That's Amore

"I'm a little busy here, Mac."

Tomorrow, June 7th, will be the birthday of late great entertainer Dean Martin. I suppose I first saw him on TV in the early 70's. The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts were pretty funny, not just because of Martin, but also the wide variety of star "roasters" who'd affectionately kid or insult the celebrity guest - or "roastee". I still remember that Don Rickles cracked me up the most, with the hilariously nasty and aggressive abuse he'd heap upon people. Even though I was young at the time, I think I was aware of the drunkenness of the participants on the show.

Dean Martin was also in the movies, and that was how I became a fan as a youngster. First off, Martin co-starred with Jerry Lewis in a series of comedies in the 50's. The Martin-Lewis team made an impression on me as a kid watching their pictures on TV. Martin was less likable than poor "innocent" Jerry, always with drink in one hand, a girl in the other, firing mean and condescending remarks toward Lewis. But there was a chemistry that made the duo's shtick work, at least for a while.

I only saw a handful of Dean Martin's solo films. Some of those were: Rio Bravo, Sons of Katie Elder, Ocean's 11, Airport and Cannonball Run. He generally just played himself or a caricature of himself, a boozing womanizer (or was that a womanizing boozer?). But my favourite Dino flicks from my youth were the Matt Helm movies. 

Martin starred as special agent Helm in four films adapted from the gritty thrillers by author Donald Hamilton. The movies were light, comedic, and musical escapism. They were silly and fun, and sometimes a bit bad, but I loved the spy stuff over all else. At a time when I was all about James Bond, this was a nice way to supplement my fixation.

In recent years, I actually tried out a few of the Hamilton novels, and they weren't really far off Ian Fleming's James Bond books. Not bad, but not so great that I wanted to proceed with the rest of the series. 

As an adult, I learned to appreciate the music of vocalists like Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Matt Munroe, and others from that genre and era. Dean Martin is among my favourites with his swinging, smirking renditions of That's Amore, Sway, and Ain't That a Kick in the Head. I prefer his interpretations of Christmas classics over other crooners' versions, too. 

A few Christmases ago, I treated myself to the Matt Helm Lounge DVD set of all four of the movies. All these years later, I was less impressed with the movies than I was as a lad. Clumsy, convoluted scripts, weak jokes (even Martin doing an eye-roll right to the camera), and slow, phony-looking fight scenes are culprits. But after some happy juice, I can let this stuff slide and simply enjoy the goofy fun. Like Bond, Helm is all about girls, guns and gadgets. Helm is just more B-movie in tone, but I can forgive it. Hey, it was the 60's... when everything was cool. Cheers, Dino!