Meet Danny Wilson

Firstly, I like the directness of the title. Apparently one of those films Sinatra made when he was on his career downward curve before "From Here To Eternity" on screen and Capitol Records on vinyl set him aright a couple of years later. Me, I really enjoyed it and wouldn't wonder it might have gotten a better reception and been better remembered if it had been made after 1953 and all that.

The story's pretty far fetched as Sinatra, Alex Nicol, Raymond Burr and a young Shelley Winters play out a love-rectangle if you will with surprisingly, Nicol being the one who gets the girl. Burr is the mobster with designs on her after he employs her as a singer at one of his clubs and who then takes singer and pianist duo Nicol and Sinatra on as their agent but at a hefty 50% cut of their earnings. Nicol is the nice guy, older than Frank's Danny Wilson and obviously some sort of mentor / father figure to him which is just as well as Frank's clearly going through his wild years (thanks, Tom Waits) always one misheard remark or misunderstanding away from a fist fight, from which Nicol usually extricates him.

How the intertwining love stories and the duo's situation with Burr resolve themselves are a little rushed and pat into the bargain, but there's enough grit and drama to see it through to a satisfactory conclusion.

The story goes that Sinatra and Winters didn't get along on set, but you wouldn't really know it here as they make a feisty and watchable couple. I don't recall seeing Nicol in a movie before but liked his work here, the straight man to firecracker Frankie. Burr actually isn't much on camera but conveys a credible sense of malevolence when he does.

The main attraction for Sinatra aficionados is the chance to see the still young Francis Albert looking good and sounding great rendering a nice selection of well known songs in fine style, including "All Of Me", "When You're Smiling", "That Old Black Magic" and "I've Got A Crush On You". He also has a knockout duet with Winters singing "A Good Man Is Hard To Find".

Other things to like were the New York settings, although much of it was probably recreated I'd guess, a one-line cameo by Tony Curtis and there's a cute scene where Sinatra effectively invents the first flash-mob at the airport to try to stop Winters leaving him, just after she's reluctantly become engaged to him.

So there you have it, part musical, part drama, part thriller, an unusual cocktail of a movie but these shaken up ingredients settle well together and made for a good 90 minutes well spent.

At the time of its release "Meet Danny Wilson" was never considered to be one of Frank Sinatra's better roles and the film received poor reviews in most of the Press. However, in my opinion it was the perfect part for Sinatra (almost a fictionalised biography of his life in fact) - he gave a most impressive performance and put over all his songs with superb style and confidence. This was Sinatra's last film before his celebrated "comeback" role in "From Here to Eternity" (1953) for which he deservedly won the Best Supporting Actor "Oscar". "Meet Danny Wilson" is one of Sinatra's lesser known films made during the shaky period when his career was in serious decline. Everyone remembers "Pal Joey", "The Joker Is Wild", "Man With the Golden Arm", "High Society", "Guys and Dolls", "The Manchurian Candidate", "Oceans 11" and the other Rat Pack films but how many can actually recall "Meet Danny Wilson"? Just a few dedicated fans I'll wager!

Although "Meet Danny Wilson" was only a small budget black and white production (from Universal International) it was competently directed by Joseph Pevney and had a talented supporting cast including Shelley Winters, Alex Nicol and Raymond Burr, with cameo appearances from Tony Curtis and Jeff Chandler. The film contains a wonderful range of Sinatra standards such as "She's Funny That Way", "That Old Black Magic", "When You're Smiling", "All of Me", "I've Got a Crush on You", "How Deep is the Ocean?" and others.

Sinatra played quick tempered up and coming bar singer Danny Wilson hoping to break into big time show business. Alex Nicol was his friend/pianist/manager Mike Ryan always there to get him out of trouble and Shelley Winters as Joy Carroll provided the love interest (although it has been rumoured that in reality Winters did not get on at all well with Sinatra during the filming!). Raymond Burr (in an early role long before his popular "Perry Mason" TV series) was corrupt club owner and gangster Nick Driscoll who could foresee the star potential in Danny and therefore gave him a singing engagement at his club to get him started (and gain control) in return for 50% of all Danny's future earnings. This arrangement naturally caused much bitterness and many problems later when Danny became famous!!

