The Man with the Golden Arm
Encyclopedia
The Man with the Golden Arm is a 1955 American drama film
, based on the novel of the same name by Nelson Algren
, which tells the story of a heroin addict who gets clean while in prison, but struggles to stay that way in the outside world. It stars Frank Sinatra
, Eleanor Parker
, Kim Novak
, Arnold Stang
and Darren McGavin
. It was adapted for the screen by Walter Newman
, Lewis Meltzer and Ben Hecht
(uncredited), and directed by Otto Preminger
.
It was nominated for three Academy Awards
: Sinatra for Best Actor in a Leading Role
, Joseph C. Wright
and Darrell Silvera
for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White
and Elmer Bernstein
for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
. Sinatra was also nominated for best actor awards by the BAFTAs and The New York Film Critics.
The film was controversial for its time; the Motion Picture Association of America
refused to certify the film because it showed drug addiction. The gritty black-and-white film uniquely portrayed heroin as a serious literary topic as it rejected the standard "dope fiend" approach of the time. It was the first of its kind to tackle the marginalized issue of illicit drug use. Because it dealt with the taboo subject of "narcotics," Hollywood's Production Code refused to grant a seal of approval for the film, and it was released without the MPAA's seal of approval. This sparked a change in production codes, allowing movies more freedom to more deeply explore hitherto taboo subjects such as drug abuse
, kidnapping
, abortion
and prostitution
. In the end, the film received the code number 17011.
Director Otto Preminger
previously had released a film lacking the Production Code
in 1953, with The Moon is Blue
. He told Peter Bogdanovich
why he was attracted to Algren's novel.
"I think there's a great tragedy in any human being who gets hooked on something, whether it's heroin or love or a woman or whatever."
Frank Sinatra — who jumped at a chance to star in the film before reading the entire script — spent time at drug rehabilitation
clinics observing addicts going cold turkey
. The script was given to Marlon Brando
around the same time as Sinatra, who still harboured some anger at Brando, since the latter had beaten out Sinatra for the lead role in On the Waterfront
.
Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra
) is released from prison with a set of drums and a new outlook on life. A heroin addict, Frankie became clean in prison. On the outside, he greets friends and acquaintances. Sparrow (Arnold Stang
), who runs a con selling homeless dogs, clings to him like a young brother, but Schwiefka (Robert Strauss
), whom Frankie used to deal for in his illegal card game, has more sinister reasons for welcoming him back, as does Louis (Darren McGavin
), Machine's former heroin dealer.
Frankie sees his wife Zosh (Eleanor Parker
), who is supposedly wheelchair
-bound, but secretly fully recovered, after a car crash some years ago. Zosh smothers her husband and hinders his attempt to make something of himself. He thinks he has what it takes to play drums for a big band. While calling to make an appointment, he bumps into an old flame, Molly (Kim Novak
).
Frankie soon gets himself a tryout and asks Sparrow to get him a new suit, but the suit is a stolen one and he ends up back in a cell. Schwiefka offers to pay the bail. Frankie refuses, but soon changes his mind when the sight of a drug addict on the edge becomes too much for him. Now, to repay the debt, he must deal for Schwiefka again. Louis is trying to hook him on heroin again, and with no job and Zosh to please, pressure is building from all directions.
Soon Frankie succumbs and is back on drugs and dealing marathon, all-night, card games for Schwiefka. He gets a tryout as a drummer, but spends 24 hours straight dealing a poker game. Desperately needing a fix, Frankie follows Louis home, attacks him, ransacks his house, but can't find his stash of heroin. At the audition, with withdrawal coming on, Frankie can't keep the beat and ruins his chance of landing the drumming job. When Louis goes to see Zosh to try to find him, Louis discovers that Zosh has been faking her paralysis and can walk. Zosh, scared of being found out, accidentally pushes him over the railing of the stairwell to his death, but things backfire when Frankie is sought for murder.
