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An 'untouchable' theme… an unusual motion picture!
When illegal card dealer and recovering heroin addict Frankie Machine gets out of prison, he decides to straighten up. Armed with nothing but an old drum set, Frankie tries to get honest work as a drummer. But when his former employer and his old drug dealer re-enter his life, Frankie finds it hard to stay clean and eventually finds himself succumbing to his old habits.
r96sk
May 29, 2024 · via TMDB
Bit of a slow-moving picture, one that might've ended sooner, though I do class <em>'The Man with the Golden Arm'</em> as something rather quite good. Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak keep events moving along with strong showings, Sinatra especially. Eleanor Parker is, though, the person onscreen that I appreciated most whilst watching, there's just something about her performance that puts her ahead of her co-stars; I'd even say she overacts in parts, yet it absolutely still worked for me. The story does go round the houses a little, but even with that being the case it didn't actually affect my personal enjoyment all that much - it just totally could've been trimmed and we probably wouldn't have missed anything. Elsewhere, the score is excellent - especially the theme for when Frankie desires his habbits. I'd have to be in the right mood to revisit this. Nonetheless, it do be a very good film from 1955 - ahead of its time, that's for sure.
CinemaSerf
Nov 14, 2022 · via TMDB
This story has quite a well trodden feel to it. Frank Sinatra's "Frankie" is released from a stint in prison and heads straight back to the drug-infused melting pot from whence he came. Initially intent on staying clean, soon peer pressures and his struggle to survive, with his high-maintenance wife "Zosh" (Eleanor Parker) have him back at square one. It might just be that his salvation can come from his lover, the excellent Kim Novak ("Molly"), and from his drum kit? Sinatra proves he has some versatility as an actor here, and both Parker and Novak - alongside an un-nerving effort from Robert Strauss as his supplier "Schwiefka", makes this a far grittier, harder hitting drama than we might have expected. It shows us the relentlessness and hopelessness of his situation; also of the relative futility of the attempts at rehabilitation he went through in jail. It is too long, the first twenty minutes establish the characters, but at the expense of any decent pace - but once the ducks are in a row here, Otto Preminger elicits characterful performances from the cast that make this film quite realistic, and tough to watch at times.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Frank Sinatra
Frankie Machine
Eleanor Parker
Zosh 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
Shelly Manne
Drummer
Frank Mills
Street Vagrant (uncredited)
Harry 'Snub' Pollard
Street Vagrant (uncredited)
Jeffrey Sayre
Club Safari Patron (uncredited)
Jered Barclay
—
Leonard Bremen
—
Paul E. Burns
—
Mike Lally
—
Frank Marlowe
—
Gordon Mitchell
—
Jack Mulhall
—
Frank Richards
—
Suzanne Ridgway
—
Charles Seel
—
Martha Wentworth
—
Will Wright
—
Sam Leavitt
Director of Photography
Ben Hecht
Additional Writing
Martha Crawford
Stunt Double
Paul Baxley
Stunts
Otto Preminger
Director
Otto Preminger
Producer
Elmer Bernstein
Original Music Composer
Nelson Algren
Novel
Lewis Meltzer
Screenplay
Kejsaren
Pulp Fiction
Rear Window
Rashomon
Barry Lyndon
La Strada
A Bronx Tale
The Night of the Hunter
3-Iron
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
Sleuth
The Hustler
The Last Samurai
The Sea Inside
Elevator to the Gallows
Girl, Interrupted
Training Day
First Blood
The French Connection
The Experiment
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Down by Law
The Set-Up
Blow-Up
25th Hour
Dead Man Walking
Cape Fear
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The Edge of Heaven
The Town
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A Shot in the Dark
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Pi
Brubaker
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Traffic
Pusher
An Angel at My Table
Oliver!
Once Upon a Time in Diyarbekir
Big Night
That Most Important Thing: Love
Sweet Sixteen
Frances
Salvador (Puig Antich)
Brick
Four Minutes
Lights in the Dusk
Tough Enough
Smart Money
Klute
South Central
Reclaim Your Brain
The Longest Yard
Linç
The Cardinal
The Cotton Club
My Blueberry Nights
Johnny Handsome
Sommersby
Bandits
Death Warrant
A Second Chance
Gambler's Choice
Lady Chatterley
The Coast Guard
Assault on Precinct 13
Pure
Shaft's Big Score!
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Shaft
Les Biches
Breathless
Prison Break
VFW
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Reindeer Games
The Real McCoy
Brute
Summer '04
Lucky You
Pigerne på Halmtorvet
Männerpension
Mutiny in the Big House
Body of Evidence
Port of New York
The Poker Club
The Lying Game
Failure
The Disease Has Taken the Farmhouse
Yaniv
Lemons
Catch Me If You Can
A Street Cat Named Bob
Dancer in the Dark
Scarlet Street
The Asphalt Jungle
Brute Force
Straight Time
Creed III
Elephant Song
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody
Insomnia
Now You See Me 2
Ocean's Thirteen
Jack Irish: Dead Point
Cry of the City
The Glass Key
Let Him Have It
21
'G' Men
Hollow Triumph
Brokedown Palace
THX 1138
King Creole
Cassandra's Dream
TalhotBlond
White Lightning
The Lazarus Project
Winged Creatures
Dec 15, 1955
New York City, New York
Dec 26, 1955
Los Angeles, California
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Versus
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What a Carry On!
1973
Beautiful Noise
2014
Sign in to vote
Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
Trivia
Leaderboard →Playing as a guest — sign in to save your score and rank on the leaderboard.
Movie Trivia
Guess the movie from a clue — tagline, plot, cast and more. Pick from four posters.
What movie experience do you prefer?
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