Double Dynamite (1951)

***SPOILERS**** The film "Double Dynamite" was released just before Frank Sinatra's break-out movie "From here to Insanity-Eternity" that eventually saved his fledgling both singing and acting career and made him the entertainment icon that he was to become. In the film Sinatra plays a $42.50 a week bank teller Johnny Dalton who can barley make ends meet who's girlfriend fellow bank teller the well endowed, in the bra department, Mildred "Mibs" Goodhue-played by Jand Russell-who's getting a bit sick and tired of waiting for him to ask her to marry her and plans to get involved with the boss' son stuck up and full of himself Bob Puilser Jr.,Don McGuire.It's when Johnny saves big time bookie "Hot Horse" Harris,Nestor Palva, from being beaten to a pulp by a couple of hoods working for his competition he invites Johhny to his gambling den and placed a couple of bets for him that ended up with Johnny winning some $60,000.00 on the ponies. It just happens that back at the bank where Johnny and "Mibs" work the same amount of cash is missing with Johnny possibly being the #1 suspect in the crime. It's here where Johnny's good friend singing waiter and all around BS artist Emile J. Keck, played by Groucho Marks taking time off from his TV show "You Bet your Life", steps in and things are never the same again.***SPOILERS**** It soon turns out that it was "Mibs" not Johnny who's short $75,000.00 in her bank stock and is arrested for bank fraud. That's until Emile has her adding machine checked out finding out that it over-counted what she handed out to her customers and under counted what she had left. this settled the matter and had Johnny soon tie the knot with "Mibs" and have Emile invited to the wedding as the best man. It was really Groucho Marks who was the star of the movie sealing every scene, even those with Miss Russell and her two bazooka's, that he was in. As for Frank Sinatra he did in fact get a chance to sing a number of songs, one a duet with Jane Russell, in the movie but his voice wasn't the same as it was back in his "Bobbie Sox" glory days in the 1940's. It wasn't until his next movie as Maggio in "From Here to Insanity-Eternity" that restarted his career and got him his one and only Academy Award as well as the fame the was soon to follow.

The double dynamite of the title obviously has to do more with the ample figure of Jane Russell than the triple dynamic stars. This isn't helped by the fact that Old Blue Eyes himself was on a career slump as far as film was concerned after the failure of "The Kissing Bandit" and his listing as box office poison even after several hit films with Gene Kelly. Toss in Groucho Marxx as a wise cracking waiter who motivates the plot more than the younger stars do.Nestor Paiva adds amusement as the comical gangster Frankie Boy befriends in a get rich quick scheme. A few pleasant songs are tossed in, most memorably "It's Only Money", sung by the stars on a realistic big city set. The result of this film is innocuous fun, but its like a salad for lunch It leaves you craving more. Sinatra has a nice drunk scene, and Russell's attempts to be alluring yet innocent are made more noticeable by the femme fatale roles she was playing the same year this came out, making it obvious that this had been held up from release for several years.

This move is set some time in the 1940s, so plug that in and go along for the ride. Sinatra stars as an honest man, eking out a living as a bank teller but not enough for marriage. By chance, he's captured by the underworld and makes a mint. He can marry Jane Russell, something the wisecracking waiter, Groucho Marx, seems to want. But there has been an apparent embezzlement at the bank where Sinatra works, and its discovery is timed exactly with Sinatra's underworld winnings. He did not embezzle the money, but he can't rightly say he did come by it. But Groucho is there to help him, and we all know what that means.This is a nifty film with a few good twists and its share of laughs.There is a scene where "Johnny Dalton" is lying in his bed in his apartment and Mibs Goodhue in her bed in hers, separated by wall. Dalton starts to sing."You know," I teased to my wife, "that guy sounds a lot like Sinatra." "It is," she deadpanned in reply."Looks too young to be Sinatra." Yeah, 't was 1951. If you want to go back for a spell, this one will take you there.

I don't know why this kooky little film hasn't received better notices. As a huge fan of both Groucho Marx and The Voice, "Double Dynamite" was a dream come true. Groucho hasn't been this funny since "Duck Soup," and Ol' Blue Eyes plays off him beautifully. If there's a complaint here, it's that there aren't enough musical numbers. "It's Only Money" (a duet between Frank and Groucho) is a show-stopper.