The House I Live In

This eleven minute film that came out toward the end of WW2 conveyed a message of religious tolerance and acceptance of people's differences.

It's notable in that it featured a young Frank Sinatra, singing two very beautiful songs, "If You Are But a Dream" and the title song. Both have rich orchestral arrangements by Alex Stordahl, one of Sinatra's favorite music directors at the time.

Earl Robinson, composer of the title song, was also noted for his "Ballad for Americans," which Paul Robeson made famous. In spite of these two nobly patriotic compositions, Robinson was one of the "blacklisted" artists (along with Robeson) by the House of Un-American Activities, which today seems ironic.

Not available on DVD or VHS at this writing, "The House I Live In" was seen on tv following a showing of Sinatra's debut film, "Higher and Higher." Although Frank's voice is lighter here than generally remembered, it still exhibits his trademark smooth lines, firm breath control and clear diction. His acting forecasts his later work, and the film makes its admirable points within a short time frame.

"The House I Live In" is a movie which everyone ought to see ... not just for its substantial entertainment value, but for its true depiction of what it means to be an American. (I came to the U.S.A. from elsewhere as an adult, so I know how precious American citizenship is.) After the world changed forever on September 11, 2001, "The House I Live In" is more relevant than ever before.

Frank Sinatra plays himself in this film. He encounters a group of street boys who are bullying another boy because they don't like his religion. Sinatra handles this issue intelligently and logically, offering some ideas that the boys haven't thought about. (For instance: What if one of your relatives got a blood transfusion from someone who has the "wrong" religion?)

To top off his argument, Sinatra sings "The House I Live In", a song which is often incorrectly identified as "What Is America to Me?" This is a good song by any standards - nice tune, pleasant lyrics - but it's also one of the most moving statements of the American identity I've ever encountered. The usual flag-waving tactics of most patriotic film are completely absent here.

Frank Sinatra was a complex man. His flaws were often displayed in public, while his virtues (such as his many philanthropic acts) were usually exercised only in private, without publicity. In "The House I Live In", Sinatra seems to exhibit his sincere belief in America's deepest values. And if it isn't sincere, then Sinatra was a better actor than he ever let on. Whatever else he may have been, Frank Sinatra was a patriotic American.

There are many excellent films, but very few truly great ones. "The House I Live In" is a great film about the greatest nation in the world.

FRANK SINATRA interrupts the beating of a Jewish boy in an alley outside a stage door to lecture the kids on tolerance with a message of anti-bigotry. That's the thrust of this eleven minute short on the subject of racial tolerance at a time when WWII was ending and the world was discovering the truth about Nazi concentration camps.

Sinatra gives a heartfelt, easy-going performance that was an indication of the actor he would become and sings "The House I Live In" with professional ease and charm. The film was a promotional piece that won several awards for its socially significant contribution at a time when Hollywood was confronting the war effort with everything it could muster.

It's a sincere effort at promoting religious or racial tolerance, and Sinatra should be commended for getting the message across with sympathetic treatment, although the preachy overtones may be a bit too much for some.

This short subject gathered kudos from all kinds of places for its plea for religious toleration.

After a session at a recording studio Frank Sinatra leaves and comes upon a group of kids beating up on another because he was Jewish. He lectured them as only an American icon could about the meaning of prejudice and what we had just fought for against the Nazis. The meaning could not be clearer.

Both songs from this short subject were recorded and sold big for Columbia records. If You Are But A Dream and the song written for the film, The House I Live In. The latter is one of the best songs about an idealized version of America, we'd all like to strive for.

Sinatra in fact recorded The House I Live In again during the Sixties for a joint album he did for his Reprise record label. The album is now a rarity and it shouldn't be. His collaborators were Bing Crosby and Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians with the orchestra conducted by Nelson Riddle.

Axel Stordahl was Sinatra's primary music conductor and arranger during the forties. When he died that position eventually fell to Nelson Riddle. Stordahl does the orchestration for the short and the Columbia record, Riddle for the Reprise record.

Sinatra aficionados and others should listen to both back to back and compare. And catch this worthwhile film whenever it is shown.

This Honorary Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning one-reeler is renowned for the participation of Frank Sinatra (then still at the beginning of his prolific and varied career) in both his musical and acting guises; he appears as himself recording a new song and then running into a number of children bullying a Jewish boy while taking a cigarette break. This leads him to lecturing them on tolerance by also crooning the title song: curiously enough, the film-makers being still in fervent anti-Japanese wartime mood (is that not in itself a racist attitude?!), he uses as example of different religious groups working in unison towards a common goal the case of the multi-ethnic crew of an Allied aircraft bombing an enemy submarine! That said, it is nicely handled all the way and never quite as sappy as it could have been – with the youths' response to the star's influence developing into a kind of adulation in much the same way The Dead End Kids did at the molding of James Cagney in ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938)...but, of course, Sinatra here proves a force for decency and understanding as opposed to encouraging truancy! Ironically, the screenplay was penned by Albert Maltz – soon to be one of "The Hollywood Ten", industry professionals that were infamously imprisoned for refusing to retract their presumed Communist affiliations!