Kymm Zuckert on the last Rat Pack movie: ROBIN & THE 7 HOODS (1964, Gordon Douglas, USA)
Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964)
“When your opponent’s sittin’ there holding all aces, there’s only one thing left to do: Kick over the table.”
Robin and the 7 Hoods is the final Rat Pack movie, it is a movie starring Frank Sinatra, it is a musical, it is a comedy updating of Robin Hood, it is all of these things, but can you guess which of these facts is the reason I saw this movie?
If you answered none of the above, you are correct, because the actual reason is that my father, Bill Zuckert, has a small role of the Jury Foreman, and this is a film that I had never seen!
1964 is the year I was born, so while he was making it, my mother was pregnant with me, and also she was hit by a car and had a broken leg, so at the wrap party, she couldn’t get up to go meet Frank Sinatra, whom she adored. So my dad went over to Frank’s private section of the party and told him how much his pregnant, broken-legged wife wanted to meet him, and Frank immediately got up and left his friends to go and be charming to my mother, who proceeded to tell this story for the rest of her life, and never would hear a bad word said against him.
All this to say, that the legend of this film looms large in my family, but somehow it took to the year of our Lord 2022 for me to get up off my hind end and see it!
The film takes place during Prohibition, and we open on Big Jim’s birthday party, Big Jim being a big crime boss in Chicago, played by an uncredited Edward G. Robinson. He is very cheerful, thanking all of his friends, including the sheriff and deputy sheriff, and his good pal Guy Gisborne (such a young Peter Falk), but then the whole room shoots him, and Gisborne becomes the new boss. Comments are made that Robbo isn’t going to like this, and I think we know who Robbo is going to turn out to be!
And yes, when Robbo gets back into town, he is Frankie, with his sidekick Will (Sammy Davis Jr.), and he will not join with Gisborne and they start an all out war. Little John (Dean Martin) shows up and beats Robbo at pool, and also a very slinky and devious doll named Marian,(Barbara Rush), who ain’t no Maid, but is Big Jim’s daughter, and want to take over his racket.
Marian wants revenge on who put out the hit on her father, but Robbo refuses, as he is not a killer, but when Gisborne has the sheriff done away with, she gives Robbo $50,000 and refuses to take it back, so he gives it to an orphan’s home, and that’s how the whole Robin Hood thing starts, and also how Alan A. Dale (Bing Crosby), who runs the orphan’s home, joins up with the gang.
Later in the film, after much plot happens, Robbo is on trial, and this is what we have all been waiting for, we meaning me, the appearance of the storied Jury Forman!
I was really hoping that he had more to say than, “We, the jury, find the defendant not guilty,” and my fingers were crossed when the judge asked the jury for their verdict. My father stands up and says, “I know this is unusual, your honor, but I have something to say,” and then he has this very funny speech, and it’s great, and hooray for Daddy!
As I said up top, it is a musical, but a very strange one. Frank Sinatra is the lead and title character, and also he is Frank Sinatra, who sings a bit, but he doesn’t have a song in this bird until an hour and fifteen minutes into the film, and it’s a trio with Bing and Dino!
Later, he sings backup with Dino and Sammy while Bing sings another song, and only fifteen minutes before the end of the film does he get a solo number! Now, that number happens to be “My Kind of Town (Chicago Is),” which is the only really good song in the movie, nominated for an Oscar, but still.
Bing Crosby, in a supporting role, has two big songs, plus the trio mentioned before, and both Dino and Sammy have solos long before Frank gets to sing a note. It just seems weirdly structured. Also, hilariously, who gets the first song in the entire film? Peter Falk! Who is great, by the by, and easily walks off with the film entire.
All in all, it’s not the greatest movie in the whole wide world, it’s way too long for one thing, but it’s charming and funny, and did I mention my father was in it? Certainly worth a watch, even if you aren’t related to any of the cast members.
Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” Check out her entire 365 day blog @ https://365filmsin365days.movie.blog