The Night We Called It a Day (film)
The Night We Called It a Day | |
---|---|
Directed by | Paul Goldman |
Written by | Peter Clifton Michael Thomas |
Starring | Dennis Hopper Melanie Griffith Portia de Rossi Joel Edgerton Rose Byrne David Hemmings |
Cinematography | Danny Ruhlmann |
Music by | Rupert Gregson-Williams |
Distributed by | ContentFilm International |
Release date |
|
Running time | 97 minutes |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
The Night We Called It a Day, also known as All the Way,
Plot
In 1974, Rod Blue is a surfer with shoulder-length hair in
Sinatra takes a liking to the kid, overhearing him express why Sinatra's music means so much to him and to everyone. With his lawyer Mickey Rudin and right-hand man Jilly Rizzo in assent that a trip like this would be a good thing at this point for the singer's career, Sinatra agrees to go.
At the airport in Australia, members of the media ask blunt and impolite personal questions as soon as Sinatra and his companion,
Rod and his new assistant, Audrey Appleby, who has known him since their youth and long had a crush on him, do their best to make Sinatra's party comfortable in the penthouse of a Sydney hotel. Audrey strikes up a fast friendship with Barbara, who praises Sinatra as a lover but doesn't wish to rush him into marriage.
Before going to
Trade unions instantly react. Banding together, they decide to cut off all services to Sinatra immediately, including food, drink and maid service at his hotel. Newspapers mock the singer with headlines like "Frankie, Go Home," but even that is problematic, inasmuch no one is willing now to supply fuel for his jet, either.
An apology is demanded, but the best Sinatra is willing to do is permit Rudin to try to work out a satisfactory compromise with Bob Hawke, the trade union's leader (and Australia's future prime minister). Audrey, meantime, becomes furious at finding Rod kissing reporter Hilary, after which Rod gets into a bloody fistfight with Sinatra's sidekick, Rizzo, who refuses to release tapes of the concert that Rod has already pre-sold.
It is ultimately proposed that Sinatra will do a benefit concert for the trades people, but as soon as he gets back on stage, rather than apologize for calling the reporter a two-dollar hooker, he says: "I overpaid." Enjoying himself nevertheless, the singer calls Barbara up to the stage, introducing her to Australia as "the girl I'm going to marry."
Cast
- Dennis Hopper as Frank Sinatra
- Barbara Marx
- Portia de Rossi as Hilary Hunter
- Joel Edgerton as Rod Blue
- Rose Byrne as Audrey Appleby
- David Hemmings as Mickey Rudin
- David Field as Bob Hawke
- Victoria Thaine as Penny
- Stephen O'Rourke as Jilly Rizzo
- Nicholas Hope as Phil
- George Vidalis as Vinny
- Peter Demlakian as Ruby
- Tony Barry as Ralph Blue
- Vincent Ball as Rex Hooper
- Jennifer Hagan as Doris
- Nicholas Papademetriou as Luigi
- Tom Burlinson as Frank Sinatra (singing voice)
Production
The film was loosely based on true events. Barbara Marx had been divorced from Zeppo Marx in 1973, a year before the Frank Sinatra concert appearance in Australia depicted in this film. She and Sinatra got married in 1976 and remained together for the rest of his life.
Jilly Rizzo, a restaurateur who became close friend and associate of Sinatra, was killed on his 75th birthday by a drunk driver in 1992. Milton A. "Mickey" Rudin was the singer's attorney; he died of pneumonia in December 1999, a year and a half after Sinatra's death from natural causes.
The labor leader portrayed in the film, Bob Hawke, became prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991.
Sinatra's hotel in 1974 was the Boulevard in
The character of Rod Blue in the film is fictional, as is the love story involving his assistant. Robert Raymond was the 1974 tour's promoter.
The Night We Called It a Day was the first song Frank Sinatra recorded in 1942. The film's title was changed in North America to All the Way, a song Sinatra recorded in 1957.
Sinatra's singing voice for this film was provided by the Australian actor Tom Burlinson, who previously had recreated the vocals for a 1992 American television miniseries called Sinatra produced by the singer's daughter, Tina Sinatra.
Box office
The Night We Called It a Day grossed $502,561 at the box office in Australia.[5]
See also
References
- ^ IMDb
- ^ "All the Way" (2003), Rotten Tomatoes
- ^ Aussie Osbourne, "All the Way".
- ^ Vyver, James (21 November 2018). "'He was almost legless': How Bob Hawke and a bottle of brandy saved Sinatra from tour disaster". Australia: ABC News. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
- ^ Film Victoria - Australian Films at the Australian Box Office