Synopsis

Includes five films: The Tender Trap (1955), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), Some Came Running (1958), None But the Brave (1965), and Marriage on the Rocks (1965).
Special features include new making-of featurettes on The Man with the Golden Arm, Some Came Running, and The Tender Trap.

The Tender Trap
The complications of love (which is, after all, the “tender trap” of the title) are the subject of a romantic comedy whose title song became a Sinatra standard. As theater agent Charlie Reader, Sinatra falls under the spell of Julie Gillis (Debbie Reynolds), who’s planned every detail of her life and knows she’ll be marrying a man with blue eyes next March.  Ladies-man Charlie isn’t ready to become an item on anybody’s to-do list—but as the song says, “you’re acting kind of smart until your heart just goes whap.”

The Man with the Golden Arm
Danny Machine is a card dealer, a big band drummer, and a heroin addict trying desperately to kick his habit. Playing a man who was ravaged by drugs and torn between crippled wife Eleanor Parker and young love Kim Novak, Sinatra won an Oscar nomination for the performance he considered his finest.  The Production Code office protested director Otto Preminger’s unflinching depiction of the illicit drug trade, but the film was a smash and the censors backed down. A classic Saul Bass poster and a landmark Elmer Bernstein score complete the picture.

Some Came Running
The first time Sinatra appeared in a film based on a book by novelist James Jones, the movie was From Here to Eternity and the result was an Academy Award. The second time around, Oscar nominations went to three of his costars: Arthur Kennedy, Martha Hyer and a young Shirley MacLaine, who plays a sweet but none-too-bright floozy drawn to Sinatra’s Dave Hirsch, a WWII vet reluctantly returning to the small Indiana town where he grew up. A drama from director Vincente Minnelli, the film was screened regularly for Sinatra’s guests in later years.

None but the Brave
Set on a remote Pacific island during World War II, None but the Brave follows American and Japanese soldiers, both sides cut off from their command, who reluctantly learn to cooperate in order to survive.  Sinatra not only starred as the Pharmacist Mate whom the Japanese mistake for a doctor, but he made his directorial debut on the anti-war film. Clint Walker and Tommy Sands co-star, as do a large contingent of Japanese actors.

Marriage on the Rocks
A married couple go to Mexico to celebrate their anniversary, and wind up divorced. Complications ensue, and the wife ends up married to hubby’s best friend, previously a swinging bachelor. Deborah Kerr is the wife, Frank Sinatra the husband who gets dumped, and Dean Martin the buddy. Cesar Romero and Tony Bill also have featured roles in the spirited comedy, as does Sinatra’s daughter Nancy.

Cast & Crew

None but the Brave
Directed by Frank Sinatra
Produced by Frank Sinatra, Kikumaru Okuda, William H. Daniels, Howard W. Koch
Written by Kikumaru Okuda (story), John Twist, Katsuya Susaki
Cast: Clint Walker, Tatsuya Mihashi, Frank Sinatra, Tommy Sands
Cinematography: Harold Lipstein
Editing: Sam O'Steen
Music: John Williams
Released by Warner Bros. Pictures

The Man with the Golden Arm
Directed by Otto Preminger
Produced by Otto Preminger
Written by Nelson Algren (novel), Walter Newman, Lewis Meltzer, Ben Hecht
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Eleanor Parker, Kim Novak
Cinematography: Sam Leavitt
Editing: Louis R. Loeffler
Music: Elmer Bernstein
Released by United Artists

Some Came Running
Directed by Vincente Minnelli
Produced by Sol C. Siegel
Written by James Jones (novel), John Patrick, Arthur Sheekman
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Martha Hyer, Arthur Kennedy
Cinematography: William H. Daniels
Editing: Adrienne Fazan
Music: Elmer Bernstein
Released by MGM

The Tender TrapDirected by Charles Walters
Produced by Lawrence Weingarten
Written by Julius J. Epstein, Max Shulman and Robert Paul Smith (play)
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, David Wayne, Celeste Holm
Cinematography: Paul Vogel
Editing: John D. Dunning
Music: Jeff Alexander
Released by MGM

Marriage on the Rocks
Directed by Jack Donohue
Produced by William H. Daniels
Written by Cy Howard
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, Dean Martin, Cesar Romero, Hermione Baddeley, Tony Bill, Nancy Sinatra
Cinematography; William H. Daniels
Editing; Sam O'Steen
Music; Nelson Riddle
Released by Warner Bros.

Description

Here's Sinatra as the consummate actor at the peak of his stardom, 1955 to 1965. The five films included, all of them new to DVD, range from the gritty drama that contained Sinatra’s choice for his best performance, The Man with the Golden Arm, to the lighthearted romp that introduced one of his biggest hits, The Tender Trap. Witness Sinatra as Hipster, Hero and Hollywood Icon all at once.