Oceans Eleven (1960) (SiRiUs sHaRe)

Ocean's Eleven (1960)

Eleven friends who know each other from World War II service plan to rob five of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas in one night. They develop a master plan but after the whole thing is over, something goes wrong...

Frank Sinatra ... Danny Ocean
Dean Martin ... Sam Harmon
Sammy Davis Jr. ... Josh Howard
Peter Lawford ... Jimmy Foster
Angie Dickinson ... Beatrice Ocean
Richard Conte ... Anthony Raymond 'Tony' Bergdorf
Cesar Romero ... Duke Santos
Patrice Wymore ... Adele Ekstrom
Joey Bishop ... 'Mushy' O'Connors
Akim Tamiroff ... Spyros Acebos
Henry Silva ... Roger Corneal
Ilka Chase ... Mrs. Restes
Buddy Lester ... Vince Massler
Richard Benedict ... 'Curly' Steffens
Jean Willes ... Mrs. Gracie Bergdorf

Director: Lewis Milestone

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054135/

Codecs: DivX 5 / MP3

The original Ocean's 11 will always remain a classic because of the Rat Pack. It is unfair to compare both Ocean 11's movie because of the different cast, different stories, and completely different endings. Still, looking at both films, you can make a case for both why each is better than the other. Frankie, Dean, Sammy, Peter and Tony are all gone now, making the cast of the original legendary. The remake is more realistic as it answers many if not all the questions that the original failed to answer. Even for a Rat Pack movie, the original turns out to be more campy that the remake. The ending alone is worth discussion. In 1960, how wrong is it to have the criminals get away clean? For 2000, it is not only welcomed but rewarded if the "little guy" can out do or cheat the big system. For 1960, the ending of Ocean's 11 advertises that crime does not pay.

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I love this movie and think it's much better than the remake. It was much funnier and much more entertaining. But, again, I think you have to be a "Rat Pack" fan to really appreciate it.

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I remember back in the day when the commercials were out for Ocean's Eleven it was described as the heist of all time. It wasn't exactly that, but there is a spirit of camaraderie that is present through out the film.

Frank Sinatra had signed a picture deal with Warner Brothers and was beginning a long term commitment to the Sands in Las Vegas. What better way than to combine everything at once. A film on location in Las Vegas.

So Frank got his pallies together and they filmed Ocean's Eleven in between shows at the Sands. They also managed to get into another film, several of the principal players in Ocean's Eleven did guest shots in Pepe while at the Sands.

Ocean's Eleven has a lighthearted insouciance about it, a group of former Airborne Rangers get together in Las Vegas for a heist of the big casinos carried on with military precision. Why waste all that good airborne training now that they're civilians.

Sinatra doesn't sing in this, I can't imagine why he didn't give himself a song here, but Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. did sing two numbers suited to their talents.

Ocean's Eleven marked the first time that Richard Conte worked in a Sinatra film. He became a Sinatra retainer in his later years, appearing in several Sinatra films. They parted when Conte appeared in The Godfather against Frank's wishes.

After Ocean's Eleven came Sergeants Three with the main cast members appearing again. After that the Rat Pack broke up with these guys going their own way, though many of them did have joint projects together over the years. The quality of the films went down hill, except for Robin and the Seven Hoods. That was a musical and not something to be done in your spare time.

The remake of Ocean's Eleven that George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and several other name players of today did was a far more serious film. Good in its own way, but just not the same.

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The only real pleasure in "Ocean's Eleven" is being let into the Rat Pack circle for a couple of hours... The film stops all too frequently for guest spots and in-jokes, with a slow first hour... Compared to Jules Dassin's 'Rififi,' or to Phil Karlson's 'Five Against the House,' it pales considerably...

'Ocean's Eleven' is a weak heist film with the emphasis firmly on light humor, and few diverting escapades, but nobody cares because the cast includes the biggest stars of the day (Frankie, Dino, Sammy etc...), burning the motion picture into the collective memory of the public as the first to showcase Hollywood's notorious Rat Pack...

'Ocean's Eleven' is a buddy movie made with real buddies, and it's fun... It in't supposed to be very good... It is supposed to be cool... A playground for legendary entertainers, these guys knew how to get the job done, to pause only to knock back innumerable Whisky sodas, wear their tuxedo, hang out in bars, talk the talk, belt out a couple of classy little numbers, and have a great sense of fun together on screen... And this fun filtered off the silver screen and into the audience like a tasty appetizer before the main course...

Old Blue Eyes is the mastermind of the heist... He is carrying out a plan originated by racketeer Spyros Acebos where five gambling casinos (Sahara, Riviera, Desert Inn, The Sand and The Flamingo) will be robbed simultaneously at midnight on New Year's celebration...

During the week before Christmas, the 'special combat team' (all experts in one thing and another) arrive in Las Vegas, for the job-of-a-lifetime... The scheme of the robbery is ingenious, requiring military precision and perfect timing... An electrical tower will be blown up to black out the whole town... The swag will be deposited in garbage cans outside the casinos, and the cans will be collected by a disposal truck...

On New Year's Eve, the hold-up goes off beautifully, exactly as planned... Only one of the men has a heart attack on the street and collapses... The gang cannot get the multi-million loot out of Las Vegas but they manage to hide it in some place, unknown to them, however, that 'someone' was preparing for them all a nice wry outcome...

Dean Martin, the eternal essence of cool, is the entertainer who sings "Ain't That a Kick in the Head,' and Sammy Davis Jr. is the perennial icon of cool who sings "EEO-Eleven.'

