with “The Rat Pack”, which is always good news for his fans. I was also impressed with Mitzi Gaynor´s dance-number “Hurricane”, and her talents are quite obvious. It´s also nice that those vintage “Timex” -commercials are included, since they really bring the certain feel of history when you´re watching them now. “High Hopes”, produced and directed by Bill Colleran, is a very entertaining hour of good music and a laid back atmosphere, which should please both fans and casual viewers looking for a good time on the vintage TV show. Sinatra is in his prime, surrounded by his trusted musical companions such as executive producers: songwriter Sammy Cahn and composer Jimmy Van Heusen, and the shows´s musical director: arranger/conducter Nelson Riddle. Martin is funny as usual, stealing the spotlight many times, and Crosby blends in well and is always surrounded with a certain charisma that can only come from the experienced and honest entertainer. Like the back cover states: Three of the most popular performers of the 20th century are together on the stage, so that itself is worth a look at.
Video
(Note, that since the technical aspects are quite similar to the earlier review of "The Frank Sinatra Timex Show: It's Nice To Go Traveling - Welcome Home Elvis (1960)", the “Video” and “Audio” sections are quite identical to that review.) The transfer is obviously presented in 4:3, and the back cover is quite honest about the quality: “The quality of reproduction may not meet modern technological standards”. It´s hard to say which was the source, but it was probably a “Kinescope”-source (filming of a TV screen during the broadcast, a common practice by TV Networks back in the days) and it´s quite difficult to find anything that good to say about it. B&W transfer is soft, washed out, and lacks detail. There´s also some annoying ghosting during the fast movement (such as dancing), and occasional dirt and specs. The transfer is still relatively clean (it still could be worse) considering the source material available, and with these type of TV specials, you have lower your standards or forget the whole thing. It still looks that the transfer here is a bit better in terms of detail and black levels compared to the “It's Nice To Go Traveling - Welcome Home Elvis” show, but don´t expect any miracles. “Single layer” disc is coded “R0”, and there are 15 chapters.
Audio
The only soundtrack is English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, and as you probably guessed it, it introduces heavy hiss in the background. Music and dialogue itself is still somewhat clear, but some distortion can be heard in selected moments. There are no subtitles. Note, that even when the back claims that the track is 5.1, it´s just basic Mono.
Extras
Not much in the extras department. There´s a series of fairly interesting text notes called “Star Portraits”: - Frank Sinatra (Biography/Discography/Website; www.sinatrafamily.com - Bing Crosby (Biography/Discography/ Filmography) - Dean Martin (Biography/Discography/ Filmography) - Mitzi Gaynor (Biography) - Jimmy Durante (Biography) “Quantum Leap Propaganda” includes bonus segments (16:53 minutes - for some reason called “Beauty & The Beast Trailer”) from the other releases by the UK based -company (which originally released this DVD): *Shadow of the Shark - The Underwater Lives of Ron & Valerie Taylor *Discover Australia, Cape York Adventure *Submarine Warfare *Discover England *American Desert *The Tom Green Show *Chelsea Flower Show 2004 *HMS Ark Royal There´s also “World Peace Music Awards”-trailer (6:47 min), and promo spot (0:18 seconds) for the “Quantum Leap” website.
Overall
It´s a bit sad that many of these vintage TV-shows gets often buried under the more fancier releases and can´t really compete with the remastered films from the same era (since often the only available source is Kinescope or just old tape), but I can honestly recommend a show like “High Hopes” to the people who are interested in good entertainment and a “feel good”-attitude, and are willing to give some slack when it comes to technical issues. It´s Frank, with Dino and Bing - you just can´t go wrong! For more info, please visit the homepage of MVD - Music Video Distributors.
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