Product Description

4 FUN, FAST-ACTION FEATURE FILMS ON DVD: Ocean’s 11, 4 for Texas, Robin and the 7 Hoods and the Long-Unseen, Never-Before-on-Video Sergeants 3 With Special Collector’s Items: • Cool Rat Pack Playing Cards Available Nowhere Else • 10 Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Photo Cards • 8 Color Lobby Card Reproductions from Sergeants 3 • 18-Page Reproduction of the Original 1960 Ocean’s 11 Press Book • Free Limited-Time Mail-in Poster Offer from all four movies* (*Does not include Club skus)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19326 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2008-05-13
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 477 minutes

Features

• 4 FUN, FAST-ACTION FEATURE FILMS ON DVD: Ocean?s 11, 4 for Texas, Robin and the 7 Hoods and the Long-Unseen, Never-Before-on-Video Sergeants 3 With Special Collector?s Items: ? Cool Rat Pack Playing Cards Available Nowhere Else ? 10 Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Photo Cards ? 8 Color Lobby Card Reproductions from Sergeants 3 ? 18-Page Reproduction of the Original 1960 Ocean?s 11 Press Book ? Free Li

Amazon.com
The original hepcat spree, the big daddy of Rat Pack movies, the straight flush in a high-stakes game: yeah, it's Ocean's 11, baby. Long before George Clooney dared to rework this movie into a franchise, Frank Sinatra turned a straightforward heist picture into--well, in some ways, a star-studded but still straightforward heist picture. Ocean's 11 is sometimes a surprise to fans who expect a jokier, more freewheeling movie; the boys actually play it fairly straight in this one, and after all they're under the direction of Lewis Milestone, once the director of All Quiet on the Western Front. Sinatra is fairly effortless, Dean Martin gets loose on "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?", Sammy Davis Jr., croons an approximation of a title tune, and Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, and Angie Dickinson fill in the gaps. The lingo is fun (Richard Conte: "Give it to me straight, Doc--is it the big casino?"), the décor is eye-peeling, and the general ambience of 1960 Las Vegas has a great time-capsule quality. While they were shooting the picture, the members of the Rat Pack were also performing on stage at night, which suggests that the real fun were happening when the cameras weren't on. The swagger, however, endures. --Robert Horton

Lurking inside the Rat Pack's Sergeants 3 (1962) is a true film classic: 1939's buoyant Kipling adventure, Gunga Din. The plotline's about the same, but the action in is transferred from colonial India to the Old West. Our three roistering Army buddies are played by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Peter Lawford, who are assigned a tense scouting mission just about the time Lawford is ready to quit the service in favor of--horrors--marriage. Sammy Davis Jr., assumes the Gunga Din role, as a freed slave who tags along after the sergeants in hopes of joining the Army. (Yes, he blows a bugle.) Less successfully transferred than this outline is the way the cult from Gunga Din becomes a bloodthirsty tribe of Ghost Dancers in Sergeants Three, a bit of fudged movie history that will have to be taken with a grain of salt. But it's about as believable as everything else in this movie, right down to the fake beards on the cowpokes in the opening saloon brawl. Director John Sturges, who made this movie between his commercial high points of The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape, apparently had little interest in making the interiors look like anything but studio sets. The exteriors fare much better, as many were shot in Utah's Bryce Canyon. The actors look as disengaged from this material as Sturges, with oomph sneaking in only when the boys are teasing each other (notably a sequence in which stuffy officer Joey Bishop--yes, he's in here too--is tricked into swallowing a laxative). It's all pretty flat, lending credence to the idea that the movie's long delay in securing a DVD release had less to do with racial insensitivity than with sheer lameness. --Robert Horton

Rat Pack buddies Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin were prized for their ability to appear relaxed on camera, but in 4 for Texas (1963) they're nearly asleep. It must have looked good on paper: 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). Ursula Andress, as a riverboat owner who hooks up with Dino, unleashes her bedroom purr to great effect, but formidable Anita Ekberg had a bad year in 1963 (she also got stuck in Bob Hope's immortal Call Me Bwana). A tasty roster of character actors is wasted, although Charles Bronson and Victor Buono are amusing as unsavory citizens of 1870s Galveston. Even the Three Stooges, in their Curly Joe configuration, wander through. After a terrific opening sequence in the desert, establishing Frank and Dean's rivalry, this one quickly goes south. --Robert Horton

"My kind of town, Chicago is...." Robin and the 7 Hoods, 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. --Tom Keogh

On the DVDs
The four movies are bundled with a collection of goodies: a deck of Rat Pack cards, a somewhat weird reproduction of an original publicity booklet for Ocean's 11, small reproductions of Sergeants 3 lobby cards (full color), and some 5x7 black-and-white stills from the movies. Special features on the individual movies include commentaries by Frank Sinatra Jr., on Ocean's 11, Sergeants 3, and Robin and the 7 Hoods (in the last he gives the scoop on how the filming was never the same after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which occurred midway through production and hit the elder Sinatra hard). If you've never heard a Sinatra Jr. commentary, you need to experience it: somber tributes to the acting genius of Cesar Romero are interwoven with Junior's first-hand reminiscences and infectious fondness for the countless movie people he's known. (He does identify John Sturges as the son of Preston Sturges, a forgivable blunder.) A couple of vintage "making of" featurettes and a very wacky 4 for Texas trailer fill out the bill. --Robert Horton

