Nothing says New Years like getting your old paratroup gang together and robbing Las Vegas. This is the original Rat Pack film that brought Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford together on film. The basic plot is their elaborate heist of five casinos simultaneously on New Year’s Eve only to ultimately lose the money in an overly elaborate on the spur of the moment plan change to get the money out of town by hiding it in the coffin of a gang member who had a heart attack right after the heist.
The film really doesn’t have much plot, the first hour is taken up with Frank, Dino and Sammy sitting around The Sands knocking back enough liquor to set up a bootlegger for life, oogling showgirls, cracking wise and calling each other Chickee Babe. But after all of this fun,they finally decide to actually get to the plot and the entire heist takes all of five minutes, then it’s back to the partying until the final bit with the twist ending and then the iconic final shot of them walking dejectedly past The Sands.
But who really watches a Rat Pack film for the actual pot, it’s to see how cool they are, enjoying their chemistry together as they obviously are having a fun time together, spotting cameos by their friends like Shirley MacLaine and Joe Gray, plus Dino gets to belt out a song.
