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The Man with the Golden Arm YEAR: 1955 RATING: NR LENGTH: 130 Min. (Black & White) DIRECTOR: Otto Preminger STARRING: Frank Sinatra, Darren McGavin, Kim Novak SYNOPSIS: The Man with the Golden Arm (directed by Otto Preminger) will obliterate any preconceptions about Frank Sinatra's ability to tackle complex roles reserved for the likes of Marlon Brando (who was first offered the part). Sinatra plays a heroin addict traveling to Chicago with hopes of being a jazz drummer. His character is being pulled back in two directions, by first a bitter hypochondriac wife who wants him to continue as an ace card dealer (hence the golden arm), and a heroin pusher who is trying to keep him hooked (Darren McGavin). We see the steady downward effects of his addiction on his ability to function. He knows that he must finally face the demon, and kick the habit cold turkey. He eventually falls for a bar hostess (Kim Novak), who nurses him to health after she helps him with the process. The kicker is in the way Sinatra does the withdrawal scene. It's groundbreaking first and foremost because the movie was filmed in 1955, and narcotics abuse was to this point a taboo subject. Second, any questions about Sinatra's ability as an actor are completely smashed. He shakes and lashes out in the final scenes exactly like they do in the horrific anti-drug videos we were forced to watch in high school. To call it "gripping" is an understatement, and it makes present day drug tales like Blow and Traffic look like monuments of mediocrity. Maybe it's the time and place in which it was filmed. The use of black and white film noir makes this study even more powerful. Nominated for three Academy Awards. |
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