Initially not realizing he is a suspect in Louie's death, Frankie goes to Molly hoping to get money for a fix. After learning the police are looking for him, Molly convinces Frankie that he must go cold turkey
if he is to stand a chance with the police. Frankie agrees and is locked in Molly's apartment where he goes through a grueling withdrawal to clear the drugs from his body. Finally clean again, he tells Zosh he is going to leave her, start anew and stand trial. In her desperation, Zosh once again gives herself away, standing up in front of Frankie and the police. She runs, but can get no further than the outside balcony. Trapped, she blows the whistle and throws herself off the balcony to her death. A ambulance then arrives to take Zosh to the hospital and drives away while Frankie watches in dismay. He then walks away with Molly.
and the critical reception was just as strong, with Variety
magazine stating: "Otto Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm is a feature that focuses on addiction to narcotics. Clinical in its probing of the agonies, this is a gripping, fascinating film, expertly produced and directed and performed with marked conviction by Frank Sinatra as the drug slave."
's author, Nelson Algren
, was initially brought to Hollywood to work on the screenplay, he was quickly replaced by Walter Newman
. The filmmakers proceeded to change the plot and characters extensively, which led to feelings of bitterness from Algren. When photographer and friend Art Shay
asked Algren to pose below the film's marquee
, he is reported to have said, "What does that movie have to do with me?"
Even though the first draft of the novel did not even deal with drug addiction (it was only added later), this became the singular focus of the film. In the novel, Frankie served in World War II and became addicted to morphine following treatment for a war injury. There is little mention of Frankie's film counterpart serving in the war, and he tells Molly that he started drugs "for kicks."
In Algren's book, Frankie is a blond-haired man in his late 20s, and as a poor veteran he often wears a torn Army jacket and brogans
. Played by Sinatra (who was nearly 40 years old at the time), the film's protagonist has dark hair and normally wears slacks and a dress shirt. In the film he is given a drum set and almost lands a job as a big-band drummer, but in the novel he only has a practice pad
, and his dream of being a drummer is only a fleeting aspiration.
The novel implies that Zosh's paralysis is a psychosomatic symptom of her mental illness, but in the film she is deliberately deceiving Frankie and is fully able to walk.
The book's version of Violet ("Vi") is an attractive young woman and Sparrow's love interest. In the film, she is played by Doro Merande
, who was in her 60s at the time. The movie combines the character of her spouse, "Old Husband" Koskozka, with that of the landlord, "Jailer" Schwabatski.
Frankie's employer, Schwiefka, is a villain and Nifty Louie's partner in the movie, but in the book he is a relatively neutral character.
In the film, a walking Zosh accidentally pushes Nifty Louie to his death, but in the novel it is Frankie who accidentally murders Louie.
Algren's story ends with a cornered and hopeless Frankie committing suicide, but in the film Zosh is the one who dies, while Sinatra's Frankie and Novak's Molly survive the end of the film together.
s in movie history, the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm, designed and conceived by Saul Bass
as a means of creating much more than a mere title sequence
, but something that actually enhances the viewer's experience by contributing to a mood built within the opening moments of a film. Bass went on to create memorable title sequences for other renowned films, notably for Alfred Hitchcock
's Vertigo
, North by Northwest
and Psycho
.
Similarly, the film's jazz soundtrack (played by Shorty Rogers
and His Giants with Shelly Manne
) was a landmark in film history; it followed on somewhat from the score provided by Alex North
for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).
The famous theme music was written by Elmer Bernstein
. Jet Harris
released the theme as single in 1963, Sweet
covered the theme song on the UK version of their album Desolation Boulevard
, and Barry Adamson
released a cover version on his 1988 album Moss Side Story
.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
, based on the novel of the same name by Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren was an American writer.-Early life:Algren was born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Goldie and Gerson Abraham. At the age of three he moved with his parents to Chicago, Illinois where they lived in a working-class, immigrant neighborhood on the South Side...
, which tells the story of a heroin addict who gets clean while in prison, but struggles to stay that way in the outside world. It stars Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Eleanor Parker
Eleanor Parker
Eleanor Jean Parker is an American screen actress. Her versatility led to her being dubbed Woman of a Thousand Faces, the title of her biography by Doug McClelland.- Early life :...
