The Joker Is Wild

Sinatra plays Joe E. Lewis in this taut and compelling biography which chronicles the nightclub era and one of its highest paid entertainers. It's Chicago during the Roaring Twenties. Sinatra is so successful that he packs the nightclub where he works and draws the attention of gangsters who own a competing club. They invite him to quit his job and go to work for them, but Sinatra not so politely declines. Mobsters later visit him and cut his throat, almost from ear to ear. With his vocal cords nearly severed, Sinatra's singing days are over. He sinks into deep depression, then begins to use his caustic wit to establish a new career as a comedian. The great Sophie ...