The Joker is Wild

The Joker is Wild (1957) is a biographical musical drama starring Frank Sinatra, available to watch online on iFILM. Director Charles Vidor tells the true story of Joe E. Lewis — a Chicago nightclub singer who made the mistake of switching clubs during Prohibition, and paid for it when a mob enforcer put a knife to his throat.

The slash ended his voice and his singing career. What came after was a different life: Lewis rebuilt himself as a wisecracking emcee with a bottle nearby and darkness just underneath the jokes. Sinatra plays him at full stretch — the charm, the self-destruction, the stubborn refusal to quit. Mitzi Gaynor and Jeanne Crain play the women who loved him at different points; Eddie Albert is the loyal friend who watches it all; Sophie Tucker appears as herself. Sinatra won a Golden Globe for the role.

Made at the peak of Sinatra's Rat Pack years, the film works as both period entertainment and an honest portrait of a man reassembling himself from wreckage. Watch The Joker is Wild (1957) online on iFILM.