Raymond Burr: "Personally, I'm a Crosby fan". Sinatra: "That should make Bing very happy".

"Meet Danny Wilson" is one of Sinatra's more obscure films but has an interesting storyline with good performances by its stars. The songs alone make it all worthwhile. Be sure to see it if you get the chance. 10/10. Clive Roberts.

This musical has Frank Sinatra in the title role as a bantam rooster of a fellow, who picks fights with anyone who annoys him, but has a marvelous singing voice. Shelley Winters is Joy Carroll, a nightclub thrush Danny falls in love with. Alex Nicol is Mike Ryan, Wilson's manager, piano player and roommate. Raymond Burr is a gangster who owns the nightclub where Joy sings, and where Danny gets his big break.

Sinatra is in good voice here, especially on "That Ol' Black Magic" and his duet with Winters, "A Good Man Is Hard To Find". Aside from their duet, Sinatra has zero chemistry with Winters. Winters does well in her scenes with Burr and Nicol, but she seems angry in almost all of her scenes with Sinatra. Burr makes a good impression as the gangster Nick Driscoll.

From what I've read in Winters' autobiographies and biographies of Sinatra, the two apparently couldn't stand each other, and the film almost didn't get finished. They both walked off the set more than once, had multiple screaming matches, and during the shooting of a hospital scene, Winters capped off one screaming match with Sinatra during the filming of a hospital scene by throwing a bedpan at him. It connected. The film ends abruptly, with the two stars in separate shots, not together in the same scene.

Any excuse like Meet Danny Wilson you can get to hear Frank Sinatra sing some great old standards is something to take advantage of. Problem with Meet Danny Wilson is that when Sinatra stops singing, he's really one obnoxious boor in this film.

Singer Frank Sinatra and his accompanist piano player Alex Nicol are making a meager living in a whole lot of dives until top singer Shelley Winters hears them and gets them hired by her gangster boss Raymond Burr. Burr's got eyes for her, Sinatra has eyes for her, but she only sees Nicol. That leads to a whole lot of complications.

What further leads to complications is Raymond Burr's verbal contract to get 50% of Sinatra's earnings. Burr doesn't like things in writing just fork over the money and he has 32 caliber lawyer if needed.

Some have said this is a thinly veiled Sinatra autobiographical film. If so it's a picture of Frank no one could take. I'm still trying to figure out why Nicol puts up with him. They're old army buddies, but that only takes you so far.

Danny Wilson is one of the least attractive characters Sinatra ever brought to the screen. But when he's singing, my oh my.

Danny Wilson (Frank Sinatra) and Michael Francis (Alex Nicol) are a struggling entertainment duo. Hot head Danny keeps getting them into trouble. Joy Carroll (Shelley Winters) grabs them off the streets. She needs drinking company after a bad break. Danny hits a policeman and the guys get arrested. Joy bails them out and gets them jobs in a nightclub owned by gangster Nick Driscoll (Raymond Burr).

This movie is going all out on Sinatra's crooning. His real stardom helps although in his post-war real life, he did fall into a small dip. This has a lot of old classics. Winters is playing the sexy dame but she does it with force. She surprises me with some sassy singing. Notoriously, she and Sinatra had a big dust up during the filming. One doesn't really sense the animosity although their romantic chemistry is not that great. Winters could never do that demure lovey-dovey romantic stuff that well. It's not really in her bag of tricks. The movie takes a hard turn into gangster violence which doesn't really fit. Sinatra's big fight scene before that is his opponent laughing at his weak punches. Sinatra is not really the hard hitting type. The movie is a mishmash of elements. Some of them like Sinatra's singing is great. Some others are ill-fitting. All in all, it's an interesting intersection for these two legendary entertainers.