Part Of The Rat Pack Gone West

4 For Texas (1963) Gets More Bearable

This could have been another really good Robert Aldrich movie, an outcome frustrated by Frank Sinatra (Aldrich said as much in interviews). Sinatra had no patience with projects he didn't respect, and doled his time to a point where footage with him diminished during Four's second half. This was an HD Texas revisit after six years, the last GPS encounter here, and hanged if this scruffy spoof isn't starting to grow on me. There's more in speculation on what happened behind-scenes than interest in action we see. My guess is that Dean Martin cooperated better with Aldrich because he liked westerns and wanted to be in a good one, a goal Frank made impossible to fulfill. A secondary cast is peppered with Aldrich regulars --- I wanted Ralph Meeker to stop in so that Kiss Me Deadly's reunion would be complete. I'm embarrassed for Sinatra when he (and larger double) engage fisticuffs with Dean, it obvious to a child that the latter could handily beat tar out of the former. For all Frank's frustration with Martin on and off Rat Pack stage, do you suppose he ever dared getting in the larger man's face? (given Sinatra's comparative runt stature, I certainly wouldn't have) Four (or 4) For Texas looks vivid in HD --- you can count beads of sweat on portly Vic Buono's forehead.