''Johnny Cool'' is a 1963 American

neo-noir Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts the visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term ...

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

, directed by William Asher and based on the novel ''The Kingdom of Johnny Cool'' by John McPartland, which stars Henry Silva and

Elizabeth Montgomery Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery (April 15, 1933 – May 18, 1995) was an American actress whose career spanned five decades in film, stage, and television. She portrayed the good witch List of Bewitched characters#Samantha Stephens, Samantha Step ...

. Produced in part by

Peter Lawford Peter Sydney Ernest Lawford (né Aylen; 7 September 1923 – 24 December 1984) was an English-American actor.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', 26 December 1984. He was a member of the "Rat Pack" and the brother-in-law of US president Jo ...

, ''Johnny Cool'' features a cast that also includes

Mort Sahl Morton Lyon Sahl (May 11, 1927 – October 26, 2021) was a Canadian-born American comedian, actor, and social Satire, satirist, considered the first modern comedian. He pioneered a style of social satire that pokes fun at political and current e ...

, Telly Savalas, Jim Backus,

Joey Bishop Joseph Abraham Gottlieb (February 3, 1918 – October 17, 2007), known professionally as Joey Bishop, was an American entertainer who appeared on television as early as 1948 and eventually starred in his own weekly comedy series playing a Talk ...

, and Sammy Davis Jr., who also sings the theme song.

Plot

Johnny Colini, an exiled American living in Rome, rescues Salvatore Giordano, a young Sicilian outlaw, from the police. After Giordano is groomed, polished, and renamed "Johnny Cool", Colini sends him on a mission of vengeance to the United States to assassinate the men who plotted his downfall and enforced exile. Johnny arrives in New York and quickly kills several of the underworld figures on Colini's list. Meanwhile, he picks up Darien "Dare" Guinness, a wealthy divorcée who becomes his accomplice, she is later severely beaten by the gangsters as a warning to Johnny against pursuing his vendetta. Soon the FBI becomes involved, and when Johnny and Dare bomb the Hollywood home of gangster Lennart Crandall, the police are able to identify Dare's car when she panics and leaves it parked on the street. The two had separated and planned to meet later, but Dare, abruptly realizing that Johnny is a vicious killer, tells his enemies where to find him. She then surrenders herself to the FBI, as Johnny is being tortured by his captors at the film's conclusion.

Cast

* Henry Silva as Salvatore Giordano / Johnny Cool *

as Darien "Dare" Guinness *

Richard Anderson Richard Norman Anderson (August 8, 1926 – August 31, 2017) was an American film and television actor. One of his best-known roles was his portrayal of Oscar Goldman, the boss of Steve Austin (Lee Majors) and Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) in ...

as Correspondent * Jim Backus as Louis Murphy *

as Holmes *

Brad Dexter Brad Dexter (born Boris Michel Soso; April 9, 1917 – December 12, 2002) was an American actor and film producer. He is known for tough-guy and western roles, including the 1960 film '' The Magnificent Seven'' (1960), and producing several fi ...

as Lennart Crandall *

as Ben Morrow * Hank Henry as Larry * Telly Savalas as Vincenzo "Vince" Santangelo * Sammy Davis Jr. as Educated *

Frank Albertson Francis Healey Albertson (February 2, 1909 – February 29, 1964) was an American actor who had supporting roles in films such as '' It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946) and '' Psycho'' (1960). Early life Albertson was a native of Fergus Fall ...

as Bill Blakely *

Marc Lawrence Marc Lawrence (born Max Goldsmith; February 17, 1910 – November 28, 2005) was an American character actor who specialized in underworld types. He has also been credited as F. A. Foss, Marc Laurence and Marc C. Lawrence. Early life Lawrence w ...

as Johnny Colini * John McGiver as Oscar B. "Oby" Hinds * Gregory Morton as Jerry March *

Joseph Calleia Joseph Calleia ( ; born Joseph Alexander Caesar Herstall Vincent Calleja, August 4, 1897 – October 31, 1975) was a Maltese-born American actor and singer on the stage and in films, radio and television. After serving in the Merchant Navy (Un ...

as Tourist * Clegg Hoyt as Craps Player

Film score and soundtrack

The

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

was composed, arranged and conducted by

Billy May Edward William May Jr. (November 10, 1916 – January 22, 2004) was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music for ''The Green Hornet (TV series), The Green Hornet'' (1966), ''The Mod Squad (TV series), T ...

, and the soundtrack album was released on the

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

label in 1963.Edwards, D., Callahan, M., Eyries, P., Watts, R., & Neely, T
United Artists UAL-40000/UAL 4000 mono/UAS 5000 stereo Series
Accessed March 30, 2016.

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's Steven McDonald noted "This soundtrack manages to mix the early '60s caper-flick brand of jazz with the darker feel of 1950s film noir – a genre to which ''Johnny Cool'' was a deliberate throwback."

Track listing

''All compositions by Billy May except as indicated'' # "The Lizard" – 2:38 # "Window Washer" – 2:37 # "Dare's Affair" – 2:40 # "Borrow a Knife" – 1:47 # "Johnny Cool Theme" – 2:19 # "Morning in Balboa" – 2:14 # "Nice Quiet Saloon" – 2:35 # "Green Tables Blues" – 3:16 # "The Coolest Pad" – 3:18 # "Juan Coolisto" – 2:19 # "Bee Bom" ( Les Vandyke) – 2:14 # "The Ballad of Johnny Cool" (

Jimmy Van Heusen James Van Heusen (born Edward Chester Babcock; January 26, 1913 – February 6, 1990) was an American composer. He wrote songs for films, television, and theater, and won an Emmy and four Academy Award for Best Original Song, Academy Awards for ...

Sammy Cahn Samuel Cohen (June 18, 1913 – January 15, 1993), known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premie ...

) – 2:58

Personnel

*Orchestra arranged and conducted by

* Sammy Davis Jr. – vocals (tracks 11 & 12)

Movie Tie-In Paperback

A movie

tie-in A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, website, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original proper ...

paperback was published, by

Gold Medal Books Gold Medal Books, launched by Fawcett Publications in 1950, was an American book publisher known for introducing paperback originals, a publishing innovation at the time. Fawcett was also an independent newsstand distributor, and in 1949 the c ...

, ''The Kingdom of Johnny Cool'' by John McPartland,

References

External links

* * {{William Asher 1963 films 1963 crime drama films American black-and-white films American crime drama films American neo-noir films 1960s English-language films Films about organized crime in the United States American films about revenge Films based on American novels Films directed by William Asher Films scored by Billy May Mafia films 1960s American films English-language crime drama films