Best part of this 10-minute film is seeing a young, rail-thin Sinatra in the studio singing with a lush orchestra. And then he gets to show off some decent acting chops for a few minutes. But holy smokes, this is Hollywood Smug trying to spread itself across America and congratulating itself on its inclusiveness. In fact, they gave themselves an Academy Award for this little artifact. But Google the lyrics for The House I Live In Sinatra. Then Google The House I live In Robeson. The latter is remarkably well-written (by Jews later black-listed) and powerful (and sung by a black man also later black-listed). Whereas the Sinatra version has been bleached to a bland pointlessness, so anodyne and saccharine it should come with a diabetes warning. Apparently, the lyricist was outraged particularly by the deletion of the ''white and black" line. This is America (and particularly Hollywood) at its most self-congratulatory, and most cowardly (note not a single black kid in the mob of boys, either).

With all that's been happening since a new president was elected and inaugurated, I had to think "Do I live in the same country as the ones who voted for the opponent of my pick?" Still, I'd like to think that we will prevail and start getting along much better eventually despite many disagreements we have about certain things. This short, starring popular singer Frank Sinatra when he was still quite young, has him at the recording studio doing one of his trademark romantic songs before taking a break outside and encountering some kids bullying a particular one because of his religion. So that leads The Voice to lecture them on the dangers of prejudice though he also does mention a story of various creeds defeating the "Japs" (This was filmed either during or not long after World War II). But his message of Tolerance is something still worth talking about and his song "The House I Live In" is certainly still something worth warbling about especially today. With today being the Fourth of July, I just felt like revisiting this particular short to remind myself what America really is about when Frank sings of it: "The right to speak my mind out, that's America to me." Something still worth pondering about in this age of increasing divided opinions among neighbors...

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!

Frank Sinatra is known for his roles as a thug, a gangster, a bank robber, a murderer. He reportedly had connections to the mafia in real life. His father was, after all, Italian. What we don't think of Sinatra as is a uniter of people from different faiths.In this short film, Sinatra sings some campy songs that should only exist in the 1940s. Between songs, he stops a gang of young boys from beating up a young Jewish boy. He encourages them to be friends with him because "religion doesn't matter" and reminds the kids when they get blood from the blood bank it comes from Jews and blacks. He also tells how Americans of different faiths have joined together to defeat the "jap menace".Would this film work today? Probably not. But it's still enjoyable and a fun little romp in the park. If you want to learn about solidarity in the 1940s, or just love Frank Sinatra, check it out. Recommended, even if it is distributed by the Anti-Defamation League.