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The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
16 January 1956 (Brazil) morePlot:
Strung-out junkie deals with daily demoralizing drug addiction while crippled wife and card sharks continue to pull him down. full summary | full synopsisAwards:
Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 3 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(2 articles)
Actor Darren McGavin Dies at 83 (From WENN. 27 February 2006)
Actor Darren McGavin Dies at 83
(From WENN. 24 February 2006)
User Comments:
Do you think those bobbie soxers I'll really go for me? moreCast
(Complete credited 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 |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
119 minCountry:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreSound Mix:
MonoCertification:
USA:Approved (PCA #17011) | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | Argentina:13Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The movie's poster was as #14 of "The 25 Best Movie Posters Ever" by Premiere. moreGoofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Zasha's scrapbook is titled "My Scrapbook of Fatal Accidence" (instead of "accidents"). moreQuotes:
Frankie Machine: I'm the kind of guy, boy when I move - watch my smoke. But I'm gonna need some good clothes though. moreSoundtrack:
Jazz sequences moreFAQ
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(Mild Spoilers) Frankie Machine had been dealt a bad hand in life. A card dealer at an illegal gambling den in his Chicago neighborhood he was busted when the joint was raided by the cops and given six months in jail.
While behind bars Frankie was treated for his heroin addiction at the prisons hospital and learned how to play the drums as part of his rehabilitation program. Now out of prison and back in his old neighborhood Frankie is trying to put his life back together by getting a union card in the Musicians Union and then a job as a drummer in a band and put his old life behind him but instead it catches up with Frankie in no time at all in "The Man with the Golden Arm".
Otto Preminger's ground-breaking 1955 film about heroin addiction with Frank Sinatra giving the performance of his life as the drug addicted card sharp Frankie Machine, the Man with the Golden Arm. Frankie tries to getaway from the life that he lead but has this monkey or, better yet, gorilla on his back that just won't let him. Soild performances by the entire supporting cast starting with Frankie's friend Sparrow, Arnold Stang. Sparrows attempt to get Frankie back on his feet by shoplifting a suit of clothes for him ends up putting him and Frankie in the slammer, and almost back to prison, until his former boss at the gambling den Schwiefka bailed him out.
There's Frankie's psychically as well as emotionally crippled wife Zosch, Eleanor Parker, who sees that her hold on Frankie is slipping and is slowly driven to madness murder and suicide. There's Frankie's drug dealer Louie, with Darren McGavin in one of his first acting roles, who's hold on Frankie is only good as long as he stays addicted and Louie goes out of his way to make sure that he does.
There's the owner of the gambling joint that Frankie works at as it's top card dealer Schwiefka, Robert Strauss, who like Louie goes out of his way to get Frankie back to work for him even though if he's arrested again Frankie's hopes for a new and better life will go down the drain. And then there's Frankie's next-door neighbor and friend Molly, Kim Novak,who goes to almost impossible lengths to get him over his addiction by locking him up in her apartment. It's there that he goes "Cold Turkey" and almost ends up dying trying to kick the habit in one of the most harrowing sequence ever put on film.
A no holds barred movie with explosive performances by everyone involved makes "The Man with the Golden Arm" one of the great classics of realism in motion pictures coming out of the 1950's.