Some Came Running (1958)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 136m
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley Maclaine, Martha Hyer, Arthur Kennedy
Synopsis:
A demobbed soldier and sometime writer finds himself in the town he grew up in as the result of a practical joke, accompanied by a hooker who has attached herself to him. As he settles down into making his brother as uncomfortable as possible and courting the professor's buttoned-up schoolteacher daughter, he is also drawn into a friendship with a local gambler.
Review:
Slow to boil melodrama which retains a couple of startling character volte faces for its conclusion but which holds the interest throughout as a mordant exposé of the bitterness of a post-war American small town. The hero seeks something of value in himself reflected in others and mistakenly targets wealth, intellect and status as desirable matches. Too high, he is told; his place is with gamblers and hookers, though he can write after all (consolation prize). That the gamblers and hookers are far more fun than the stiff respectable characters speaks volumes, and is of course partly down to casting. Minnelli has great fun with some lavish interiors, Hyer's mummified coiffure and an hysterical funfair sequence, all bright lights and red neon. (See Publications for a fuller appreciation.)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 136m
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley Maclaine, Martha Hyer, Arthur Kennedy
Synopsis:
A demobbed soldier and sometime writer finds himself in the town he grew up in as the result of a practical joke, accompanied by a hooker who has attached herself to him. As he settles down into making his brother as uncomfortable as possible and courting the professor's buttoned-up schoolteacher daughter, he is also drawn into a friendship with a local gambler.
Review:
Slow to boil melodrama which retains a couple of startling character volte faces for its conclusion but which holds the interest throughout as a mordant exposé of the bitterness of a post-war American small town. The hero seeks something of value in himself reflected in others and mistakenly targets wealth, intellect and status as desirable matches. Too high, he is told; his place is with gamblers and hookers, though he can write after all (consolation prize). That the gamblers and hookers are far more fun than the stiff respectable characters speaks volumes, and is of course partly down to casting. Minnelli has great fun with some lavish interiors, Hyer's mummified coiffure and an hysterical funfair sequence, all bright lights and red neon. (See Publications for a fuller appreciation.)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 136m
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley Maclaine, Martha Hyer, Arthur Kennedy
Synopsis:
A demobbed soldier and sometime writer finds himself in the town he grew up in as the result of a practical joke, accompanied by a hooker who has attached herself to him. As he settles down into making his brother as uncomfortable as possible and courting the professor's buttoned-up schoolteacher daughter, he is also drawn into a friendship with a local gambler.
Review:
Slow to boil melodrama which retains a couple of startling character volte faces for its conclusion but which holds the interest throughout as a mordant exposé of the bitterness of a post-war American small town. The hero seeks something of value in himself reflected in others and mistakenly targets wealth, intellect and status as desirable matches. Too high, he is told; his place is with gamblers and hookers, though he can write after all (consolation prize). That the gamblers and hookers are far more fun than the stiff respectable characters speaks volumes, and is of course partly down to casting. Minnelli has great fun with some lavish interiors, Hyer's mummified coiffure and an hysterical funfair sequence, all bright lights and red neon. (See Publications for a fuller appreciation.)