Ocean's Eleven (1960)

'Ocean's first Eleven'

So, in an attempt to update my wife for the recent film Ocean's 13, I decided to rent Ocean's Eleven, you know, the remake with Brad Pitt and George Clooney and all that jazz. Instead, due to the fact that Blockbuster is a friggin mess, I wound up with the old school version to which my wife promptly denied watching. Probably because she couldn't just zone out and look at handsome men. So, while she was at work one day, I decided to try it out since I had never seen the original. Now, after having seen it, I like it but man is it different from the Soderbergh recent outings.

Here's the gist of the film, Danny Ocean is an ex military guy who decides to rally his old 82nd airborn group together to rob Las Vegas. Unlike the remake, they rob five casinos in one night and then try to make it out of town. The movie needed a remake honestly as it was beginning to show its age with the infrared spray paint used to label doors and other things like shoes. The cast is populated with old Vegas crooners such as Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, and even Frank Sinatra creating a regular who's who of Vegas. It's actually quite amusing to see a bunch of Vegas regulars starring in a mobie where they get revenge by robbing the casinos and I'm sure the casino's let them because they trusted the crooners. Interesting decision. Before I get into the good the bad and the ugly, I'd like to take a second and ruin some of the film, so if you want to see this at some point and you probably do, don't read the next paragraph until after the film.

The most interesting thing about this film is how it was later remade by Stephen Soderbergh. Little of the plot remains in the remake and they narrow the focus to one casino and give in a face in the form of the casino president. What they manage to do well in the remake though is recapture the sense of comraderie and fun that was obvious between these eleven in everything from personal relationships and tragedies to poking fun of a particular character all the time like Brad Pitt and Clooney do to Matt Damon in the recent films. Soderbergh also does a good job of capturing the sparse almost at times noirish dialogue displayed in the film. Accusations and ideas flow between the characters with looks only to be disputed by other looks and eventually followed by a verbal apology or some other form that could easily seem like a non-sequitur if the interchange was missed. Also, the ending of the films are completely different. In the first one, one of the characters dies and they decide to hide the money in his coffin to try and hide it from the step-father of one of the eleven who found out and is blackmailing them. The problem is that it all gets burned because the guy's wife wanted him cremated so the greatest heist in Vegas history goes down in flames as no one winds up richer. In the Soderbergh version they get away with it although some of them have to go to jail for a bit. Plus, Danny gets his wife back which doesn't happen in the original. I actually enjoyed the original's ending better as it fit a litte nicer since none of the guys in it come across as that lovable except Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin. So you don't really have a desire to see them get away with it and you don't have any desire to see Ben's greedy step-father get any of the cash either. Anyhow, besides that it was fun and it needed to be updated since the plot was beginning to show its age and I think Stephen picked up on it.

In the original, the plot is passable and really isn't that hard by today's standards. I loved the fact that the men use their strategic planning and thinking and even physicality that they learned in their army days to help rig and accomplish everything. I also loved that the plot was so big that they were going to hit 5 casinos. I especially enjoyed how each man had his own reason for joining to get the cash and that army friendship didn't necessarily automatically mean sure. It's well planned and pieced together and it easily illustrates how the best laid plans can go awry, although the cog thrown into it at the end is a bit of a stretch and makes Las Vegas look like the town where everybody knows your name if you get what I mean. My favorite bit of the plot is that the electrician has to break in to check out the wiring before he can break in again later to change it and it makes really good sense.

As for acting, the actors all do okay jobs. They play everything a bit too straight and a lot of the characterization doesn't really endear many if any of the characters to the audience. Ben is a jerk greedy slime-ball. The only one with a conscience seems to be Sam and everybody is so old school with the leathery looking faces which are great for cinema that none are really pretty boys. Although its fun to hear Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin sing a bit. As group they get along fine and work well but individually they tend to fall apart.

Conclusion:
Lewis Milestone's Eleven is a good film that resolves itself carefully in a manner that I didn't expect and makes itself into a slightly contrived but fun moral message about money and the right and wrong ways of attaining said money. The cast is decent and the crooners are interesting and fun casting but whoever that guy is who plays the foreign guy is really over the top and kid of annoying. I highly recommend this as a great comparitive piece to the remake and if you like any of the old crooners. Fans of Sammy Davis Jr. should see this indeed as it is apparent that he was probably put in as the beginning of the days of desegregation and was the token black guy who out acted most of the regulars. enjoyable. Plus the black and white cinematography is interesting sense it is shot with a noir sensibility mixed with a more commercial feel.

3.6 out of 5

Wannabe