Waste of time

How sad is this?

Best movie ever!

A Masterpiece!

I really liked this when I was a kid, but seeing it again after a couple of decades gap it looks a lot thinner than I thought it was. It's still enjoyable only the padding is painfully obvious as such.Story of light-hearted murdering sets of gangsters battling it out in Prohibition Chicago in a jovial and frivolous manner. Uncredited Edward G's brutal cartoony slaughter at the beginning sets the tone for the rest of the movie - humour, violence and a few brash songs. There are good production values but it's only worth watching for the few Ratpack setpieces: Sammy Davis and Bing Crosby had their individual moments, Dean Martin was given a rather dozy solo and Frank Sinatra shone through it all as usual. But the truly sublime bits are Style with Crosby, Martin and Sinatra – the title and lyrics say it all - it's a complete obfuscating joy to watch and hear because everyone has style and class; and My Kind Of Town, which is a perfect triumph. If you took those two sections out it would leave the film looking and sounding rather threadbare; you can't really have a reasonable film consisting mainly of padding. As dull as the pointless humourless demise of bigger-baddie Peter Falk was the climax and end of the film itself was rushed and bodged – lucky it was still quite funny though. So if you don't like dry black humour or music you're probably in the wrong joint!

Very obviously a vanity project for Frank and his pack, this feeble musical does have a couple of fine songs "My Kind Of Town", "(You've Either Got Or You Haven't Got) Style", plenty of big star names and excellent set-dressing and costumery.What it doesn't have unfortunately is a decent story or script to hold the viewer's attention so that the contrived plot runs out of steam long before the end. You know you're in big trouble when ancient old Bing Crosby is introduced half-way through to add some "oomph" - as if! All the leads sleepwalk through their parts and barely engage with their characters at all, Sinatra looks bored, Dino befuddled and Sammy, sadly, gets to play his customary lackey. Peter Falk at least adds some colour to his part as main hoodlum Guy Gisbourne, without ever conveying even a modicum of menace. Even the running gags, the gangster who knits, the long-table soirées between Barbara Rush and her would-be allies, her light-dousing seduction scenes, they're all painfully unfunny and boring.The two songs mentioned above apart, the soundtrack is pretty ordinary too, Sammy Davis gets to sing a particularly crass number celebrating guns, Crosby gets an irritating child-singalong number while any others featured left so little impression that I can't even remember them.I don't know, perhaps the idea was to cross "Guys and Dolls" with "High Society" but in the end this just looks likes a lot of old men all dressed up enjoying a "jolly". I'm only surprised they didn't set it in Vegas.

...no, but that might have made a more interesting picture than this. It's Prohibition-era Chicago, and Frank Sinatra coasts indifferently through his role as a gangster in 1928 trying to stay one step ahead of the law, aided by his faithful cronies. Sappy semi-musical doesn't even look good! It's a poor excuse to get the gang together. Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. are joined this time by Bing Crosby, Edward G. Robinson (uncredited), Victor Buono and--in the proverbial pretty girl role--Barbara Rush. Yet everyone here seems to be either distracted or suffering from a bad case of the blues, particularly Ol' Blue Eyes, who looks wrung-out. The film's only kick comes in seeing Crosby and Sinatra reunited from "High Society", and by Peter Falk doing lively work in a dim part. *1/2 from ****

Although Bing Crosby has an important role and is by far the best performer in the film, we're often forced to sit through some exceedingly dry stretches of tedious Falk-Sinatra-Martin-Rush (what a charmless lady!) dialogue between his welcome appearances. There are even long, weary passages between songs, then three or four will come at once.Basically, "Robin and the Seven Hoods" can aptly be described as a heavy-handed spoof, encompassing little in the way of wit or style in either writing or direction. And as for the players, only Crosby exudes just the right touch of seemingly effortless whimsy. Falk is especially elephantine, but the overbearingly pedestrian Barbara Rush just manages to pip Falk at the post for Bad Acting honors. The film would be greatly improved if both Falk and Rush were cut to the bone. 123 minutes is too long for this sort of derivative jest anyway. Still, it's nice to see some of our old favorites like Allen Jenkins and Jack La Rue.