BY ROB LOWMAN >ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

If you ask Nancy Sinatra what are her favorite films among her dad's many, her sentimental choices are the 1955 "The Tender Trap" with Debbie Reynolds and "High Society," from 1956 with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly.

"The ones that I watch over and over are the easy ones to watch - like "A Hole in the Head," the comedies, the lightweight ones. It's hard for me to this day to see him die on the tracks in `Von Ryan's Express,' and it's hard to watch how he reacts to Laurence Harvey killing himself in `The Manchurian Candidate."'

This month is a very poignant time for Nancy Sinatra. May 14 is the 10th anniversary of the death of her legendary father, Frank Sinatra, and to mark the occasion, there are box-set DVD releases of Ol' Blue Eyes' films, a recording of his film music, a festival on Turner Classic Movies, a U.S. stamp, and, of course, a Las Vegas event.

Though you might think that Frank's legacy is secure, Nancy, who in 1967 paired with her father for the No. 1 single, "Somethin' Stupid," worries.

"The people for whom he was the soundtrack of their lives are getting older; so we have to reach out to younger people all the time to keep this legacy alive." She's hoping the new releases of his movies will help.

As a teen idol in the 1940s, Hollywood capitalized on Frank's fame, casting him in a series of musicals and comedies, including three with Gene Kelly, but his career began to stall by the '50s. Watching him in those early films, it's easy to see that he was more than his moniker at the time, "The Voice."

"I thought he was adorable in the early movies," says Nancy. "His vocals were so incredible ... and his acting talent was so apparent in the songs, but they kept casting him as the little boy - the whole notion of the bobby-soxer, somebody to mother."

But she adds, "He knew what he could do, though other people didn't."

Sinatra, of course, proved lots of people in Hollywood wrong. He won an Academy Award for best supporting actor for "From Here to Eternity" (1953), and returned to the top of the pop charts, creating an amazing number of classics, some of which were in his movies.

Nancy says her dad had "some pretty good advice from friends like Spencer Tracy and Boris Karloff, very talented actors, and he put it to good use." And along the way, she got to meet many of the legends in Hollywood while her father made movies.

"On the set of `High Society,' I met Grace Kelly and thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Although she was a little simple, in a sense -_ scrubbed and clean with a little scarf around her head, casual kind of blue jeans - really like the all-American girl next door."

In 1965, she got to be in "Marriage on the Rocks" with her dad, which also starred Deborah Kerr and Dean Martin, a member of Frank's famous (or infamous) Rat Pack, which brings up the question of how Sinatra is perceived these days.

On Wednesday, Nancy will introduce "From Here to Eternity" along with TCM host Robert Osbourne, who has written about when he met Frank Sinatra and was surprised how nice he was to him despite the Chairman of the Board's reputation as being hostile to the press. "That was a good lesson for me: Don't gullibly accept the myth."

Nancy says her father constantly reached out to people. "He always said to me,

`You have to make an effort; just make the effort with everybody.' "

When asked if there are still misconceptions about her father, Nancy replies, "Not with thinking people anymore, but every time one of those trashy books come out and they rehash a lot of crap, it churns it all up again.

"Of course, what bothers me is that young people see it, and we're trying to show (my father's) excellence and not the gossip. ... It's a neverending battle because there are always going to be jerks out there who want to rehash the old rumors."

And what also angers Nancy Sinatra is the bootlegging and piracy of her father's works, many of which are recording session outtakes.

"He only wanted the best out there; so when the seventh take or the 17th take comes out on a bootleg, it worries me. What happens if all the first takes disappear and the younger people only hear the 17th take and say, `I don't get it.'?"

Sinatra was known as a perfectionist in the studio, but his daughter says when he recorded with others "it was about spontaneity, capturing the fun of it, which is what he did with Dean, and Bing and Sammy (Davis Jr.).

" It always seemed like they were having a good time. We have in the vaults some chatter that went on in the recording studio, and it's really funny stuff."

She hopes to release it someday, "legitimately."

On May 13, after an early stop in New York City for the "Today" show, she'll head for Vegas. Sinatra music from the new CD "Sinatra at the Movies" will play at the famed fountain at the Bellagio, and at a special event there will be a toast to Frank at midnight.

"It will be emotional, but it will be lovely, I'm sure," says Nancy. "When he died, the sweetest notes came to us from all over the world ... handwritten, heartfelt notes about him. Most said, "Life will never be the same because Frank is gone."

"Frank Sinatra - The Golden Years Collection" ("Some Came Running" / "The Man with the Golden Arm" / "The Tender Trap" / "None but the Brave" / "Marriage on the Rocks")

"Frank Sinatra - The Early Years Collection" ("It Happened in Brooklyn" / "Step Lively" / "The Kissing Bandit" / "Double Dynamite" / "Higher and Higher")

"The Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly Collection" ("On the Town" / "Anchors Aweigh" / "Take Me out to the Ball Game")

`Frank Sinatra MGM Movie Legends Collection" ("The Manchurian Candidate" / "Guys and Dolls" / "The Pride and the Passion" / "A Hole in the Head" / "Kings Go Forth")

"Sinatra At The Movies" (Capitol) _ a new 20-track collection that includes title themes from "The Tender Trap," "From Here To Eternity,' "Young At Heart," "Three Coins In The Fountain" and more.

Coming out on DVD May 13:

Already out

ON CD May 13 On TV

Turner Classic Movies will be presenting Frank flicks throughout the month on Sundays and Wednesdays. Today, it offers the documentary "Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music" at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., along with "Higher and Higher" at 6 p.m., "Step Lively" at 9 p.m., "Ship Ahoy" at 10:45 p.m. and "Reveille With Beverly" at 12:30 a.m. On Wednesday, daughter Nancy introduces "From Here to Eternity" at 5 p.m. and "None But the Brave" at 11:30 p.m., while sister Tina introduces "Kings Go Forth" at 7:15 p.m. and brother Frank Jr. introduces "Never So Few" at 9:15 p.m.