This is the greatest Western of all time! Of course it isn't, nor was it intended to be. This is the worst Western of all time. Of course it isn't. And if you think the latter, then it's been a long time since you watched very many of Hollywood's old Westerns. What this was, was a fun Rat Pack movie. Nothing more. Nothing less. Was it a rehash -- albeit not serious -- of "Gunga Din"? Yes. But for laughs.Dean, Frank, Sammy, Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop do what you expect them to do in a Clan movie.But, I'll tell you what this movie has that is on the high end. Scenery -- superb, in the Zion National Park region, and, actually on the trails of Bryce Canyon National Park. And, darned good stunt work. I mean really good! In fact, last evening I watched an Errol Flynn Western, and the poor stunt work and fake horseback riding was so noticeable. Not here. Yes, you know that mostly it's not the Rat Pack on those horses (although Dean actually was a pretty fair rider), but it does look real, and the stunts in some cases are top notch.So, you've got a decent story. You've got Frank and Dean. You've got great western scenery. All that equals a fairly entertaining nearly 2 hours. Take it for what it is!

"Sergeants 3" was John Sturges' first western after his classic oater "The Magnificent Seven," and the second remake of George Steven's immortal British military movie "Gunga Din" with Cary Grant. You can easily see why "Sergeants 3" has few of the classic qualities of "The Magnificent Seven." Frank Sinatra's Essex Productions made this comic outdoors cavalry yarn, and the first half of this 112 minute sagebrusher surpasses the second half—lensed primarily on Samuel Goldwyn's Hollywood sound stages with obvious backdrops. Naturally, the Rat Pack—Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, and Sammy Davis, Jr star in this rip-roaring fracas of a western that resembles one of John Ford's cavalry pictures. The sensational scenery around Kanab, Utah, is wonderful to look at and three-time Oscar winner Winton Hoch's widescreen cinematography proves to be a definite plus.The action opens in the isolated town of Medicine Bend when renegade Indians belonging to a fraction called the Ghost Dancers massacre the town. Before they manage to kill everyone, the whites manage to wire the U.S. Cavalry and Col. William Collingwood (Dick Simmons) dispatches a detail of troopers under the command of Sergeant Mike Merry (Frank Sinatra of "Ocean's 11"), Sergeant Chip Deal (Dean Martin of "Some Came Running"), and Sergeant Larry Barrett (Peter Lawford of "Good News") to check things out. Our heroes arrive in time to shoot it out with the Indians and blow up some Indians. In the process, Sinatra gets to do some riding and shooting, something that he'd never done in a movie. The money scene occurs in a careening, runaway wagon when Sinatra and Martin tangle with a few Indians, and Sinatra is struck, falls off the wagon, and clings to the wagon as it drags him along and performs an abbreviated version of the famous Yakima Canutt stunt in "Stagecoach." Yes, that's really Frank Sinatra being dragged under the wagon.The second half concerns Barrett's decision to leave the service and marry Amelia Parent (Ruta Lee) and the shenanigans of Merry and Deal to thwart his plans to wed, return to the East, and read law. One of those antics involves finding the hiding place of those savages who wiped out Medicine Bend. In the middle of all this is Jonah Williams (Sammy Davis, Jr) who desperately wants to be a trooper. Billy May's music is so tame that you could put yourself to sleep listening to it. Elmer Bernstein might have injected some life into the proceedings. The cavalry clash with the Indians and the funny ending made the second half bearable. Henry Silva is good as the villainous Mountain Hawk.

SERGEANTS 3 is good, but be prepared...it's not a comedy. It's a fun, sometimes rollicking, adventure based (very) loosely on the Gunga Din story and updated to the post-Civil War years. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Peter Lawford are the three sergeants of the title. Sammy Davis Jr. is the freed slave who befriends them. Henry Silva is the leader of a group of psychotic Indians bent on wiping out the white man and the appealing Ruta Lee is Lawford's fiancé. There are jokes (mostly provided by Martin) and the film is probably the best directed of the Rat Pack films. That should come as no surprise since the great John Sturges was at the helm. There's not a musical number to be had, but still a very entertaining film. Buddy Lester and Joey Bishop are in it too.

Sergeants 3 is the second and last true rat pack film because it is the only other one with all the rat packers in the cast besides Ocean's 11. I guess that's just how it is for us purists.Anyway Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Peter Lawford are three U.S. cavalry sergeants in the days of the old west and I have to say they would have been right at home with Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch at Fort Courage. They're good fighting men, but can't quite deal with the discipline the army imposes.They make the acquaintance of Sammy Davis, Jr. who is a newly freed slave out in the west who'd like to join the cavalry. If this all starts to sound familiar it should because it's the plot for the RKO classic Gunga Din. And it's the reason this film hasn't been seen for years and is not out on VHS or DVD. I was fortunate to see it in the theaters way back in the day.It's got quite a few laughs in it, the majority of them as I remember gathered by Dean Martin. He's got the part Cary Grant played in Gunga Din. Dino's persona exactly fits the role he has. Talk about undisciplined, he was lucky he had a career in the military.The film is also memorable for the presence of three of Bing Crosby's sons by his first marriage. I have absolutely no doubt that they got cast in the film as a favor by old blue eyes to the old groaner. Philip, Dennis, and Lindsay Crosby had a quartet act with older brother Gary and they had a celebrated breakup with him. Now they were trying to get going as a trio and not having any more success. This was also Peter Lawford's last film with the pack. Sinatra broke off relations with him completely after that famous incident when President Kennedy refused to stay at his place while in Los Angeles and opted for Bing Crosby's estate. Frank took it out on Lawford who really had nothing to do with that at all. It marked the beginning of Sinatra's rightward march into the Republican party.Sergeants 3 is funny, not a great film by any means, but all the cast did far worse stuff. But it curiously enough marks the high point of the fabled rat pack. After this film, a whole lot of events happened including a presidential assassination and things were never the same.