Synopsis

Includes five films: Higher and Higher (1943), Step Lively (1944), It Happened in Brooklyn (1947), The Kissing Bandit (1948), and Double Dynamite (1951).

Synopses:
Higher and Higher
In his acting debut, Sinatra plays a boy-next-door who also happens to be a singer named…Frank Sinatra. He sings five songs in an attempt to woo the “daughter” of a wealthy man (Leon Errol). What Sinatra doesn’t know is that the rich guy is broke, and the daughter (Michele Morgan) is actually a maid posing as a debutante in an attempt to lure a well-heeled suitor.  The songs, all by Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson, include “The Music Stopped,” “A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening” and “I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night.” The cast also includes Jack Haley, Victor Borge, Mel Torme, Barbara Hale and Dooley Wilson.

Step Lively
George Murphy is a theatrical producer long on energy but short on cash, trying desperately to get his musical comedy off the ground before all his bad checks bounce him into the poorhouse.  His savior just might be playwright Glen Russell (Sinatra), who can croon a mean tune or two. But it’ll take some fancy footwork from the producer, and some heavy-duty flirting from leading lady Christine Marlowe (Gloria DeHaven), to pull this one off. Based on the Broadway hit and Marx Brothers movie Room Service, the film also features Gloria DeHaven, Adolphe Menjou and Walter Slezak. Sammy Cahn and Jule Style provide the songs, “Some Other Time” and “Where Does Love Begin?” among them.

It Happened in Brooklyn
Returning home to Brooklyn at the conclusion of World War II, GI Danny Miller (Sinatra) finds that the borough is a rougher place than he remembers. He lands a job in a music store and falls in with a ragtag band of dreamers, most of whom have ambitions to make it in the music business; the Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne songs help them express those dreams in song. The film includes a standout performance of the Sinatra classic “Time After Time,” and a cast that includes Kathryn Grayson, Peter Lawford, Gloria Grahame and Jimmy Durante.The Kissing Bandit
He’s a lover, not a fighter: Ricardo (Frank Sinatra) doesn’t want to become a bandit like his father, but he’s forced into the family business anyway. Falling in love with Teresa (Kathryn Grayson), the daughter of the governor, doesn’t help matters, though it might give Ricardo an opening. Lively but silly, the film was never a favorite of Sinatra’s—though it has its undeniably entertaining moments, with his renditions of songs like the ballad “If I Steal a Kiss” and the comedy number “Siesta,” and with the Technicolor flamenco extravaganza “Dance of Fury,” choreographed by the legendary Stanley Donen and performed by Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse and Ricardo Montalban.

Double Dynamite
Bank teller Johnny Dalton (Sinatra) would love to marry co-worker Mibs Goodhue (Jane Russell), but his woeful finances make that impossible.  When money comes his way after he saves a bookie from a beating, it only makes him the prime suspect in a shortage at the bank. Wisecracking waiter pal Emil might be able to get Johnny out of the mess—but since Emil is played by Groucho Marx, he might just as easily make things worse. Two Sammy Cahn/Jule Styne songs, “It’s Only Money” and “Kisses and Tears,” add some tunefulness to this lighthearted romantic comedy.

Cast & Crew

Double Dynamite
Directed by Irving Cummings
Produced by Irwin Allen (uncredited), Irving Cummings, Jr.
Written by Leo Rosten, Mel Shavelson, Mannie Manheim, Harry Crane
Cast: Jane Russell, Groucho Marx, Frank Sinatra
Cinematography: Ronald De Grasse
Editing: Harry Marker
Music: Leigh Harline
Released by RKO Radio Pictures

It Happened in Brooklyn
Directed by Richard Whorf
Produced by Jack Cummings
Written by Isobel Lennard, John McGowan (story)
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Peter Lawford, Jimmy Durante, Gloria Grahame
Cinematography: Robert Planck
Editing: Blanche Sewell
Music: Johnny Green
Released by MGM

Step Lively
Directed by Tim Whelan
Produced by Robert Fellows
Written by Allen Boretz and John Murray (play), Warren Duff, Peter Milne
Cast: Frank Sinatra, George Murphy, Adolphe Mejou, Gloria DeHaven, Walter Slezak, Anne Jeffreys
Cinematography: Robert De Grasse
Editing: Gene Milford
Music: Ernst Matray, Gene Rose
Released by RKO Radio Pictures

Higher and Higher
Directed by Tim Whelan
Produced by Tim Whelan, George M. Arthur
Written by Gladys Hurlbut and Joshua Logan (book of musical play), Jay Dratler and Ralph Spence (screenplay), William Bowers and Howard Harris (additional dialogue)
Cast: Michele Morgan, Jack Haley, Frank Sinatra, Leon Errol, Marcy McGuire, Victor Borge, Barbara Hale, Mel Torme, Dooley Wilson
Cinematography: Robert De Grasse
Editing: Gene Milford
Released by RKO Radio Pictures

The Kissing Bandit
Directed by Laszlo Benedek
Produced by Joe Pasternak
Written by John Briard Harding, Isobel Lennart
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, J. Carrol Naish, Mildred Natwick, Mikhail Rasumny, Ricardo Montalban, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse
Cinematography: Robert Surtees
Editing: Adrienne Fazan
Released by MGM

Description

He was the new kid in Tinseltown, but Frank Sinatra took Hollywood by storm when he launched his film career in the late 1930s. Here are five of the films that introduced a singing star to the big screen, including Higher and Higher and Step Lively. His co-stars include Jane Russell, Groucho Marx and Gloria DeHaven, and naturally they give Sinatra room to sing the likes of “Time After Time” and I Couldn’t Sleep a Wink Last Night.”