Eddie Fisher Dies at 82

[hornet61]

Sinatra attempted suicide in the early 50's by sticking his head in a stove. Doesn''t sound like he was too satisfied w/himself.

Yeah, I tried that once also......but unlike Sinatra , I turned on The gas......

 

[RicoGregg]

Sinatra attempted suicide in the early 50's by sticking his head in a stove. Doesn''t sound like he was too satisfied w/himself.

Yeah, I tried that once also......but unlike Sinatra , I turned on The gas......

Sinatra nearly committed "suicide" later when he made A Hole in the Head. The film is brutal, and for most of the rest of his life, interviewers couldn't get him to talk about it.

Quick note: The hotel used in that movie is now owned by Emilio & Gloria Estefan.

Woops! There goes another rubber tree plant!  :

 

[hornet61]

Sinatra attempted suicide in the early 50's by sticking his head in a stove. Doesn''t sound like he was too satisfied w/himself.

Yeah, I tried that once also......but unlike Sinatra , I turned on The gas......

Sinatra nearly committed "suicide" later when he made A Hole in the Head. The film is brutal, and for most of the rest of his life, interviewers couldn't get him to talk about it.

Quick note: The hotel used in that movie is now owned by Emilio & Gloria Estefan.

Woops! There goes another rubber tree plant! :

coincidently..I watched Manchurian Candidate last night..filming finished about the same time as the Kennedy assination, and Sinatra held it up from release for a period of time. Queen of Diamonds, Queen of Diamonds.....

 

[TheFonz]

I think that this issue has become a bit convoluted. Here are some facts:

1. Eddie Fisher had 17 Top 10 hits between 1950 and 1956. Does that qualify him as a replacement for Sinatra during that era? You decide.

2. Elvis Presley had his first chart hit in 1956 (Heartbreak Hotel).

3. Eddie married Debbie in 1955 and they divorced in 1959. It hardly seems possible that the divorce and his romance with Liz Taylor caused the demise of his career. Most likely it was rock & roll.

I should have added that Fisher had ZERO Top 10 Pop hits after 1956, three years before his divorce from Debbie.

 

[landtuna]

Sinatra nearly committed "suicide" later when he made A Hole in the Head. The film is brutal, and for most of the rest of his life, interviewers couldn't get him to talk about it.

Why do you say that? I looked up the movie on IMDB and it got reasonable ratings and made $11M, not bad for its time. One reviewer even thought it was Sinatra's best work.

 

[RicoGregg]

Sinatra nearly committed "suicide" later when he made A Hole in the Head. The film is brutal, and for most of the rest of his life, interviewers couldn't get him to talk about it.

Why do you say that? I looked up the movie on IMDB and it got reasonable ratings and made $11M, not bad for its time. One reviewer even thought it was Sinatra's best work.

Fair question. I'll do my best to answer and to try to keep it brief.

Have you ever seen A Hole in the Head? The movie is a marvel in one respect: Virtually every character, especially Eddie Hodges as Sinatra's screechy son, is annoying! With the possible exception of Eleanor Parker's character, it's virtually impossible to find anybody in this film you could like or care about.

Rather than list some of Mr. Sinatra's movies that I find superior, the list would be long, I'll just say that this work of his isn't even close to being his best.

I'm confident that your figures are correct. Does that include re-releases, worldwide gross, television licensing fees, and future home video earnings? Things were different in the movie industry back then. Frank Sinatra was in his movie grossing prime. He was automatic box office. He made a few other stinkers like Come Blow Your Horn, but thanks to his enormous drawing power, his films all made money.

It's no trick for bad movies to get a good revue somewhere. If you look hard enough at enough newspapers, and that's one reason that 24 hour newsstands have thrived in L.A. for decades, you can find someone with something nice to say.

One of THE worst films of the 70s, At Long Last Love, a train wreck of a movie musical that starred Burt Reynolds and Cybil Shepherd, and directed by the talented Peter Bogdanovich, was so badly received and reviewed that everyone associated with it wanted to find a hole to crawl into. Bogdanovich had to put full page ads in papers nationwide apologizing to theater owners for the film's poor quality.

But, the film did get a good review from a guy in Chicago named....Roger Ebert. He'll defend the film today.

If you've never seen A Hole in the Head, oddly enough, I would recommend you do so. You know how they say a film or a TV show is unwatchable? Well, as bad as this film is, and it was directed by another great talent, Frank Capra, it IS watchable. If nothing else, you might want to watch to see how everything comes together, or falls apart, in the end.

Last add: Amazingly, this film has it's own fan website:

http://www.aholeinthehead.com

 

[landtuna]

Have you ever seen A Hole in the Head?

No. That's why I found it difficult to reconcile your statement with the one found on IMDB.

I'm confident that your figures are correct. Does that include re-releases, worldwide gross, television licensing fees, and future home video earnings? Things were different in the movie industry back then.

I quoted the IMDB figure. I have no idea whether it is earnings-to-date or just initial U.S. release. Since it is now available free on Hulu I wouldn't think it would still be earning receipts anywhere.

But, the film did get a good review from a guy in Chicago named....Roger Ebert. He'll defend the film today.

To each his own I suppose. I was just curious. There are a few Sinatra films I thought he did a good job in but I'm not really a Sinatra fan - musically or otherwise.

Thanks for the explanation.

 

[GridLeakBias]

Sinatra attempted suicide in the early 50's by sticking his head in a stove. Doesn''t sound like he was too satisfied w/himself.

Yeah, I tried that once also......but unlike Sinatra , I turned on The gas......

Sinatra nearly committed "suicide" later when he made A Hole in the Head. The film is brutal, and for most of the rest of his life, interviewers couldn't get him to talk about it.

Quick note: The hotel used in that movie is now owned by Emilio & Gloria Estefan.

Woops! There goes another rubber tree plant! :

coincidently..I watched Manchurian Candidate last night..filming finished about the same time as the Kennedy assination, and Sinatra held it up from release for a period of time. Queen of Diamonds, Queen of Diamonds.....

Hollywood rumor holds that Sinatra removed the film from distribution after the John F. Kennedy assassination on November 22, 1963. Strictly speaking, the film was not completely removed from distribution, as is proved by Time magazine's archives section online. It has also been said that Sinatra did not acquire distribution rights to The Manchurian Candidate until the late 1970s. This claim has been offered as evidence that he did not withdraw it for reasons of discretion, and that nobody else did either. However, he could easily have influenced such a decision without actually holding the distribution rights. Guess we'll never know for sure since the Chairman Of The Board is no longer with us.
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