THE KISSING BANDIT

US, 1948, 100 minutes, Colour.
Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, J.Carroll Naish, Mildred Natwick, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse, Ricardo Montalban.
Directed by Lazlo Benedeck.

One of the M.G.M. musical failures of the late forties. It received very bad reviews and was a box office failure. It was considered the great failure of Frank Sinatra’s early career.

Sinatra is teamed with Kathryn Grayson (with whom he had worked in Anchors Away) and, in retrospect, they make an unlikely but pleasant team. In fact, there are more redeeming features in The Kissing Bandit than were seen at the time - especially if it is compared with such films as Yolanda And The Thief (set in the same kind of mythical Latin America) or the much more successful The Pirate. The flimsy plot is a kind of reverse Zorro story.

Frank Sinatra is a meek accountant from New York who has to live up to his bandit father's reputation - and in given the opportunity to do no. Kathryn Grayson is the lady of the mansion - ready to be wooed and won by an adventurer. There is a very funny performance by Mildred Natwick - very similar to that with which she succeeded in Yolanda And The Thief. There are also comic turns by J. Carrol Naish and Billy Gilbert. There is an excellent song - Love Is Where You Find It, sung by Kathryn Grayson. The producers added an exotic dance routine at the last moment. It was Mexican style (with whips) danced by Ricardo Montalban, Cyd Charisse and Ann Miller. Direction van by Lazlo Benedek - who was to make more successful dramas, especially Death Of A Salesman and The Wild One. A curiosity item amongst M.G.M. musicals and interesting in reflecting the styles of Frank Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson.