Double Dynamite
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Double Dynamite is a surreally fascinating 1951 movie comedy featuring Jane Russell, Groucho Marx, and Frank Sinatra.
Contents
Bonkers Plot
Filmed while Sinatra's career was at its famous low ebb prior to From Here to Eternity, the movie involves an innocent bank teller (Frank Sinatra) suspected of embezzling who turns to a sardonic waiter (Groucho Marx) for advice. Although Sinatra is the actual lead, with the most screen time, he took third billing behind Jane Russell and Groucho Marx. Most of the scenes are devoted to the interactions of Sinatra and Groucho, who had just begun televising his radio show You Bet Your Life the year before and was more or less in between his wild early Marx Brothers persona and the more mature television Groucho, and the warm chemistry between the singer and the comedian drives the movie forward. Both Sinatra and Jane Russell play against type as a shy, timid pair, while Groucho portrays a sarcastic waiter who breezily mentors the frightened young couple; the film has been singled out by several critics as a forgotten jewel for Groucho enthusiasts.Sinatra Sings
Jane Russell and Groucho Marx each sing a duet with Frank Sinatra written by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. Marx and Sinatra superbly sing "It's Only Money," a wondrous moment in which the young Sinatra has to rise to match Groucho's charisma, and Russell and Sinatra deliver the romantic "Kisses and Tears."Whatever Happened to...?
This cast didn't exactly disappear after filming Double Dynamite. Frank Sinatra got his pivotal screen role two years later, Maggio in From Here to Eternity, for which he won an Academy Award and relaunched his astonishing career in grand style. The stunning Jane Russell went on to make movie standouts like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Marilyn Monroe and The Tall Men with Clark Gable later in the decade, while Groucho Marx continued with the television version of his radio series You Bet Your Life, garnering a new generation of adherents, many of whom were later amazed to discover his early movies with the Marx Brothers.Writers and Director
- Written by Leo Rosten, Mel Shavelson, Mannie Manheim, and Harry Crane
- Directed by Irving Cummings
Cast
- Jane Russell as Mibs Goodhue
- Groucho Marx as Emile J. Keck
- Frank Sinatra as Johnny Dalton
- Don McGuire as Bob Pulsifer, Jr.
- Howard Freeman as R.B. Pulsifer, Sr.
- Nestor Paiva as bookie "Hot Horse" Harris
- Frank Orth as Mr. Kofer
- Harry Hayden as J.L. McKissack
- William Edmunds as Mr. Baganucci
- Russell Thorson as the IRS tailman
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