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At 1200+ pages the James Jones novel "Some Came Running" deals with family divisions, drinking, gambling, sexual repression, adultery and other small town USA vices. All this is embedded in a general theme about the hypocrisy so pervasive in 1948 Middle America.

Jones was most famous for his explorations of WWII and its aftermath. "Some Came Running" is somewhat autobiographical as Jones was one of those returning soldiers from WWII whose long absence gave them a new perspective on details in the social fabric that they had not really noticed before. He was from a small town in Illinois and served in the 25th Infantry Division. He was present during the attack on Pearl Harbor and the battle of Guadalcanal. Basing "From Here to Eternity" and "The Thin Red Line on his experiences.

The film adaptation of "Some Came Running" is long but entertaining, especially if you like seeing a lot of big-name stars. Despite its setting in a small town (it was filmed in Madison, Indiana) this was a big budget epic picture.

The Jones character is named Dave Hirsch and played by Frank Sinatra. He is a successful writer but has not written anything for several years. The film begins inside a bus on its way to Dave's hometown of Parkman, Indiana. He has just been discharged from the army and is wearing his uniform (no rank insignia is visible).

His brother Frank (Arthur Kennedy) has become a big shot in the town and introduces him to Gwen French (Martha Hyer), a college literature teacher who is impressed with his writing but put off by his wild life style. Dave has been followed to Parkton by Ginny (Shirley MacLaine), an airhead he met in a Chicago bar. This sets up the film's love triangle.

Dave becomes friends with a local gambler named Bama Dillert (Dean Martin), moves into his house, and pairs up with him on the regional poker circuit where they are very successful.

While Dave tries to come to terms with his roots and with his future, his brother Frank begins an affair with his secretary.

Generally speaking, adopting a 1200 page book to the screen is ill advised and "Some Came Running" is no exception, if only because the screenwriter incorporated too much of the story for a feature length film to handle effectively.

But the producers compounded this problem with the hiring Vincente Minnelli as director and by casting for box office draw instead of acting talent. This resulted in a film with slick production values, an extremely thin plot, lots of characters (but none with any depth), and a too long running time. Can you say flat, lifeless, prosaic, and unconvincing?

Minnelli was a freak about visual details. He was more interested in whether an actress' dress coordinated well with the wallpaper in the set than how the actress handled her character. The inexperienced MacLaine has commented on how the only guidance she received during filming was from her male co-stars. In fact it was Sinatra who insisted the film end differently than the book as a way to make MacLaine's character more memorable. Minnelli's lack of interest in acting for the camera made him an especially poor choice for an overloaded film that needed subtle and nuanced elements in each scene to flesh out the characterization.

For the same reason, a non-actor like "one-take" Sinatra was completely over-matched by the demands of playing his character. Sinatra was comfortable playing himself in front of the camera and in most of his roles this was more than satisfactory, as it is during the early stages of "Some Came Running". But things start to crash and burn with the start of his scenes with Hyer, and the film essentially collapses the first time he reveals that he loves her.

Because of time constraints this romance had to be compressed, requiring a really skilled performance to set up things for the declaration of love, if it is to be at all convincing. Even if Sinatra took direction well (he didn't) and even if Minnelli was a master of acting for the camera (few were worse), the sudden transformation from Sinatra to lovesick puppy would have been a difficult sell.

A very interesting element of this film is Minnelli's obsession with the sets and the moving camera. There are no close-ups and relatively few medium shots. Almost everything is a wide shot or the master shot itself. This could reflect Minnelli's overriding interest in showcasing his sets, or indicate that Sinatra's work habits made changing camera setups difficult, or that the editor found that many of the performances could not withstand close scrutiny. Whatever the cause, it makes it much more difficult to identify and connect with characters who are always so distant from the camera. This is a detail you may want to watch for the next time you see the film.

This was Dean Martin's signature performance and he is truly excellent. Arthur Kennedy won an Oscar for his portrayal of Frank Hirsh but I think the best performance of all was by Leora Dane as his wife Agnes. Their scenes together have real energy, and almost creepy believability.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

I haven't read the James Jones novel on which this film is based so I can't comment on the movie as an adaption. But as a film standing alone Some Came Running was a very enjoyable experience. All the players are very convincing in their roles. Sinatra as usual mixes world weariness and hope better than just about anyone. His wonderful voice here is as good as its reputation. Shirley MacClaine who was Oscar nominated for this role is also memorable as the simple party girl with an unrequited love for Dave Hirsh. Mention must also be made of the actress who played the school teacher. She perfectly nailed some very difficult scenes that required her to subtly change beats. Dean Martin's sidekick character was also very entertaining. Highly recommended! 9/10.

Typical Minnelli masterpiece, as melodramatic, emotional and stylised as his more famous musicals. Lumpen James Jones novel stripped to the bone, its macho posturings shifted to anatomy of a society. Slow, repetitive narrative mirrors stagnation of such a society. Impotence, disease and writer's block all part of a wider malaise. The psychological visuals are unsurpassed, gaudy, intense floods of light, colour and composition disrupt superficial politeness. Climax one of the greatest in American cinema; the three male leads do the most difficult work of their careers. Shirley MacLaine gets hard deal, though.

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.

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. Dean Martin does a great follow-up to The Young Lions in playing Bama Dillert here. This was no stretch for Dino however. This is exactly the kind of background he came from, so the part fit him like a comfortable old shoe.

The flaw is Sinatra. To his credit, he really tries hard and succeeds in spots. But he's miscast in a part that either Paul Newman or Montgomery Clift might have taken an Oscar home for.

But the acting honors go to MacLaine. The high point of the movie is her scene with Martha Hyer in Martha's classroom at the college. This poor pathetic Ginny Moorehead trying to assess her situation vis a vis Dave Hirsch pulls all the stops out. 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.

If you can get past a miscast Frank Sinatra, then this film is a gem.

Vincente Minelli was a master at creating powerful cinematic imagery that made unforgettable many a film which, in other hands, might have been quite ordinary. So many aspects of the story he deals with in "Some Came Running" had to be compromised because of the censorship issues that governed movies of that era. This led to some very awkward scripting, suggesting but never explicitly spelling out much that was central to the story. As a result, the drama veers into a rather dated soap-opera feel from time to time.

The wonder of this picture lies in how the director draws consistently strong performances from his cast and then, using striking visual compositions, magical lighting, stunning use of color, delivers a startlingly powerful result. Like so many of his films, this is the sort of richly satisfying visual experience that you want to re-visit again and again.

Serious home theater buffs should loudly protest that such Minnelli masterpieces as "Some Came Running", Home from the Hill" and "Lust for Life" are still unreleased as widescreen DVD's. This seems so shamefully, incomprehensibly neglectful!