, Kim Novak
Kim Novak
Kim Novak is an American film and television actress. She began her career with her roles in Pushover and Phffft! but achieved greater prominence in the 1955 film Picnic...
, Arnold Stang
Arnold Stang
Arnold Stang was an American comic actor who played a small and bespectacled, yet brash and knowing big-city type.-Career:...
and Darren McGavin
Darren McGavin
Darren McGavin was an American actor best known for playing the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker and his portrayal in the film A Christmas Story of the grumpy father given to bursts of profanity that he never realizes his son overhears...
. It was adapted for the screen by Walter Newman
Walter Newman (screenwriter)
Walter Newman was an American radio writer and screenwriter active from the late 1940s to the early 1990s. He was nominated three times for Academy Awards , but he may be best known for a work that never made it to the screen: his unproduced original script Harrow Alley.Newman's radio...
, Lewis Meltzer and Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
(uncredited), and directed by Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
.
It was nominated for three Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
: Sinatra for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
, Joseph C. Wright
Joseph C. Wright
Joseph C. Wright was an American art director. He won two Academy Awards and was nominated for ten more in the category Best Art Direction...
and Darrell Silvera
Darrell Silvera
Darrell Silvera was an American set decorator. He was nominated for seven Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction...
for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White
Academy Award for Best Art Direction
The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
and Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein was an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career which spanned fifty years, he composed music for hundreds of film and television productions...
for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
Academy Award for Original Music Score
The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
. Sinatra was also nominated for best actor awards by the BAFTAs and The New York Film Critics.
The film was controversial for its time; the Motion Picture Association of America
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...
refused to certify the film because it showed drug addiction. The gritty black-and-white film uniquely portrayed heroin as a serious literary topic as it rejected the standard "dope fiend" approach of the time. It was the first of its kind to tackle the marginalized issue of illicit drug use. Because it dealt with the taboo subject of "narcotics," Hollywood's Production Code refused to grant a seal of approval for the film, and it was released without the MPAA's seal of approval. This sparked a change in production codes, allowing movies more freedom to more deeply explore hitherto taboo subjects such as drug abuse
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
, kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
, abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
and prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
. In the end, the film received the code number 17011.
Director Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
previously had released a film lacking the Production Code
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...
in 1953, with The Moon is Blue
The Moon Is Blue
The Moon Is Blue is a 1953 American comedy film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by F. Hugh Herbert, based on his 1951 play of the same title, focuses on a young woman who meets an architect on the observation deck of the Empire State Building and quickly turns his life...
. He told Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich is an American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood" directors, which included William Friedkin, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Michael Cimino, and Francis Ford Coppola...
why he was attracted to Algren's novel.
"I think there's a great tragedy in any human being who gets hooked on something, whether it's heroin or love or a woman or whatever."
Frank Sinatra — who jumped at a chance to star in the film before reading the entire script — spent time at drug rehabilitation
Drug rehabilitation
Drug rehabilitation is a term for the processes of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment, for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and so-called street drugs such as cocaine, heroin or amphetamines...
clinics observing addicts going cold turkey
Cold turkey
"Cold turkey" describes the actions of a person who abruptly gives up a habit or addiction rather than gradually easing the process through gradual reduction or by using replacement medication....
. The script was given to Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
around the same time as Sinatra, who still harboured some anger at Brando, since the latter had beaten out Sinatra for the lead role in On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard...
.
Plot
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
) is released from prison with a set of drums and a new outlook on life. A heroin addict, Frankie became clean in prison. On the outside, he greets friends and acquaintances. Sparrow (Arnold Stang
Arnold Stang
Arnold Stang was an American comic actor who played a small and bespectacled, yet brash and knowing big-city type.-Career:...
), who runs a con selling homeless dogs, clings to him like a young brother, but Schwiefka (Robert Strauss
Robert Strauss (actor)
Robert Strauss was a gravel-voiced American actor.-Career:Strauss began his career as a classical actor, appearing in The Tempest and Macbeth on Broadway in 1930...
