Made up of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford, The Rat Pack were the coolest group of actors/musicians to come out of the American entertainment scene of the era. Though they made plenty of films individually, the four in this set represent the best of their collaborative efforts and it's a fitting gesture that this material is being released and/or re-released in honor of the tenth anniversary of Sinatra's passing. First things first, however - there aren't any major differences between the three Warner Brothers titles in this boxed set to their 2002 releases. Sergeant's 3 is here on DVD for the first time but Fox/MGM have made that DVD available separately meaning owners of the original releases don't need to splurge for this set simply to get one film. With that out of the way, on with the show!

Ocean's 11 (1960)

The best known and most beloved of the four pictures in this set, Ocean's 11 (later remade by Steven Soderbergh with George Clooney in the lead) stars Frank Sinatra as Danny Ocean, the man with the plan. Danny and his eleven buddies - Sam Harmon (Dean Martin), Josh Howard (Sammy Davis Jr.), Jimmy Foster (Peter Lawford), Tony Bergdorf (Richard Conte), Mushy O'Connors (Joey Bishop), Roger Corneal (Henry Silva), Curley Steffens (Richard Benedict), Vince Massler (Buddy Lester), Peter Rheimer (Norman Fell), Louis Jackson (Clem Harvey) and the old man who came up with the idea, Spyros Acebos (Akim Tamiroff) - used to be in the army together. Ocean gathers the gang up once again so that they can help him and Acebos pull off the heist of a lifetime. Their plan? To blow all the lights in Las Vegas and knock over five casinos at the same time and to hopefully make it out with a cool eleven million dollars in cold, hard cash.

Ocean and his crew encounter a few problems along the way, like Ocean's estranged wife Beatrice (Angie Dickinson), Bergdorf's mother, Gracie (Jean Willes) and her sneak of a fiancé, Duke Santos (Cesar Romero). To complicate matters even more, one of Danny's many ex-girlfriends, Adele Ekstrom (Patrice Wymore), is running around Las Vegas at the same time.

Ocean's 11 is a fun film whose success rests primarily on the shoulders of its ultra cool cast. Sinatra plays it straight here with most of the comic relief coming from the very capable Dean Martin (with drink perpetually in hand) and the equally goofy Davis. While Ol' Blue Eyes isn't in the film as much as he is in some of his other starring vehicles (thanks to the ensemble casting) his performance definitely stands out in the film. A young Henry Silva is memorable as one of the co-conspirators, and it's interesting to see his jovial work here, particularly if you're familiar with him only from the Italian crime films where he specialized in hardboiled tough guy roles. Cameo appearances from Pinky Lee, a young Shirley MacLaine, and Red Skelton don't hurt matters in this department either, this is an exceptionally well cast film and the perfect type of movie for the Rat Pack to tackle.

Well shot on location in the Las Vegas of the time (a very different animal than the current day city of sin), Ocean's 11 is a film that looks as slick as its cast. Plenty of glitz and glamour is one display throughout the picture, with all sorts of swanky interiors used to play up the posh lifestyle that the major players in the film were so intent on enjoying. A few musical numbers pepper the film - notably Sammy Davis Jr. crooning away to 'Ee-OO-Eleven' and Dean Martin doing 'Ain't That A Kick In The Head' not once but twice. Throw in a burlesque act with a snake dancer and plenty of foxy ladies in the background of all the casino scenes and you can see how this is a Rat Pack film that absolutely looks the part.

Even at two hours in length, the film doesn't feel particularly padded or overly long. It moves at a good pace even if much of the running time is made of up dialogue intensive scenes rather than action material (the only action set piece being the bar brawl at the burlesque club). Of course, it all builds up to a fantastic twist ending, one that still plays well today, even if you've seen the film before. While some of the players were better in other solo efforts than they were here, Ocean's 11 remains, for many, the definitive Rat Pack film as it let's the boys play it up big on what was, at the time at least, their chosen stomping grounds.

Sergeants 3 (1962)

Until now, Sergeants 3 (a loose remake of Gunga Din (1939) set in the old west) was one of the hardest Rat Pack pictures to find, but that doesn't make it one of their best efforts. The film follows First Sergeant Mike Merry (Frank Sinatra), Sergeant Chip O'Deal (Dean Martin) and Sergeant Larry Barrett (Peter Lawford), a trio of military men who are tasked with stopping a Native American uprising lead by Mountain Hawk (Henry Silva). A recently freed slave named Jonah Williams (Sammy Davis Jr.) gets caught up in the mix when he tries to enlist while a reluctant cavalry soldier named Sergeant-Major Roger Boswell (Joey Bishop) becomes irked by the way that the three sergeants bend the rules to fit their needs.

The last 'true Rat Pack' movie, Sergeants 3 is a fun western comedy that is played very tongue in cheek. Once this film was over, Sinatra kicked Lawford out of the group when President Kennedy crashed at Bing Crosby's pad instead of his own - for some reason, Sinatra felt Lawford (Kennedy's brother-in-law) was the reason that the president made that decision. Regardless, this is the last time all five core members would appear on screen together and it's a charming picture in a sense. Where Gunga Din is a fairly serious film, this version is meant to entertain and nothing more. It's neither deep nor serious but it is an enjoyable and reasonably amusing film.

The highlight of the film is Dean Martin playing the role that Cary Grant had in Gunga Din. He steals the show and shows that he really did have a great talent for comedic acting. Sinatra plays his typically cool self while Davis is as goofy as Davis tended to be, but loveable because of it. Silva makes a great foil for the guys, and while the politically incorrect humor might put some folks off (the scene where Davis is forced at gun point to entertain the white folk in particular), the film was simply a product of its time and it's hard to walk away from it feeling that anyone involved had mean spirited intent, particularly when you consider how much Sinatra and company helped break down doors for black entertainers in Las Vegas around this time.

Sergeants 3 looks good and the background score is great. The few musical numbers in the picture are entertaining and the camaraderie between the Rat Pack members is truly enjoyable. Sure, it's smart-alecky to the extreme but that's half the charm of their collaborative efforts. It's played very off the cuff and if it isn't deep, if it isn't Earth shattering, or if it isn't the be-all-end-all of cinema, who cares. It's entertaining enough and it's great to have it available on home video after all these years.

4 For Texas (1963)

With only Sinatra and Martin representing the Rat Pack in this film, it just barely belongs in this collection but when you fill out the cast with the likes of Ursula Andress, Anita Ekberg, Victor Buono and the mighty Charles Bronson, it's still a pretty enjoyable romp through the wild west.

In the film Sinatra and Martin play Zack Thomas and Joe Jarrett respectively, two tough guys carrying a bunch of Thomas' cash through the west. A gang, lead by a guy named Matson (Charles Bronson) attempt a hold up but the two cowboys chase the bad guys off. Once they reach their destination, Jarrett runs off with the loot and puts it into a bank in Galveston.

What Jarrett doesn't know is that Matson is working for the local banking big wig, Harvey Burdon (Victor Buono) and he doesn't intend to let him run hold onto that money for long. Zack arrives in town and Matson tries to murder him, but Jarrett isn't a completely bad person and his interference saves Zack's life. Zack isn't too happy to learn about Jarrett's plans to open a casino in town, however, as that was what he intended to do with the cash that Jarrett conveniently relieved him of. Zack decides to stop Jarrett before it's too late, but neither man realizes that Burdon is working behind the scenes...

The focus here is on the interplay between Sinatra and Martin. Obviously the two were close friends in real life and that genuine chemistry is a big reason that 4 For Texas works as well as it does. These two are having a good time on camera and it shows. Bronson makes for a great straight man, while Ekberg and Andress, as Sinatra and Martin's girlfriends respectively, stand around and provide plenty of appealing eye candy even if they don't do much to further the plot. Sinatra and Martin are great here, however, spending most of the film's running time involved in various types of gambling and chasing girls... not too far removed from their real life personas.

