The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)

Director:

Otto Preminger

Writers:

Nelson Algren (novel)
Walter Newman (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

16 January 1956 (Brazil)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Strung-out junkie deals with daily demoralizing drug addiction while crippled wife and card sharks continue to pull him down.

Plot Keywords:

Drugs | Heroin Addict | Drug Addiction | Heroin | Jail

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 3 nominations

Cast

Frank Sinatra	...	Frankie Machine
Eleanor Parker	...	Zosch Machine
Kim Novak	...	Molly
Arnold Stang	...	Sparrow
Darren McGavin	...	Louie
Robert Strauss	...	Schwiefka
John Conte	...	Drunky
Doro Merande	...	Vi
George E. Stone	...	Sam Markette
George Mathews	...	Williams
Leonid Kinskey	...	Dominiwski
Emile Meyer	...	Detective Bednar

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #17011) | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | Argentina:13

Company:

Otto Preminger Films

Trivia:

Marlon Brando was offered the role of Frankie Machine, but Frank Sinatra jumped at the opportunity and was signed before Brando could accept.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Zasha's scrapbook is titled "My Scrapbook of Fatal Accidence" (instead of "accidents").

Quotes:

Frankie Machine: Guy teaches me drumming down there, says I'm a natural, arms made of pure gold.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Indie Sex: Censored (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Jazz sequences

Strange Brew

Rather than go on location and make a realistic film about drug addiction in the Windy City, contrarian director Otto Preminger decided to go the opposite way and make his movie appear as artificial as possible, thus flying in the face of the fashion set by men like Kazan, Huston and Zinnemann, who were making their pictures all over the world. Nelson Algren, on whose novel the movie is based, went on record as despising it. What, one wonders, was Preminger up to, and why did he do the movie this way?

The sets in the film are so minimal as to suggest a Mr. Magoo cartoon. Louie, the drug pusher, is attired as to resemble the sort of gangster the artists at Mad magazine used to draw. Arnold Stang, wonderful comedian that he was, seems out of place in a serious picture like this, and his very appearance, topped off by an exaggerated and over-sized baseball cap, elicits laughter. Robert Strauss, another actor best known for humorous roles, is likewise out of place, as his large, heavily jowled face and Runyonesque delivery of lines seems more appropriate to a Jerry Lewis movie. Against all this, stars Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak and Eleanor Parker have to work overtime to just keep the viewer from snickering. Sinatra is jittery and manic throughout, suggesting a man ill at ease with himself, hence wholly appropriate for the role of a drug addict. Miss Novak, plant-like and sublimely deadpan, is sympathetic and seems a product of the artfully dingy slums she graces in the film. Parker is pure Hollywood and very hard-working as the crippled and crafty Zosch. She is never convincing, but then neither is the film.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone interested in a realistic depiction of the lives of drug addicts in America. The Caligari sets alone make it unbelievable. Preminger may have been aiming for a dream effect, as the cardboard backgrounds give the proceedings the surreal feeling of a nightmare operetta, perhaps harking back to Preminger's early days in Vienna.