#18- Being Frank About Frank | Hindi Cinema Analysis

0:00 I love a comeback, don't you? Hey, it's Amy.

0:05 You love a comeback, right? I got nothing but admiration for

0:09 pure, unaltered, great call, undefeated spirit, a go getter

0:16 who keeps going, never gives up. By the early 1950s, Sinatra's

0:21 records were not selling and he had been dropped by Columbia

0:27 Records. So he aggressively pursued

0:31 Maggio as a potential comeback role, even saying he would do it

0:35 for almost nothing. Contemporary accounts and later

0:39 biographies say his then wife, Ava Gardner, used her influence

0:45 with Columbia chief Harry Com, often via Cohen's wife, to push

0:51 Sinatra's name. Cohen eventually agreed, partly

0:56 because Sinatra's stock at that point, as he said, was so low

1:01 the studios could hire him cheaply.

1:04 Sinatra had to submit to a humbling screen test, possibly

1:11 beneath him, maybe insulting in a way, and embarrassing.

1:18 We love humble King who has internal worth and drive and can

1:24 do what needs to be done no matter what.

1:29 Did he finally then get the bar after all that?

1:36 We know how this can be, how it can work The biz.

1:43 Nah, he certainly did not. He was only confirmed after

1:51 another actor, often identified as Eli Wallach, dropped out,

1:58 leaving the roll open again. Hmm, well, that's interesting,

2:07 isn't it? Interesting indeed.

2:12 Drop down. As we discussed earlier, a

2:16 famous rumor claims Sinatra got the roll thanks to mafia

2:20 pressure on Columbia Pictures, and this story helped inspire

2:27 the Johnny Fontaine subplot in The Godfather that we talked

2:32 about. Cast and crew, including

2:36 director Fred Zetterman, later discussed the mob pressure tale

2:42 as pure invention, describing it as poetic license on Mario

2:49 Puzo's part rather than what actually happened.

2:53 Hmm. OK.

2:57 Apparently, when the deal finally closed in early 1953,

3:03 Sinatra was paid a mere fraction of his 1940s musical star fees,

3:11 underlining how much you need in the job.

3:17 And wait for it, wait for it. That comeback, I just, I just

3:28 gotta have. Well, the Maggio role tapped

3:34 into Sinatra's real life sense of frustration and defeat, which

3:40 Costars later said fed directly into the performance's intensity

3:47 and bitterness. And his Oscar win for Best

3:54 Supporting Actor turned the gamble into a complete career

4:01 reset, leading to a surge in serious film roles and a new

4:08 recording contract that kicked off his celebrated mid 1950s

4:15 comeback. And there it is.

4:22 It's a spot. I mean, the best grips are off

4:26 in real life history. So what do you think, huh?

4:33 I know you also did not miss a tiny little piece of the puzzle

4:38 and the saga and tiny little tidbit AD towel.

4:44 Wow, I was unsatisfied making for a little more there on that

4:51 and so it seems or is noted reported that when I look into

4:57 it, of course I had to that the actor Eli Wallach at one point

5:03 attached to Maggio, their original we noticed together had

5:11 dropped out a key part in the comeback.

5:15 No Hmm, did so to honor a Broadway commitment.

5:24 Quite a lucky break for Sinatra, wouldn't you say?

5:30 As we know as it then finally opened the door for Sinatra

5:35 finally then to step in to the life changing role in huge and

5:43 intentional, strategic needed and quite effortful come back.

5:51 Well this is a clear non mob explanation consistent with

6:00 normal casting turnover, assuming it is true, with no

6:08 influential outside forces of course to make it true at the

6:16 time or later. What do you think?