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he Rat Pack Ultimate Collector's Edition is a 4 film, 4-disc boxed set.
Frank and his boys get the high-end treatment with The Rat Pack Ultimate Collector�s Edition containing Robin and the Seven Hoods, Ocean�s Eleven, 4 For Texas and the first ever home video release of MGM�s Sergeants 3. The Ultimate Collector�s Edition will feature exclusive behind-the-scenes photo cards; rare correspondence from the Warner Bros. Archives; cool Rat Pack playing cards available only in the collection; a 24-page reproduction of the original 1960�s Ocean�s Eleven press book. The Ultimate Collector�s Edition includes a free movie poster offer for all four films. None of these films were ever intended to be tightly plotted thrillers. Instead they are just each an opportunity to see a bunch of cool guys - as cool was defined in 1960 - who were close friends with some kind of plot in the background to give them the opportunity to interact with one another and act cool with a purpose. I give the set five stars because, if that's what you like, you'll love this set. Here are the films and the special features of each:
Ocean's 11 (1960)
Leave it to the Chairman of the Board to rope in a great director for the first Rat Pack movie. Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front) indeed directed this 1960 caper movie starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop; but the results now seem like more of a historical artifact than a good time. The tone of the film is curiously serious--one somehow expected that the Rat Pack would have made a more buoyant first picture. But it is something to see these guys together, if largely for nostalgia reasons.
| Ocean's 11 Film Clip - Pitching The Caper (CLICK HERE) |
| Ocean's 11 Film Clip - The Prank (CLICK HERE) |
| Ocean's 11 Film Clip - What to do with the money (CLICK HERE) |
Special Features:
Sergeant's 3 (1962)
It's not a serious piece, or a western drama. It's silly, full of in jokes, a total guy movie. Would you believe it is a loose remake of Gunga Din. The history of the Ghost Dancer Indians is completely wrong and not even close to real history, but the Indians were often the bad guys back then, but hey, it's the 1960's and it's the Rat Pack...deal with it. In short, the guys are great and seem to be having a blast.
Special Features:
4 For Texas (1963)
Though not exactly a Rat Pack film, it only has Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Reuniting the crooners and teaming them with two international sex symbols in a jokey Western under the guidance of topnotch director Robert Aldrich (Kiss Me Deadly). Frank and Dean play wily business rivals in this Wild West lark of gamblling and romance. Ursula Andress and Anita Ekberg add the sexy romance. A tasty roster of character actors with Charles Bronson and Victor Buono as unsavory citizens of 1870s Galveston. Even the Three Stooges, in their Curly Joe configuration, wander through.
| 4 For Texas Film Clip - Stagecoach Chase (CLICK HERE) |
Special Features:
Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964)
"My kind of town, Chicago is...." The last film venture by the Rat Pack finds Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. in an update of the Robin Hood legend, set in Chi-town in 1928. The boys play gangsters who become Jazz Age Merry Men; Bing Crosby is their eloquent spokesman. As usual, women are in short supply within the featured cast, but the film is colorful enough anyway with its period trappings. By the time this movie was released in 1964, the Zeitgeist was already shifting toward the Beatles, and Frank, Dean, and Sammy looked like your father's entertainment. But while this film is no knockout, director Gordon Douglas (Young at Heart) makes it a pleasant enough way to say good-bye to the Rat Pack's life together on film.
| Robin and the 7 Hoods Film Clip - Frank and Dean Meet Up (CLICK HERE) |
Special Features:
 Ocean's Eleven |
 Sergeant's Three |
 4 For Texas |
 Robin and the Seven Hoods |
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