Ocean's Eleven (1960 film)

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Ocean's Eleven
Directed by	Lewis Milestone
Produced by	Lewis Milestone
Written by	Harry Brown Charles Lederer
Starring	Frank Sinatra Dean Martin Sammy Davis Jr. Peter Lawford
Music by	Nelson Riddle
Cinematography	William H. Daniels
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	August 10, 1960 (U.S. release)
Running time	127 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Ocean's Eleven is a 1960 heist film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring five Rat Packers: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. Other stars included Angie Dickinson, Cesar Romero, Richard Conte, Akim Tamiroff, Henry Silva, Ilka Chase, Norman Fell, Harry Wilson, and Buddy Lester, as well as uncredited cameo appearances by Shirley MacLaine, Red Skelton, and George Raft. The title of this film is also often presented as Ocean's 11.

A remake, directed by Steven Soderbergh, starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts (among others) appeared in 2001, followed by Ocean's Twelve in 2004, and Ocean's Thirteen in 2007.

[edit] Plot

A gang of ten World War II Airborne veterans led by Danny Ocean (Sinatra) rob five different Las Vegas casinos (Sands, Desert Inn, Flamingo, Riviera, and Sahara) on a single night.

The gang plans the elaborate New Year's Eve heist with the precision of a military operation. Josh (Davis) takes a job driving a garbage truck while others work to scope out the various casinos. Demolition charges are planted on an electrical transmission tower and the backup electrical systems are covertly rewired in each casino.

At exactly midnight, while everyone in every Vegas casino is singing "Auld Lang Syne" the tower is blown up, Vegas goes dark. The backup electrical systems open the cashier cages instead of powering the emergency lights. The inside men sneak into the cashier cages and collect the money. They dump the bags of loot into hotel garbage bins, go back inside and mingle with the crowds. As soon as the lights come back on, the thieves stroll out of the casinos. A garbage truck driven by Josh picks up the bags and passes through the police blockade. It appears to have gone off without a hitch.

Anthony "Tony" Bergdorf (Conte), however, has a heart attack in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip and dies. Reformed gangster Duke Santos (Romero) offers to recover the casino bosses' money for a price. He learns of Danny Ocean and his connection to his fiancée's son, Jimmy Foster (Lawford), both of whom he knows to be in Vegas at the moment. Santos manages to piece together the puzzle by the time Bergdorf's body arrives at the mortician.

Santos confronts the thieves, demanding half of their take. In desperation, they hide the money in Bergdorf's coffin and give the widow $10,000 to ship it to San Francisco, where they can safely split up the loot. Alas, this plan backfires when the wife (Jean Willes) decides to keep the money for her son's education and to cremate the body (along with, unwittingly, the money). The crooks walk away empty-handed.

[edit] Filming

Shot on location in Las Vegas, "Ocean's Eleven" was considered the first of the Rat Pack films. Although it's not the first one in which its members appeared together, it did form a framework for subsequent vehicles tailored around Messrs. Sinatra, Dean and Davis -- e.g., Sergeants 3, 4 For Texas and Robin and the 7 Hoods.

Shot during the day and the wee hours of the morning on and around the Las Vegas strip, Frank Sinatra not only filmed his scenes in "Ocean's" but also a cameo appearance in the film Pepe along with performing on stage during the evenings at The Sands hotel. Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop joined him at the Sands on stage during filming. During the crime film's iconic closing shot, the Sands marquee can be seen in the background featuring the performers' names.

[edit] Cameo Appearances

Shirley MacLaine took a break from filming The Apartment to shoot a scene with Dean Martin as a tipsy woman who interrupts him during the heist. George Raft played a casino owner and Red Skelton appeared as himself. It has been rumored that Milton Berle, Tony Curtis and Jackie Gleason were also offered cameo roles, but did not appear.

[edit] Ocean's 11 in Popular Culture

Oft referenced over the years, Ocean's 11 has become hailed as the definitive outing for The Rat Pack and one of star Frank Sinatra's most popular films. The iconic image of the main players was emulated by Quentin Tarantino in Reservoir Dogs (1992) whilst a remake starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon signalled the start of a lucrative franchise for the actors. Two sequels were made, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen, the latter referencing the original Danny Ocean, Frank Sinatra, in the plot and featuring one of his songs, This Town.

In 2007 VH1 ranked Ocean's 11, both the original and remake, as the top Las Vegas movie of all time.

[edit] See also

• Ocean's Eleven, the remake

[edit] External links

• Ocean's Eleven (1960) at the Internet Movie Database

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