Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15928 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-09-10
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 114 minutes

DVD Description
An irresistible melange of showbiz and politics, The Rat Pack is a sprawling HBO TV movie about the late-50s axis between Frank Sinatra's cool-talking cronies and the White House-bound Kennedy clan. Ray Liotta, William L Petersen and Joe Mantegna manage to give real performances as opposed to impersonations as Frankie, JFK and Dean Martin, and there's a stand-out turn from Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis Jr, who fantasises a blazing, gunslinging rendition of "I've Got You Under My Skin" as delivered to the cross-burning Nazi pickets outside his hotel campaigning against his marriage to a white Swedish starlet. Naturally the story goes over a lot of familiar ground (Marilyn Monroe, and so on,) but the Hollywood-Vegas angle, with the obvious criminal tie-ins, lends it a freshness. Angus McFadyen remains typecast as real-life actors, following up his Orson Welles (Cradle Will Rock) and Richard Burton (Liz, the Elizabeth Taylor biopic) by doing a squirming but funny take on Peter Lawford, caught between the White House and Sinatra's vast, demanding ego. The film’s general style is somewhere between a Scorsese gangland epic and made-for-TV muckraking biopic and a lot of material from Shawn Levy's fine book Rat Pack Confidential is worked into the weave. --Kim Newman

Synopsis
They had the world on a string; Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop--collectively known as 'The Rat Pack'. These cool cats set the style and pace for 1950s America as the nation hurtled towards the swinging 60s. But as they learn, all good things must eventually come to an end...

Customer Reviews

The Old Ones Are The Best
I saw this film being advertised for TV airing but couldn't view it when broadcast. Being a fan of the Rat Pack, I thought it would be worth purchasing - Amazon have come up trumps yet again.

It's a great insight into the psyche of the US political landscape of the late 50's and early 60's, recounting all the intrigue of the Kennedy's involvement with the Mob via Sinatra's connections. The race issue is also covered and handled in a tremendous manner when it comes to Sammy Davis Jnr's marriage to a white woman.

A terrific film which I thoroughly endorse for anyone whose interests lie in this period of social reform.