Peter Lawford is the playboy with one objective and one mission: To hit Las Vegas, Nevada!

Angie Dickinson is the understanding wife, discreet, feminine and chic... Unfortunately the camera does not especially flatter her looks...

Richard Conte is the master electrician dying of cancer, who needs to leave some cash for his kid's college...

Cesar Romero is coldly menacing and very amusing: 'They shouldn't have done it while I was in town. It's embarrassing!'

George Raft is the mob with the best deal to get the money back...

Akim Tamiroff is hilariously neurotic as the master planner...

Buddy Lester wants to get his wife out of stripping...

Shirley MacLaine is the drunk gal in urge for a little kiss in a critical moment...

Red Skelton is the unlucky player, arguing with the casino cashier how to raise his gambling limit...

"Ocean's Eleven" could never be made again... The new 'Ocean's Eleven,' 2001 is considerably different in the details.. After all, there was only 'one' Rat Pack, and if the Ocean's Eleven of 1960 is anything, it is certainly a Rat Pack movie... So if you still have a strange fascination with this gang of friends, and like to watch essentially a these guys playing around on screen, and to watch Las Vegas as it looked in 1960, well... check out this nostalgic trip back... You'll never see its like again...

* Sammy Davis Jr., required wooden blocks attached to the pedals on the garbage truck he drove in the film so that he could reach them.

* In a scene between Danny (Frank Sinatra) and Adele (Patrice Wymore), Adele throws a dish of candy at Danny. The throwing of the dish was ad-libbed, which accounts for the genuine look of surprise on Sinatra's face and the faces of his co-stars.

* Significant portions of the movie interactions between major characters were ad-libbed. The actors playing the leading roles all knew each other well and improvised dialogue as well as or better than the script.

* Most filming was accomplished early in the morning, before sunrise, since most of the actors also had shows in Las Vegas that they performed nightly during the shooting. The actors would wake up in the afternoon, do one or two shows in the evening, then go through make-up and arrive at the shooting locations for principal photography. Each shooting location was fully set up in advance so that minimal time would be wasted once the actors arrived.

* In the final shot of the film, the eleven walk past the famous sign in front of the Sands hotel. The five members of the Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford) are billed on the sign.

* Actor Richard Boone supplied the voice of the minister giving the eulogy at the end of the film although he is not seen on screen.

* In the dubbed German version of the film, Frank Sinatra's character's name was changed to Frankie Ocean, probably in order to hook more viewers, who knew Sinatra only as a singer.

* Because of actor Akim Tamiroff's thick Russian accent, the sound editor often had to adjust segments of his dialog in order for him to be understood.

* One of the most difficult tasks facing the film's production team, was actually convincing Nevada's Clark County officials to let them use one of their garbage trucks.

* Longtime Sinatra bodyguard and fight trainer-to-the-stars, Al Silvani, makes an uncredited cameo as the manager of the Burlesque nightclub where Buddy Lester works.

* Dave White, Frank Sinatra's stand-in for over 30 years, can be glimpsed in an uncredited cameo as the stagehand who gives Sinatra, Peter Lawford and Buddy Lester temporary refuge from their pursuers right after the burlesque club brawl.

* Shirley MacLaine's tipsy uncredited cameo was ad-libbed by the actress, for which she reportedly received a brand new car from Warner Bros. as compensation. Her line, "I'm so drunk I don't think I could lie down without holding on," was a rehash of a classic Dean Martin line.

* KLAS TV reporting in the wake of the heist was a real Las Vegas media station. Not long after this movie was released, Vegas millionaire resident Howard Hughes bought it so he could control what movies aired on late night television.

* Right after the heist when Sheriff Wimmer is interrogating a possible witness over the phone, the uncredited voice on the other end of the line is that of George Fenneman, better known as the announcer on such TV game shows as "You Bet Your Life" (1950) and "Tell It to Groucho" (1962).

* As Peter Lawford, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra attempt to disguise themselves by blackening their faces in the garbage truck near the end of the movie, 'Sammy Davis, Jr.' says, "I knew this color would come in handy some day." Martin and Sinatra teased Davis about that scene for as long as they knew each other thereafter.

* The ritzy Beverly Hills home of Spyros Acebos (Akim Tamiroff) actually belonged to Hollywood agent Kurt Frings, husband of then screenwriter Ketti Frings.

* Shirley MacLaine shot her quick cameo during a break in filming The Apartment (1960). Although she was offered a car for her work, she says she took the job as an excuse to hang out with her Rat Pack friends and see their Vegas show.

* Writer Jack Golden Russell was a gas station attendant in Vegas who handed the script to Sinatra while he was refilling his car.

* Average Shot Length = ~12 seconds. Median Shot Length = ~10.8 seconds.

* Tony Curtis, Jackie Gleason and Milton Berle were all originally offered cameo roles.

* According to Frank Sinatra Jr. on the DVD Commentary, Sammy Davis Jr. was forced to stay at a "colors only" hotel during the filming because Las Vega would not allow blacks to stay at the major hotels despite his appearing with Sinatra, Martin, and the others at the Sands Hotel. He was only allowed to stay at the major hotels, therefore breaking Vegas' unofficial color barrier after Frank Sinatra confronted the casino owners on his behalf.

* George Raft, who makes a cameo appearance as a casino owner, actually helped New York mobster Bugsy Siegel finance and promote the Flamingo Hotel.