A Hatful of Rain

Good drama showing how a family can be far different than what it appears when certain members refuse to live in the present. Nolan was good as the bantam rooster of a father and Franciosa shone as the drunken yet solid older brother. As always Silva, with that cruel face, was well cast as a heartless pusher whose love for money can only lead to disaster. I wanted to slap his hyper little helper; what a creep.

A Korean war veteran (Don Murray) has developed a raging heroin habit which he hides from his pregnant wife (Eva Marie Saint)and his father (Lloyd Nolan). He has those classic "I've got a monkey on my back" mannerisms which the audience can appreciate, while the wife and father wonder why he seems nervous all the time. His dealer, a character known as Mother, played by Henry Silva, and Mother's sidekick, a beatnik type known as Chuch, played by Gerald S. O Laughlin, are memorable characters. Murray is great as his desperation grows, in debt to Mother, trying to keep his problem a secret, pushed to the extreme. The powerhouse drama features an utterly fantastic role, played by Anthony Franciosa, as Murray's heavy drinking brother, who protects Murray but is in love with his wife at the same time. It could have all been too stagey, but thanks to director Fred Zinneman, there's action to spare in this gritty New York drama.

Intense and harrowing family drama typical of 50's style New York film-making. At the time, Hollywood was caught up in the double-whammy of TV competition and Cold War scare, so programming from the West Coast tended to emphasize big screen spectacle and politically safe subject matter. On the other hand, films from New York City, such as On the Waterfront and Edge of the City, emphasized small screen black & white, with urban settings and grittier subject matter.

Here it's drug addiction among a white-collar family ensconced in a Manhattan apartment. Hooked because of a war wound, Johnny (Don Murray) has a loving wife Celia (Eva Marie Saint), a loyal brother Polo (Anthony Franciosa), and an arrogantly insensitive father (Lloyd Nolan). There's real tension between husband and wife because Johnny is fearful of confessing his secret addiction. As a result, Celia feels neglected by his drug-created absences, while Johnny keeps losing jobs, and Polo ends up paying for his brother's habit. When Dad comes from Florida to collect promised money from Polo that he now doesn't have, events begin spiraling out of control.

Needless to say, acting here is front and center stage. The cast comes through beautifully, especially Franciosa as the intensely conflicted Polo who's attracted to his brother's wife while providing Johnny the needed support. And it doesn't help that Dad has always favored Johnny even as Polo must keep that same brother's ruinous secret. Poor Polo, the stress may appear to be on Johnny and his addiction, but it's really Polo who's emotionally torn.

This is not a movie for the depressed. Nearly all the scenes take place in the couple's rather drab apartment, except for a few street shots of Johnny trapped by Manhattan's towering impersonality. This is urban despair 50's style, when drugs and addiction were considered a strictly urban problem related to unwholesome types that thrived there. The darker skinned drug-pusher Mother (Henry Silva)) conforms to a popular stereotype of the time, along with his be-bopping confederate Apple (Bill Hickey), another popular stereotype. And when Mother says it's only business after threatening Johnny, we get a different perspective on the rise of post-war commercialism. (Why the lugubrious name "Mother" for a low-life drug dealer? My guess is that it characterizes in ironic fashion the dependent relation addicts have with their supplier.)

The image that stays with me is a strung-out Johnny, hunkered down in his coat, drifting alone on the streets of Manhattan. It's a grim existential moment, especially for that upbeat decade. Anyway, the movie remains a dramatic powerhouse that still packs a wallop. And even that bane of 50's films, the required happy ending, is finessed in suitably ambiguous fashion.

I have had relatives addicted to street drugs. As this film shows, overdose is the least of your worries. Addicts not only throw their own lives away, they drag their loved ones down with them. They not only destroy the love you have for them but they endanger your life along with theirs. They make the character more sympathetic by being a veteran with PTSD. This film should be shown in all schools starting in third grade. Although realistic it is still more sanitized that reality.

My first viewing of this movie was when i was eleven years old. It was being aired on the Friday night late show. I found it to be a gripping tale of a Korean war veteran returning home with a heroin addiction which was brought on from battle wounds recieved during the conflict.After that point was established you tend to feel for Johnny Pope and his family. A hero in his fathers eyes with his brother Polo paling in comparison in dads opinion. Johnny's wife and brother do everything they can to cope with his addiction and keep John Sr. in the dark about it building to the eventual climax when the truth comes out.A well written and acted tale that left an impression on me.