Review of Frank Sinatra: It Had To Be You / Suddenly

Introduction

Uncle Frank, as we used to call him in our house, rocked. I love the big band sound evocative of the 20s to 50s and what finer example than Sinatra? The man created music for all occasions and has a wonderfully distinctive voice. Sinatra also embarked on an acting career and starred in some 61 films such as From Here To Eternity, The Manchurian Candidate, Ocean`s Eleven, Von Ryan`s Express and Cannonball Run 2.

Suddenly is the name of the town where Sinatra holds a family hostage and attempts to shoot the President.

This is a DVD and CD package with all 16 tracks from the DVD recorded on the CD.

Video

Presented with a black & white fullframe video transfer, Suddenly looks average at best. The blacks are grey with too much brightness in the image, plus it`s soft throughout. There`s the usual array of dust and dirt but it`s bearable to watch just once.

Audio

The film comes with a Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 soundtrack. During the film both tracks play sound from the front and centre speakers with the 5.1 track sounding clearer. Film aside, the music on the DVD doesn`t sound very good in 5.1. If you like the music the enclosed audio CD sounds better.

Features

Easy to navigate static menus with a few extras:

• Music - All 16 tracks from the audio CD are here in Dolby Digital 5.1 or PCM stereo. The menu screen is static as the music plays, so you might listen to the audio CD instead to prevent screen burn-in. The quality of the sound is fine in stereo, but the 5.1 track leaves something to be desired. It didn`t impress me at all and sounds unnatural.

• Biography/discography/filmography - Exactly what it says, though the bio is more a summary of the longer bio from the booklet.

• Picture Gallery - A few pics that can be seen in the booklet and really is nothing special.

• Colour Booklet - This is a nice addition and preferable to the info on the DVD. The bio was interesting to read and there`s a complete discography/filmography included too.

There are no English subtitles here, which is something I can`t fathom. There are however German, French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch subtitles.

Conclusion

If you like Sinatra`s music and the big band sound, then the chances are you`ll have quite a few of his songs already. There`s no doubt that he`s the consummate entertainer, acting and singing and proving he`s someone who can do both. It`s too bad however that this DVD doesn`t actually show video of the man singing these songs. You get the music to listen to on the DVD, which is the same as the enclosed audio CD, but this becomes somewhat redundant. This leaves the film, Suddenly, to consider.

The film isn`t that interesting with its plain 50`s "gee-whiz that was swell" dialogue and stilted wooden performances. It`s all too simple and predictable and doesn`t deliver anything worthwhile. Put simply, it`s dated and it shows.

The colour booklet is nice but the package as a whole just doesn`t seem worthwhile. If it featured concert/performance footage for all of the songs, then I would have enjoyed it a lot more. As it is however, I`d pass, as there are better Sinatra DVDs out there.