On the DVD
The four movies are bundled with a collection of goodies: a deck of Rat Pack cards, a somewhat weird reproduction of an original publicity booklet for Ocean's 11, small reproductions of Sergeants 3 lobby cards (full color), and some 5x7 black-and-white stills from the movies. Special features on the individual movies include commentaries by Frank Sinatra, Jr., on Ocean's 11, Sergeants 3, and Robin and the 7 Hoods (in the latter he gives the scoop on how the filming was never the same after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which occurred midway through production and hit the elder Sinatra hard). If you've never heard a Sinatra Jr. commentary, you need to experience it: somber tributes to the acting genius of Cesar Romero are interwoven with Junior's first-hand reminiscences and infectious fondness for the countless movie people he's known. (He does identify John Sturges as the son of Preston Sturges, a forgivable blunder.) A couple of vintage "making of" featurettes and a very wacky 4 for Texas trailer fill out the bill. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

The Rat Pack is Back!
What an era it was! JFK and the 'New Frontier', 'Camelot', "High Hopes", and the combined electricity of Frank, Dino, Sammy, Peter, and Joey, linked forever to the magic of the times. It was inevitable 'The Rat Pack' would make movies, and, at last, "The Rat Pack Ultimate Collectors Edition" offers all of their major film work. Are these films 'classics'? Certainly not! But they are all entertaining fun, and provide a glimpse at the hottest stars in America back when optimism was the key word, and the future seemed bright!

"Ocean's Eleven" (1960): Director Lewis Milestone ("All Quiet on the Western Front"), not known for his 'light' touch, did provide the most balanced direction of all the "Rat Pack" features. 11 army buddies execute the ultimate heist in Las Vegas, a device revived in George Clooney's 'remake', 40 years later. While most of the fun occurred 'off camera', as the boys drank and entertained at the Sands, each night of filming, you do get to see Dino sing "Ain't That a Kick in the Head", Sammy dance, a bit, and Frank with occasional girlfriend Angie Dickinson. Richard Conte, as a dying buddy, is terrific, and the film is a straightforward crime film with a twist. (3 stars, out of 4)

"Sergeants 3" (1962): John Sturges ("The Great Escape") was another director not known for comedy, but excellent in westerns and action films, which provides this Western reworking of "Gunga Din" a fast pace, and terrific climactic scenes. While the stereotypes of the time are present (Indians are all bloodthirsty and superstitious savages), the guys are obviously enjoying themselves (with Dino delivering Cary Grant's immortal line when confronted by hundreds of homicidal Indians). Famous as the film where Sammy borrowed, and lost, Duke Wayne's "Rio Bravo" Stetson! (3 stars, out of four)

"4 for Texas" (1963): Director Robert Aldrich's follow-up to "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", this Western comedy only loosely qualifies as a 'Rat Pack' film (only Frank and Dino appear), but offers a flippant, laid-back attitude that personified the team. As competing gamblers who unite to open a riverboat casino, the pair share a taste in exotic European women (Anita Ekberg and Ursula Andress), and face some terrific villains (Charles Bronson and Victor Buono). Dino even has a comic moment with the 3 Stooges! Not great, but fun... (2 1/2 stars, out of 4)

"Robin and the Seven Hoods" (1964): Remarkably, the only true musical Frank, Dino, and Sammy ever made together! Directed by Gordon Douglas, this Capra-esque comedy resets the 'Robin Hood' story in 1930s Chicago, with the guys as likable mobsters assuming the persona's of Robin, Little John, and Will Scarlet. The villains are top-notch (Peter Falk and Victor Buono), Barbara Rush is an opportunistic 'Maid Marian', and, best of all, Bing Crosby guest stars as bookish Allen A. Dale (in the role Peter Lawford was to play, until Lawford and Sinatra had a falling out). GREAT songs (including Frank singing "Chicago...My Kind of Town"), classic screen character actors in support, and Edward G. Robinson, as Sinatra's mentor, all combine for a first-rate entertainment. Sadly, JFK was assassinated during the filming (which affected Sinatra, deeply, and ended the 'Rat Pack' era), but this would be a fitting finale, and the best of the films. (4 stars, out of 4).

Make a martini, and enjoy "The Rat Pack Ultimate Collectors Edition"!

Upgraded version of a previous DVD set
Warner Bros. is upgrading this DVD set as part of its 85th anniversary celebration. The following is the press release from Warner Home Video:

Frank and his boys get the high-end treatment with The Rat Pack Ultimate Collector's Edition containing:

Robin and the Seven Hoods
Special Features:
Commentary by Frank Sinatra Jr.
Vintage featurette What They Did to Robin Hood
Cast/filmmaker profiles
Theatrical trailers

Ocean's Eleven
Special Features:
Commentary by Frank Sinatra Jr. and Angie Dickinson
Interactive Las Vegas Then and Now Map Casino Vignettes
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson excerpt featuring guest host Frank Sinatra and guest Angie Dickinson
Cast/filmmaker profiles
Theatrical trailers

4 For Texas
Special Features:
Vintage making-of featurette
Cast/filmmaker profiles
Theatrical trailer

the first ever home video release of MGM's Sergeants 3
Special Features:
Audio commentary by Frank Sinatra Jr.

This collection will also feature exclusive behind-the-scenes photo cards; rare correspondence from the Warner Bros. Archives; 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.

end of press release.
It's been my experience that you either really enjoy these movies or you won't get them or like them at all. The film database has them all rated at around 6/10, some higher, some lower. However, that seems rather low if you know what you're getting as far as a group dynamic. 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.

THE RAT PACK COLLECTORS EDITION
The Rat Pack Ultimate Collectors Edition (Oceans 11 / Robin and the 7 Hoods / 4 for Texas / Sergeants 3)THESE ARE SOME OF THE BEST MOIVES THE RAT PACK MADE. THEY DON"T MAKE MOVIES LIKE THESE ANYMORE. IT BOUGHT BACK ALOT OF GOOD MEMORIES. KICK BACK AND ENJOY,