There is none of the wholeness here that one gets from, for instance, Kazan's On the Waterfront, where everything comes together beautifully and nothing is out of place.
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That its setting is Indiana make both the movie and the characters seem out of place in this most conservative of midwestern states. On the other hand Minnelli was good with people, and his more intimate scenes between people who really know each other,-Sinatra and Martin, Sinatra and MacLaine-show a genuine understanding of human behavior. Aided in no small measure by the excellent photography of William Daniels, his compositions and color create an often surreal effect, almost hallucinogenic, ultimately anti-realistic, though fascinating to watch, and this in the end detracts from the story.
First of all Minnelli was as man and director such an aesthete that he spends much of his time painting with his camera. A number of things keep the film "down", or at any rate in second gear. MacLaine's Method-ish performance is the only jarring note, but it's a loud one. He would like to find a place in society, but how? Where? This one could have been a classic, and the cast is for the most part excellent. Understandably, Sinatra reverts to gambling, drinking and carousing with friend Dean Martin, but is clearly not happy with it. Sinatra is torn between bad girl MacLaine and good girl Hyer and though the former is easy to be with, if not much of a conversationalist, the latter is an ice princess, and proud of it. The story matters less than the characters, which aside from Sinatra's artist-in-uniform, include an alcoholic Southern gambler, played by Dean Martin, who's also his best friend a pathetic floozie from Chicago who followed Sinatra home (Shirley MacLaine) Sinatra's brother, a frustrated if successful businessman (Arthur Kennedy) and a prim, somewhat stuffy school-teacher (Martha Hyer), who admires Sinatra as a writer but cares little for him as a man. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, in a grand, florid manner, it is essentially a smart soap opera, with some very deep emotions, shot in garish color, that can at its best bear comparison with the films of Douglas Sirk, and is in some ways better, more imaginative.
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The fifties were melodrama heyday:Douglas Sirk and Vincente Minelli were masters of the genre at the time.Frank Sinatra plays the main character,but,little by little,it's Shirley Mac Laine who steals the show.She's the hackneyed big-hearted whore -a character she was to play again,on a more comic mode,in "Irma la douce"-,and what's extraordinary is that such a clichéd woman can touch us so closely.Her scene with Martha Hyer who plays a chic lit university professor is absolutely mind-boggling when she humbles before her.Her love for Dave is not shared,because,although the former writer stands aloof from his brother's respectable family,Gwen (Hyer) represents something he can't renounce.He does not marry Ginny (MCLaine) out of love but in a fit of pique.Ginny knows she's been cheated,but her love is so strong that she accepts everything.When Dave understands,it will be too late.The final scene is not far from that of "Imitation of life" and Ginny and the black servant Annie in Sirk's movie are some kind of cousins.Ī product of the Eisenhower fifties, Some Came Running, adapted from a James Jones novel, stars Frank Sinatra as a footloose writer returning to his Midwestern home town right after World War II. If you can get past a miscast Frank Sinatra, then this film is a gem. You have to be made of stone not to be moved by her pleas to Martha Hyer and Hyer's reactions in this scene probably got her, her nomination. This poor pathetic Ginny Moorehead trying to assess her situation vis a vis Dave Hirsch pulls all the stops out. The high point of the movie is her scene with Martha Hyer in Martha's classroom at the college. But he's miscast in a part that either Paul Newman or Montgomery Clift might have taken an Oscar home for. To his credit, he really tries hard and succeeds in spots. This is exactly the kind of background he came from, so the part fit him like a comfortable old shoe. Dean Martin does a great follow-up to The Young Lions in playing Bama Dillert here. In fact the film is filled with nominations, Arthur Kennedy for Best Supporting Actor, Martha Hyer for Best Supporting Actress and these were great performances.
In any other year Shirley MacLaine would have walked off with the Best Actress Oscar, but NO ONE was going to take it from Susan Hayward in 1958.