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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
First born in the pages of The New Yorker, then translated into a hit Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical, the title character of Pal Joey had undergone quite a transformation by the time he hit the movies in 1957. He was a singer, rather than a dancer, but more importantly he'd had his rough edges sweetly softened; the callous heel dreamed up by novelist John O'Hara was more of a naughty scamp in the film version. However, Pal Joey remains delightfully watchable for two very good reasons: a terrific song score and a surplus of glittering star power. Frank Sinatra, at the zenith of his cocky, world-on-a-string popularity, glides through the film with breezy nonchalance, romancing showgirl Kim Novak (Columbia Pictures' new sex symbol) and wealthy widow Rita Hayworth (Columbia Pictures' former sex symbol). The film also benefits from location shooting in San Francisco, caught in the moonlight-and-supper-club glow of the late '50s. Sinatra does beautifully with the Rodgers and Hart classics 'I Didn't Know What Time It Was' and 'I Could Write a Book,' and his performance of 'The Lady Is a Tramp' (evocatively shot by director George Sidney) is flat-out genius. Sinatra's ease with hep-cat lingo nearly outdoes Bing Crosby at his best, and included in the DVD is a trailer in which Sinatra instructs the audience in 'Joey's Jargon,' a collection of hip slang words such as 'gasser' and 'mouse.' If not one of Sinatra's very best movies, Pal Joey is nevertheless a classy vehicle that fits like a glove. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Life in the Musical Theater
Pal Joey is thoroughly delightful. I'd forgotten just how much. Even though my favorite song comes from this movie, Frank Sinatra was much too old and didn't have Eddie Fisher's looks for an EF fanclub president like little old me. I certainly thought he was taller (like Michael Feinstein, big talent comes in short people); after all, he was already a star in the entertainment business and movies, not just on television. Though he was not 'bewitching,' he was a bundle of talent and versitility ... Read More
Rating:  - Pal Joey DVD
I love this movie...such a classic, great soundtrack and acting! Both my husband and I have watched this over and over....pure entertainment at its best! Highly rcommend.
Rating:  - Hollywood Whitewash
"Pal Joey" (1957) makes a sanitized translation to the big screen, with a trio of classic stars - Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak - elevating an uneven, overlong musical. The film is worth seeing for Sinatra's signature tune "The Lady Is a Tramp" and director George Sidney's visual stylishness, yet lacks the hard-edged quality of the stage version. Thanks to the prudish Hays Office, "Pal Joey" emerges as another casualty of Hollywood censorship.
Rating: - Classic Rodgers-Hart Songs Provide Framework for a Swinging Sinatra in a Predictably Drawn Triangle
If Frank Sinatra had a signature role in his long movie career, this must be it because he plays one of his coolest cats in this fairly adult 1957 musical drama based on a book by John O'Hara. However, it's better remembered for the fourteen songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, many of which became Sinatra standards. Written by Dorothy Kingsley, the rather slight story has the crooner play womanizing nightclub singer Joey Evans who keeps losing jobs because cad that he is, he likes to fool around ... Read More
Rating: - the ultimate Sinatra musical
As other reviewers have noted, Frank Sinatra was at the top of his form when he starred in PAL JOEY, the film version of the celebrated Rodgers and Hart musical (originally staged on Broadway in 1940 starring Gene Kelly).
Based around the cynical short stories of John O'Hara, PAL JOEY is the story of womanising nightclub entertainer Joey Evans (Sinatra) and his various affairs, most notably with Mrs Simpson (Rita Hayworth), a widowed millionairess trying to escape her past as a stripper; and ... Read More
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