Ocean’s Eleven (or Ocean’s 11) 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.
Centered around a series of Las Vegas casino robberies, the film’s 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 cameo appearances by Shirley MacLaine, Red Skelton, and George Raft.
A remake, directed by Steven Soderbergh, starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts (among others) appeared in 2001.
Filming
Peter Lawford was first told of the basic story of the film by director Gilbert Kay who had heard the idea from a gas station attendant. Lawford evenutally bought the rights in 1958 imagining William Holden in the lead. Sinatra became interested in the idea and a variety of different writers worked on the project. Shot on location in Las Vegas, “Ocean’s Eleven” is considered to be the first of the Rat Pack films, but it is not the first in which its members appear together. This film formed a framework for subsequent vehicles tailored around Sinatra, Martin and Davis (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.
- Influences
While the concept of a casino-heist was used in the more serious film-noir’s Five Against the House and Bob le Flambeur, the idea of a Las Vegas-related heist during a New Year’s Eve celebration was seen in the equally grim Guns, Girls and Gangsters in 1958. An unofficial companion to Ocean’s 11, released in the same year, was Seven Thieves, which although set in Monte-Carlo follows the same plot as well.
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) while a remake starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon signalled the start of a lucrative franchise for the actors. Two sequels to the remake were made, Ocean’s Twelve in 2004 and Ocean’s Thirteen in 2007, the latter referencing the original Danny Ocean, Frank Sinatra, in the plot and featuring one of his songs, This Town.