The Man with the Golden Arm
All actors and roles (10)
Short description
Frankie Machine, a card dealer and heroin addict, returns to Chicago after a prison term and a stay in rehabilitation, determined to leave his old life behind. He has taken up drumming and hopes to make an honest living as a musician, but his wife Zosh, who uses a wheelchair, wants things to stay as they were, and his former employer and dealer pull him back toward gambling and drugs. A woman named Molly offers him support, yet the pressure of debts and old habits threatens his attempt to start over.
Otto Preminger directed and produced the film, the seventh of the sixteen he made, following Carmen Jones and preceding Saint Joan. Walter Newman and Lewis Meltzer wrote the screenplay, and Frank Sinatra leads the cast as Frankie, with Eleanor Parker as Zosh, Kim Novak as Molly, Arnold Stang as Sparrow, Darren McGavin as Louie and Robert Strauss as Schwiefka.
Made for about a million dollars, the film took roughly four million at the worldwide box office. On IMDb it holds 7.3 out of 10 from around 13,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.1 from 262 votes. A critics' rating of 7.3 from 58 reviews places it close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Otto Preminger paid Columbia Pictures $100,000 for the opportunity to cast Kim Novak in the film, and she received only $1,000 per week from that amount.
- The role of Frankie was initially offered to Marlon Brando (1924-2004), but Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) ended up taking it.
- Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) declined an offer to participate in writing the screenplay, as did an offer to contribute to the screenplay for the 1959 film "Anatomy of a Murder," also directed by Otto Preminger (1905-1986).
- Initially, the Motion Picture Association of America refused to certify the film due to its depiction of drug use, but a year later the film industry's ethical code changed, and films about drugs, kidnappings, abortions, and prostitution could be released.
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