), whom Frankie used to deal for in his illegal card game, has more sinister reasons for welcoming him back, as does Louis (Darren McGavin
Darren McGavin
Darren McGavin was an American actor best known for playing the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker and his portrayal in the film A Christmas Story of the grumpy father given to bursts of profanity that he never realizes his son overhears...
), Machine's former heroin dealer.
Frankie sees his wife Zosh (Eleanor Parker
Eleanor Parker
Eleanor Jean Parker is an American screen actress. Her versatility led to her being dubbed Woman of a Thousand Faces, the title of her biography by Doug McClelland.- Early life :...
), who is supposedly wheelchair
Wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
-bound, but secretly fully recovered, after a car crash some years ago. Zosh smothers her husband and hinders his attempt to make something of himself. He thinks he has what it takes to play drums for a big band. While calling to make an appointment, he bumps into an old flame, Molly (Kim Novak
Kim Novak
Kim Novak is an American film and television actress. She began her career with her roles in Pushover and Phffft! but achieved greater prominence in the 1955 film Picnic...
).
Frankie soon gets himself a tryout and asks Sparrow to get him a new suit, but the suit is a stolen one and he ends up back in a cell. Schwiefka offers to pay the bail. Frankie refuses, but soon changes his mind when the sight of a drug addict on the edge becomes too much for him. Now, to repay the debt, he must deal for Schwiefka again. Louis is trying to hook him on heroin again, and with no job and Zosh to please, pressure is building from all directions.
Soon Frankie succumbs and is back on drugs and dealing marathon, all-night, card games for Schwiefka. He gets a tryout as a drummer, but spends 24 hours straight dealing a poker game. Desperately needing a fix, Frankie follows Louis home, attacks him, ransacks his house, but can't find his stash of heroin. At the audition, with withdrawal coming on, Frankie can't keep the beat and ruins his chance of landing the drumming job. When Louis goes to see Zosh to try to find him, Louis discovers that Zosh has been faking her paralysis and can walk. Zosh, scared of being found out, accidentally pushes him over the railing of the stairwell to his death, but things backfire when Frankie is sought for murder.
Initially not realizing he is a suspect in Louie's death, Frankie goes to Molly hoping to get money for a fix. After learning the police are looking for him, Molly convinces Frankie that he must go cold turkey
Cold turkey
"Cold turkey" describes the actions of a person who abruptly gives up a habit or addiction rather than gradually easing the process through gradual reduction or by using replacement medication....
if he is to stand a chance with the police. Frankie agrees and is locked in Molly's apartment where he goes through a grueling withdrawal to clear the drugs from his body. Finally clean again, he tells Zosh he is going to leave her, start anew and stand trial. In her desperation, Zosh once again gives herself away, standing up in front of Frankie and the police. She runs, but can get no further than the outside balcony. Trapped, she blows the whistle and throws herself off the balcony to her death. A ambulance then arrives to take Zosh to the hospital and drives away while Frankie watches in dismay. He then walks away with Molly.
Cast
- Frank SinatraFrank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
as Frankie Machine - Eleanor ParkerEleanor ParkerEleanor Jean Parker is an American screen actress. Her versatility led to her being dubbed Woman of a Thousand Faces, the title of her biography by Doug McClelland.- Early life :...
as Zosh - Kim NovakKim NovakKim Novak is an American film and television actress. She began her career with her roles in Pushover and Phffft! but achieved greater prominence in the 1955 film Picnic...
as Molly - Arnold StangArnold StangArnold Stang was an American comic actor who played a small and bespectacled, yet brash and knowing big-city type.-Career:...
as Sparrow - Darren McGavinDarren McGavinDarren McGavin was an American actor best known for playing the title role in the television horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker and his portrayal in the film A Christmas Story of the grumpy father given to bursts of profanity that he never realizes his son overhears...
as Louie Fomorowski - Robert StraussRobert Strauss (actor)Robert Strauss was a gravel-voiced American actor.-Career:Strauss began his career as a classical actor, appearing in The Tempest and Macbeth on Broadway in 1930...
as Zero Schwiefka - John ConteJohn Conte (actor)John Conte was a stage and film actor and television broadcaster.Conte was born in Palmer, Massachusetts. His Mother Maria migrated to the United States, from Calabria, with her lifelong friend Francesca Cuda, who moved to Los Angeles before the Conte family...
as Drunky John - Doro MerandeDoro MerandeDoro Merande was an American actress who appeared in Hollywood films, onstage and on television. A well-regarded character actress, she frequently portrayed "sour, witchy old women"...
as Vi - George E. StoneGeorge E. StoneGeorge E. Stone was a Polish-born American character actor in movies, radio, and television.-Career:Stone's slight build and very expressive face first attracted attention in 1927, in the popular silent-film romance Seventh Heaven...
as Sam Markette - George MathewsGeorge MathewsGeorge Mathews may refer to:*George Mathews , Governor of Georgia*George Mathews Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court*George A...
as Williams - Leonid KinskeyLeonid KinskeyLeonid Kinskey was a Russian-born movie and television actor who enjoyed a long career. Kinskey is best known for his role as Sascha in the film Casablanca ....
as Dominowski - Emile MeyerEmile MeyerEmile Meyer was an American actor usually known for tough, aggressive, authoritative characters in Hollywood films from the 1950s era, mostly in westerns or thrillers...
as Detective Bednar
Critical reception
The Man with the Golden Arm earned $4,100,000 in rentals at the North American box officeBox office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
and the critical reception was just as strong, with Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
magazine stating: "Otto Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm is a feature that focuses on addiction to narcotics. Clinical in its probing of the agonies, this is a gripping, fascinating film, expertly produced and directed and performed with marked conviction by Frank Sinatra as the drug slave."
Differences from the novel
Although the novelThe Man with the Golden Arm (novel)
The Man with the Golden Arm is a novel by Nelson Algren that details the trials and hardships of illicit card dealer "Frankie Machine", along with an assortment of colorful characters, on Chicago's Near Northwest Side. A veteran of World War II, Frankie struggles to stabilize his personal life...
's author, Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren was an American writer.-Early life:Algren was born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Goldie and Gerson Abraham. At the age of three he moved with his parents to Chicago, Illinois where they lived in a working-class, immigrant neighborhood on the South Side...
, was initially brought to Hollywood to work on the screenplay, he was quickly replaced by Walter Newman
Walter Newman (screenwriter)
Walter Newman was an American radio writer and screenwriter active from the late 1940s to the early 1990s. He was nominated three times for Academy Awards , but he may be best known for a work that never made it to the screen: his unproduced original script Harrow Alley.Newman's radio...
. The filmmakers proceeded to change the plot and characters extensively, which led to feelings of bitterness from Algren. When photographer and friend Art Shay
Art Shay
Art Shay is an American photographer and writer. Born in 1922, he grew up in the Bronx and then served as a navigator in the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, during which he flew 52 bomber missions . Shay joined the staff of Life magazine, and quickly became a Chicago-based freelance...
asked Algren to pose below the film's marquee
Marquee (sign)
A marquee is most commonly a structure placed over the entrance to a hotel or theatre. It has signage stating either the name of the establishment or, in the case of theatres, the play or movie and the artist appearing at that venue...
, he is reported to have said, "What does that movie have to do with me?"
Even though the first draft of the novel did not even deal with drug addiction (it was only added later), this became the singular focus of the film. In the novel, Frankie served in World War II and became addicted to morphine following treatment for a war injury. There is little mention of Frankie's film counterpart serving in the war, and he tells Molly that he started drugs "for kicks."
In Algren's book, Frankie is a blond-haired man in his late 20s, and as a poor veteran he often wears a torn Army jacket and brogans
Brogan (shoes)
Brogan a term generally applied to any heavy, ankle-high shoe or boot, more specifically, any such boot worn by a soldier in at least the American Revolutionary War and the American Civil War. In the American revolution, the British soldiers wore brogans that were interchangeable with the left or...
. Played by Sinatra (who was nearly 40 years old at the time), the film's protagonist has dark hair and normally wears slacks and a dress shirt. In the film he is given a drum set and almost lands a job as a big-band drummer, but in the novel he only has a practice pad
Practice pad
A Practice Pad, or Drum Pad, is a type of percussion implement utilized by drummers and percussionists to quietly warm up before a performance or practice musical material...
