08-15-2019, 04:36 PM
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
I think this might have been one of the first old black & white films I really got in to, back when I was getting interested in the work of designer Saul Bass. You don't expect something from 50s Hollywood to explore Heroin addiction on almost the same harrowing level as 'Trainspotting'. Frank Sinatra plays Frankie Machine, a top illegal Poker dealer, a Jazz drummer and a recovering addict... three things he can choose to use his arm for. Director Otto Preminger zooms the camera right in on Sinatra's face and eyes as he is shooting up, capturing ecstasy and agony. Frankie returns to his old neighborhood and his bad old ways, driven down by others leeching off him. Kim Novak plays Molly, an old girlfriend and the only person that truly cares for him.
I love Barry Adamson's 1989 cover of Elmer Bernstein's theme music:
I think this might have been one of the first old black & white films I really got in to, back when I was getting interested in the work of designer Saul Bass. You don't expect something from 50s Hollywood to explore Heroin addiction on almost the same harrowing level as 'Trainspotting'. Frank Sinatra plays Frankie Machine, a top illegal Poker dealer, a Jazz drummer and a recovering addict... three things he can choose to use his arm for. Director Otto Preminger zooms the camera right in on Sinatra's face and eyes as he is shooting up, capturing ecstasy and agony. Frankie returns to his old neighborhood and his bad old ways, driven down by others leeching off him. Kim Novak plays Molly, an old girlfriend and the only person that truly cares for him.
I love Barry Adamson's 1989 cover of Elmer Bernstein's theme music: