To Be Frank: Sinatra At 100, film review: the documentary about Ol’ Blue Eyes has a rough-and-ready quality

We see him from a singing waiter to a movie star at MGM

Frank Sinatra

This documentary about Ol’ Blue Eyes has a rough-and-ready quality, as if it has been rushed toward completion in time for Frank Sinatra’s centenary (the old crooner was born on 12 December 1915).

Production values are not especially high. The choice of interviewees, which includes boxing promoters, British journalists, biographers and some of Sinatra’s old friends, is on the random side. Even so, it tells his story in compelling enough fashion.

We’re taken through his days as a singing waiter, his time with the Tommy Dorsey band, his bobbysoxer days, his stint as a movie star at MGM, his wilderness years, his marriage to Ava Gardner, his concept albums at Capitol, his association with mobsters – and most of the other familiar bases are covered.

There is a good story about the comedian George Burns encountering the Rat Pack as they argued about who was the best endowed. “Frank, go easy on the guys,” Burns told the singer. “Just take out enough to win.”

Simon Napier-Bell, 81 mins