Ocean's Eleven (1960)

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General		Extras
Category	Caper	Main Menu Audio Listing-Cast & Crew Audio Commentary-Frank Sinatra, Jr. & Angie Dickinson (Actor) Featurette-Map Of Vegas (5) Featurette-The Tonight Show Featuring Guest Host Frank Sinatra Easter Egg-Casino Legends Hall Of Fame Theatrical Trailer-2
Rating
Year Of Production	1960
Running Time	122:14
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (41:28)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Lewis Milestone
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Frank Sinatra Dean Martin Sammy Davis, Jr. Peter Lawford Angie Dickinson Richard Conte Cesar Romero Joey Bishop Henry Silva
Case	?
RPI	$34.95	Music	Nelson Riddle

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese German Romanian Bulgarian English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes, in almost every scene
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, credits roll over the last scene

    Ocean's Eleven (1960) is an enjoyable heist caper, with a simple, but clever story.

    Not to be confused with the recent remake directed by Steven Soderbergh, this 1960 version remains the best of the 'rat-pack' movies. It features good performances from an ensemble cast, including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Angie Dickinson, Joey Bishop and Cesar Romero. Also look out for a brief uncredited appearance by Shirley MacLaine.

    In this version, eleven World War II (82nd Airborne) veterans plan to put their training and experience to a different use. Led by Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra), the group plan to rob the five biggest casinos in Las Vegas in one night, the casinos being the famous Flamingo, Sands, Desert Inn, Riviera, and Sahara. The story has a number of clever plot twists, and while the story and characters bear some similarity to the recent version, there are some very fundamental differences.

Video

    Considering the age of this movie, the quality of the transfer is astonishing. A pristine print has been used, and the movie looks so fresh that it could be ten years old, rather than forty.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The quality of the sharpness, black level, and shadow detail of the transfer are all far better than I had expected.

    There is a rich palette of colours, and again this was more than I had hoped for.

    There are a few minor MPEG artefacts, but they are not too distracting. There is some mild pixelization in the image occasionally, such as at 59:34. Some of the faces display mild posterization, such as 92:05, and there is very slight macro-blocking in some of the backgrounds, such as at 106:18.

    There is also some serious aliasing, which at times is very distracting. For example consider the shimmer across the cupboard slats at 5:58, or the striped neck-tie at 40:29.

    As one would expect with a movie of this vintage, there are film artefacts throughout. Fortunately, most of them are limited to small black or white flecks, but a hair does appear at 58:29.

    There is also some slight edge enhancement, but this is only really noticeable if you are looking for it (39:47).

    There are twelve sets of subtitles, and the English subtitles are accurate.

    This is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed during Chapter 13, at 41:28. It is a smooth change, but it is disruptive as it occurs during a conversation between characters.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are four Dolby Digital mono tracks on this DVD: English, French, Italian, and the English commentary track.

    Largely due to the age of the production, there are some very noticeable problems with the dialogue quality and audio sync.

    The musical score is excellent, and was composed and conducted by the great Nelson Riddle, who is better known for his work as one of Sinatra's best arrangers. While the movie is not a musical, there are a couple of songs such as 'Ain't Love A Kick In The Head', and 'E-O-11' that appear during the movie. These were penned by the legendary songwriters Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen, who are also better known for writing some of Sinatra's classic tunes. Riddle has composed a very good score which reworks variations on the song 'E-O-11' throughout. Interestingly, Riddle has also reused some of the orchestrations from another Sinatra movie, The Tender Trap (1955). Look out for an uncredited cameo performance by Red Norvo playing the vibraphone in a Las Vegas lounge show room. Sinatra fans may recall that Sinatra toured Australia in 1959 with the Norvo Quintet, and there is a great CD recorded at a concert in Melbourne, entitled 'Frank Sinatra With Red Norvo Quintet: Live in Australia'.

    As this is a mono track that uses the centre speaker only, the surround speakers and subwoofer are not called upon.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The extras are good, and really add to one's enjoyment of the movie, but I would have loved a quality documentary about Las Vegas and/or the rat-pack.

Menu

    A very simple menu, presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital stereo audio.

Cast and Crew

    Text-based information about the main cast and crew members.

Map of Vegas

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital stereo audio, these are a collection of five short featurettes of a few minutes each. From a map, the viewer can select any of the five casinos featured in the movie, and a short featurette will briefly outline the casino's history, with some anecdotes from long-term staff-members.

Tonight Show (3:47)

    This extra is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital stereo audio. This is a short excerpt from the famous 'Tonight Show', when Frank Sinatra was the guest host. Sinatra is interviewing Angie Dickinson, and they chat about making the movie Ocean's Eleven. Sadly, the video quality is exceptionally poor.

Commentary Track

    Frank Sinatra, Jr. and Angie Dickinson provide a great deal of detail about the movie and Las Vegas generally. It is obvious that their commentaries were recorded separately. While Sinatra, Jr. does most of the talking, Dickinson provides a few anecdotes. A former Vegas performer himself, Sinatra, Jr. gives a great insight into the history of Vegas.

Theatrical Trailer 1 (3:05)

    This trailer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital mono audio.

Theatrical Trailer 2 (1:01)

    The second trailer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital mono audio.

Easter Egg (1:42)

    Select the casino chip from the special features menu, and you will see an advertorial for the Casino Legends Hall Of Fame in Las Vegas. This extra is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital stereo audio.

    Ocean's Eleven was released on DVD in Region 1 in January 2002.

The Region 4 DVD misses out on:

• Nothing

The Region 1 DVD misses out on:

• Italian mono audio
• Ten sets of subtitles

    I would call it even, but personally I would favour the local release for its affordability, and superior PAL image.

    I love Las Vegas, and I really like this movie. A must-see for rat-pack fans, this move is also worth renting by anyone who enjoyed the recent remake, if only to compare the two.

    The video quality is excellent considering the age of the source material.

    The audio quality is reasonable.

    The extras are good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall