Title Sequence - a Jagged or Crooked Forearm
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The Man With the Golden Arm (1955)
In director Otto Preminger's code-defying, daring,
ground-breaking, powerful drama about heroin addiction, with bleak
film noirish elements and a memorable jazz score from Elmer Bernstein,
based upon Nelson Algren's 1949 best-selling novel - it was the first major
Hollywood film about the very taboo subject:
- the opening title sequence was a revolutionary,
minimalist, animated, artistic Saul
Bass Title Credits sequence that first displayed
stabbing white lines (representing needles, or a drummer's
drum sticks), and then a paper cut-out of a jagged, bent, twisted
(or crooked) and deconstructed forearm that moved downward
(a symbol of addiction)
- in the late 1940s, Frankie "Dealer" Machine (Majcinek)
(Academy Award-nominated Frank Sinatra), a
rehabilitated prison-hospital ex-con, returned
to his slummy and squalid Chicago neighborhood after
serving 6-months time at the federal Narcotic Farm-Hospital in
Lexington, Kentucky; his nickname "Dealer" was due to his
professional and lucrative poker dealing skill; during
his time served for not squealing when he "took the rap" for illegal
gambling, he had learned to play the drums, and was now an aspiring
big-band jazz drummer; he bragged that his drum teacher had told
him he had "arms made of pure gold"
- Frankie was determined to restore his life to order
after becoming clean in prison: (his first
words were: "The monkey's gone...I kicked it"), but immediately
he began to fall back into his old habits by first visiting his
favorite bar hang-out - Antek's Tug 'n' Maul Tavern - next door to where he lived
- an assortment of characters surrounded Frankie's
demise into being tempted back into using drugs again: his oily
and smarmy, dandified drug dealer supplier "Nifty Louie" Fomorowski
(Darren McGavin) with fixes of heroin, Frankie's small-time hoodlum,
gambling boss and illicit card-game manager Zero Schwiefka (Robert
Strauss) who immediately offered Frankie his old job ("Job's waitin'")
and ultimately pressured the indebted and down-and-out Frankie
to return to card-dealing sessions, and Frankie's mentally-challenged comic sidekick Sparrow (Arnold
Stang) - a petty crook and hustler who had a side-business selling
lost, homeless (stolen) dogs
Frankie's Old Group of Friends and Associates
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Drug Dealer "Nifty Louie"
Fomorowski (Darren McGavin)
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Frankie with Sidekick Sparrow (Arnold Stang)
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Frankie with Gambling Boss Zero Schwiefka (Robert Strauss)
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- in his tenement rooming-house apartment, Frankie
met up with his dependent, neurotic, greedy and nagging wife -
the lying and deceiving 25 year-old Sophia "Zosh" Machine
(Eleanor Parker in an over-the-top performance), who welcomed him
home; he boasted: "I'm clean....I kicked it for keeps"; she
was allegedly crippled from spinal injuries and wheelchair bound (but
was secretly faking being an invalid) after a car accident three years
earlier when DUI Frankie was at the wheel; they were married in the
hospital chapel, and since then, she was using her disability and helplessness
as a means to manipulatively maintain Frankie's support by keeping
him guilt-ridden; she urged him to continue gambling and dealing poker
games with Schwiefka, and give up his hopes for a musical career: ("But
you always deal. You're a dealer; you're the best dealer in the business"),
but he told her: "No more. I'm a drummer now"
- in the downstairs apartment hallway, Frankie was briefly
reacquainted with his neighbor - ex-flame and Club Safari stripclub/bar
hostess/mistress Molly Novotny (Kim Novak) (with
a heart of gold); during Frankie's absence, she told him that she had
taken on an alcoholic boyfriend named Drunkie Johnny (John Conte),
a professional pool player (houseman) for a corrupt boss, to keep
herself from being lonely
- after the struggling and vulnerable Frankie was forced
to return to dealing, he visited Molly-O (his endearing name for
her) during her work in Club Safari; she encouraged him to fulfill
his dream of becoming a drummer: ("You've got a natural rhythm")
when he doubted himself, and thought his idea of a new stage name
(Jack Duvall) was "swell"; the next day, Frankie met up
with musical talent agent Harry Lane (Will Wright) who set him up
in a week's time for a drumming audition with a band
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Frankie's Friendship with Club Safari Bar-Girl Hostess
Molly Novotny (Kim Novak), known as "Molly-O"
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- in the film's most devastating sequence, Frankie
reverted to his addiction (presumably heroin) when he succumbed
to becoming hooked again; drug-dealing Louie lured him to his apartment
for just one fix (for $5 bucks), but knew what the disastrous results
would be as he injected him - and told him: "Monkey's
never dead, 'Dealer'. The monkey never dies. When you kick him off,
he just hides in a corner waitin' his turn" - there were close-ups
of Frankie's dilated eyes revealing that he had become high; however,
Frankie vowed: "The monkey'll die waitin'. He ain't climbin' up on
my back no more. Never again, I mean it"
$5 For a Fix
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Frankie Shooting-Up with Drug Dealer Louie
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While High, a Close-Up of Frankie's Eyes
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- Zosh continued to discourage Frankie from thinking
he could make it as a drummer - she hid his drumsticks and told him:
"There must be a million drummers play better than you do who can't
get jobs"; meanwhile, Frankie admitted to Molly that he had just
had one fix due to his addiction, but that he could control it:
"There was a 40-pound monkey on my back. The only way to get along
with a load like that is to keep leaning on a fix....I'm one of the
lucky ones, Molly. I kicked it and I'm not too far hooked to kick
it again. I've had my last fix"; and he became jubilant after joining
the Musicians Union before a scheduled Monday audition to become
a band-drummer
- a marathon
weekend poker game had been arranged by Schwiefka with two big-time
gamblers Sam Markette (George E. Stone) and Williams (George Mathews);
although the indebted Frankie knew that he could jeopardize his dreams
to be a dummer, he agreed to deal after being threatened and offered
$250 dollars, and was also enticed by Louie into one more fix
to bolster his self-confidence and get him through the weekend; he
also sought out a third fix after Molly protested that he had reverted
back to drug use and stormed off in a taxi (to rent an apartment
elsewhere)
- the lengthy weekend gambling session
culminated with the strung-out, careless and exhausted Frankie, who
had begged for a 4th fix, returning to deal on
Sunday morning and remaining until early the next morning; when Frankie
was tempted by Louie to resort to cheating by palming cards (in
exchange for the promise of another fix), he was caught and beaten
up; the duplicitous Schwiefka denounced
Frankie and fired him ("You don't deal for me no more")
as the game broke up; Frankie barged into Louie's place desperate
for another injection, but when he was denied any more fixes, Frankie
knocked Louie out and searched the apartment for drugs without finding
anything
Frankie's Marathon Weekend Poker Game
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Frankie Caught Palming Cards
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- after the long weekend without sleep, Frankie rushed
to attend the Monday audition try-out arranged by musical talent
agent Harry Lane (Will Wright); he was hoping to find work as a jazz
drummer in bandleader Milton "Shorty" Rogers’ (as
Himself) group, but experienced a devastating breakdown while heavily
sweating and trembling (with debilitating withdrawal symptoms); he
couldn't keep the beat, knew he had failed, and slinked away
- Louie entered Frankie's apartment to seek revenge,
and discovered that Zosh was faking her disability when he
saw her walking around - he realized that she had only been pretending
to be an invalid: ("You can walk. Since when?"); she
retaliated with intense hysteria and pushed Louie to his death down
the stairwell, because she feared that he would ruin her life by
divulging the truth that she was a phony; Zosh then reported the
death to Captain Bednar (Emile Meyer), and implicitly blamed and
incriminated Frankie for the crime
- after seeming to lose all hope, Frankie sought out
Molly who had moved to another apartment and begged her for money
for another fix - but she adamantly refused: ("Jump off a roof
if you're gonna kill yourself, but don't ask me to help ya...You
mustn't take that dirty stuff no more"); when she heard from
Johnny that Frankie was the target of a man-hunt, she first sarcastically
offered the newly-addicted Frankie to accept a wad of money (that would
never be enough for more fixes), and/or turn himself in and surrender
to the police: ("Why should you hurt, like other people hurt?
Yes, so you had a dog's life with never a break. Why try to face it
like most people do? No, just roll up all your pains into one big
hurt, and then flatten it with a fix...Go on let him [Bednar] kill
ya. Let him kill ya. It'll be quicker and better than doing it your
way")
- after Frankie responded that he wouldn't give himself
up: "I won't let him kill me," she further challenged him
to go "cold turkey" so that he could clearly answer questions
when the police would predictably question him; Frankie
decided with Molly - in a sensational and painful sequence, to detoxify
himself: ("Here we go, down and dirty");
Molly kept Frankie locked in her room (after bundling up
all sharp objects); at one point, she had to lock him in a closet to
prevent him from suicidally jumping to his death; she also helped him
to beat his habit (by keeping him from quivering, writhing, and feeling
cold with blankets and the warmth of her own body); after a few days,
he was again sober ("I feel like all the things inside me have
settled into place")
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Frankie Going Cold-Turkey in Molly's Apartment Room
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- in the final concluding twist in the film, Zosh
was confronted by Frankie in their apartment who informed her that
he was leaving to get away from all the tempting things that had
lured him back into being a junkie: ("I got in the same old
routine and before I knew it I was on it again"); and he admitted
he could no longer be burdened with guilt; she objected and accusingly
suspected he wanted to be with Molly: ("I know what's pullin'
you away, Molly...You're only goin' just so you can be with that
little tramp")
- at the same instant that Zosh chased after Frankie
to beg him not to leave, she forgetfully stood up; her self-incrimination
was witnessed by Frankie, and by Captain Bednar and Molly who arrived
at the door; obviously, she had been fraudulently stringing
everyone along; before Zosh could be arrested
by Captain Bednar, she fled from the apartment, blew her distress
whistle around her neck, and committed suicide by throwing herself
off the balcony onto the brick street below
- her death freed Frankie to possibly live
a cleaner life with Molly (in the tagged-on and contrived happy ending
different from the source novel)
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Ex-Con Frankie Machine's (Frank Sinatra) Return to His
Chicago Neighborhood
Frankie's Crippled Wife "Zosh" (Eleanor Parker) - A Welcome-Home
for Frankie
Frankie Made to Be Dependent By Zosh
Frankie's Ex-Flame, Downstairs Neighbor Molly (Kim Novak)
Frankie Briefly Incarcerated for Shoplifting
Musical Talent Agent Harry Lane (Will Wright)
Frankie's Breakdown During a Jazz Drumming Audition for
a Band
Louie's Shocking Discovery Of Zosh's Faked Illness: ("You can walk.
Since when?")
Zosh Pushing Louie To His Death Down Her Apartment's
Stairwell
Molly to Frankie When He Begged For Money For a Fix: ("You
mustn't take that dirty stuff no more")
After Going "Cold Turkey", Frankie's Grateful Kiss for Molly
Zosh Begging for Frankie to Not Leave Her
Zosh Incriminating Herself by Standing Up
Blowing Whistle - In Distress
Zosh's Suicide - Throwing Herself Off The Apartment's
Balcony to Her Death
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