, and his dream of being a drummer is only a fleeting aspiration.
The novel implies that Zosh's paralysis is a psychosomatic symptom of her mental illness, but in the film she is deliberately deceiving Frankie and is fully able to walk.
The book's version of Violet ("Vi") is an attractive young woman and Sparrow's love interest. In the film, she is played by Doro Merande
Doro Merande
Doro Merande was an American actress who appeared in Hollywood films, onstage and on television. A well-regarded character actress, she frequently portrayed "sour, witchy old women"...
, who was in her 60s at the time. The movie combines the character of her spouse, "Old Husband" Koskozka, with that of the landlord, "Jailer" Schwabatski.
Frankie's employer, Schwiefka, is a villain and Nifty Louie's partner in the movie, but in the book he is a relatively neutral character.
In the film, a walking Zosh accidentally pushes Nifty Louie to his death, but in the novel it is Frankie who accidentally murders Louie.
Algren's story ends with a cornered and hopeless Frankie committing suicide, but in the film Zosh is the one who dies, while Sinatra's Frankie and Novak's Molly survive the end of the film together.
Title sequence and soundtrack
The movie opens with one of the most famous, influential and controversial title sequenceTitle sequence
A Title Sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound...
s in movie history, the animated paper cut-out of a heroin addict's arm, designed and conceived by Saul Bass
Saul Bass
Saul Bass was a Jewish-American graphic designer and filmmaker, best known for his design of motion picture title sequences....
as a means of creating much more than a mere title sequence
Title sequence
A Title Sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound...
, but something that actually enhances the viewer's experience by contributing to a mood built within the opening moments of a film. Bass went on to create memorable title sequences for other renowned films, notably for Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's Vertigo
Vertigo (film)
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
, North by Northwest
North by Northwest
North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau...
and Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
.
Similarly, the film's jazz soundtrack (played by Shorty Rogers
Shorty Rogers
Milton “Shorty” Rogers , born Milton Rajonsky in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was one of the principal creators of West Coast jazz. He played both the trumpet and flugelhorn, and was in demand for his skills as an arranger. Rogers worked first as a professional musician with Will Bradley and...
and His Giants with Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne
Shelly Manne , born Sheldon Manne in New York City, was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West Coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde jazz and fusion, as well as contributing...
) was a landmark in film history; it followed on somewhat from the score provided by Alex North
Alex North
Alex North was an American composer who wrote the first jazz-based film score and one of the first modernist scores written in Hollywood ....
for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).
The famous theme music was written by Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein was an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career which spanned fifty years, he composed music for hundreds of film and television productions...
. Jet Harris
Jet Harris
Jet Harris, MBE was an English musician. He was the bass guitarist of The Shadows until April 1962, and had subsequent success as a soloist and as a duo with the drummer Tony Meehan....
released the theme as single in 1963, Sweet
Sweet (band)
Sweet was a British rock band that rose to worldwide fame in the 1970s as one of the most prominent glam rock acts, with the classic line-up of lead vocalist Brian Connolly, bass player Steve Priest, guitarist Andy Scott, and drummer Mick Tucker.Sweet was formed in 1968 and achieved their first...
covered the theme song on the UK version of their album Desolation Boulevard
Desolation Boulevard
Desolation Boulevard, released in 1974, is the second album by Sweet that year. It contains an original variant of one of the band's best known songs, "Fox on the Run"....
, and Barry Adamson
Barry Adamson
Barry Adamson is a British rock musician who has worked with rock bands such as Magazine, Visage, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and the electronic musicians Pan sonic and Depeche Mode. Adamson created the seven-minute opus "Useless " remix for the latter band in 1997...
released a cover version on his 1988 album Moss Side Story
Moss Side Story
Moss Side Story is an album by Barry Adamson released in 1989. The album is a concept album. The music is almost completely instrumental except for occasional screams, samples and a choir. The concept is the score to a fictitious film. To achieve the effect the song titles are descriptive of a film...
.