There are a few too many talky scenes and there are some definite pacing problems with the picture but fans of Sinatra and Martin will enjoy the light hearted film for what it is. An unexpected cameo from the Three Stooges is curious but Robert Aldrich's direction seems non-existent. You didn't tell Sinatra and Martin what to do on stage and it's probably a safe guess that you didn't tell them what to do in front of a camera either, resulting in a movie where Frank and Dino simply do their thing that really could have been directed by anybody with a pulse. Regardless, a few chuckles, some nice scenery, a pair of foxy broads and steely-eyed Charlie Bronson make it worth a watch even if it can't compete with the best of the Rat Pack/Sinatra films.

Robin And The 7 Hoods (1964)

The last film in the set is in many critic's eyes the best of the bunch. When the film starts off, a hood named Guy Gisborne (Peter Falk) and the local corrupt Sheriff (Victor Buono) kill the current mob boss, Big Jim (an uncredited Edward G. Robinson). Guy forces all the mobsters in the area to come together as one big racket under his control. No one has the guts to stand up to Guy except for a mobster named Robbo (Frank Sinatra), who doesn't trust Guy as far as he can throw him.

Robbo heads to his speakeasy where he runs into a pool shark named Little John (Dean Martin). After a game of billiards they join forces and eventually befriend Allen A. Dale (Bing Crosby) the man who runs a local orphanage after one of Robbo's men, Will (Sammy Davis Jr.), makes a $10,000.00 donation to the charity in Robbo's name. Robbo soon becomes a Robin Hood like figure, donating portions from his illegal gambling and booze businesses to local charities and people in need. While this is going on, Guy is planning to knock over Robbo's business and take it over and Big Jim's daughter, Marian (Barbara Rush), is snooping around and playing both sides of the fence.

For this film, Sinatra essentially replaced Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford with Bing Crosby (this would be his last theatrically released musical) and Peter Falk. While the film lacks the 'cool' of Ocean's 11, Crosby and Falk prove to be good choices, with both contributing musical numbers to the picture (Falk's singing voice is less than pleasant but it does have character). Musical highlights include Sinatra, Martin and Crosby singing 'Style,' Davis singing 'Bang! Bang!' and Crosby's word of warning to would be alcoholics, 'Mr. Booze.' The film is a fun updating of the Robin Hood legend that contains a few solid laughs and a fairly surprising twist ending. The film breezes through it's two hour plus running time and it's filled with enough mirth and mayhem to be enjoyable from start to finish.

Sinatra and Martin are as charming as ever but it's Crosby, very much cast against type in this picture, who really shines. He's obviously having a good time in the film and he's a joy to watch. Falk plays the same kind of surly, gruff character he's always excelled at but his inclusion in the film is a plus. He makes a great, sleazy foil to Sinatra's semi-honorable mobster. Ocean's 11 might be more famous (in no small part due to Soderbergh's trilogy) but Robin And The 7 Hoods is the more entertaining film and it's still very much an enjoyable musical comedy in the grand Hollywood tradition.

Video:

All four films in the set are presented in their original aspect ratios (all of which are 2.35.1 save for 4 For Texas which is 1.85.1), and all four films look pretty nice but they aren't all perfect...

Ocean's 11: The most famous film in the set shows a little more wear than the other three pictures do. This is a good transfer, no doubt, but it could have been a little bit cleaner. Color reproduction thankfully looks nice and accurate and doesn't appear to have been boosted at all and the skin tones look dead on. There is mild edge enhancement in some scene if you keep your eyes open for it, as well as the odd speck of print damage here and there.

Robin And The 7 Hoods: The second film fares a little better than Ocean's 11 does, it looks cleaner and crisper and features nice colors and strong black levels. Some grain is present, but that's okay, as it just looks filmic rather than dirty. Overall this is a very solid, very nice looking transfer without any glaring problems.

4 For Texas: Some of the night scenes in this one are a bit murky but overall, this is a pretty nice looking transfer. A little line shimmering is evident as is the requisite amount of film grain and some really minor print damage but there's little to complain about here. Colors look accurate if just a little bit faded while skin tones are nice and lifelike and accurate.

Sergeants 3: This is on par with the other transfers in the set. Some grain obscures some of the fine detail but it isn't overpowering overall. Colors are reasonably realistic looking and while some of the background detail is a little bit soft, the foreground is usually nice and sharp looking. There are no problems with mpeg compression artifacts or heavy edge enhancement, and print damage is minor when it's noticeable.