Some Came Running

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.

In the post-war, the alcoholic and bitter veteran military and former writer Dave Hirsch (Frank Sinatra) returns from Chicago to his hometown Parkman, Indiana. He is followed by Ginnie Moorehead (Shirley MacLaine), a vulgar and easy woman with whom he spent his last night in Chicago that has fallen in love with him. The resentful Dave meets his older brother Frank Hirsh (Arthur Kennedy), who owns a jewelry store and is a prominent citizen of Parkman that invites him to have dinner with his family. Dave meets his sister-in-law Agnes (Leora Dana) that hates him since one character of his novel had been visibly inspired on her, and his teenage niece Dawn (Betty Lou Keim). Frank introduces the school teacher Gwen French (Martha Hyer) to him and Dave feels attracted by the beautiful woman that is daughter of his former Professor Robert Haven French (Larry Gates) and idolizes his work as writer. However, his unrequited love with Gwen drives Dave back to the local bar where he befriends the professional gambler Bama Dillert (Dean Martin) and meets Ginnie again with the Chicago's mobster Raymond Lanchak (Steven Peck) that was her former lover and has followed her from Chicago. The unconditional love of Ginnie for Dave leads to a tragedy in the calm Parkman.

"Some Came Running" is a melodramatic soap opera about hypocrisy and love in a small American town by Vincente Minnelli. Every character in the story is flawed, bitter, hypocrite, insecure, gossiper, false and the unconditional love of Ginnie with Dave is probably the most beautiful and pure feeling in this romance despite the reputation of Ginnie. This character is magnificently performed by the lovely and sweet Shirley MacLaine and the dialogs are witty and harsh. This story recalls "Peyton Place" that also shows the stereotypical lifestyle of a small town in America in the late 40's. The false morality and intolerance rules the relationships among the dwellers, with gossips, sexual repression and snobbery are very similar. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Deus Sabe o Quanto Amei!" ("God Knows How Much I Have Loved")

Dave Hirsh is through with the army. A drinking binge with his buddies results in Dave being loaded onto a Greyhound bus bound for Parkman, Indiana (his seldom-visited hometown) clutching the few things he has managed to collect - Ginnie the floozie ("that dumb poushover") and a bag containing two bottles of scotch, the tattered manuscript of a love story and Hirsh's beloved copies of Faulkner, Wolfe and Steinbeck. Dave was once a writer of considerable promise. It had not been Dave's intention to revisit Parkman, but now that he's here he decides to hang around for a while. He wants to settle a score with his brother Frank.

The proprietor of a thriving jewellery store and a rising star in the Rotarians, Frank Hirsh is the worst kind of small-town phoney. He is a master of glib sales patter and the vacuous small talk of country club social evenings. Though he would rather die than say so, he doesn't want his kid brother within a hundred miles of Parkman. Dave is bohemian, hedonistic, creative - in other words, thing which threaten scandal. Having to socialise with Dave (folks would gossip if he shunned his own brother), Frank spends the time alternately bragging about his vulgar prosperity and timidly hinting that maybe Dave should move on.

"I'm an expert on tramps," wisecracks Dave (played by Frank Sinatra). Typically of Ol' Blue Eyes' projects of the period ("Ocean's Eleven", "Come Blow Your Horn") women are depicted as chattles to be despised and traded.

Equally typically, it is from Dean Martin's character that the most virulent misogyny comes. Bama Dillert warns Dave that you either give women orders, or allow them to dominate you. There is no other way. Bama hangs around with Rosalie, the lowlife zombie, and tells Ginnie to "just be a good girl and shut up". It is poor, good-natured Ginnie who gets most of the abuse. "You'll go anywhere with anybody," says her husband-to-be. She is grateful when he allows her to clean the house for him. Edith the nice girl and Dawn the perfect daughter are shown to be whores at heart. Even superior, educated Gwen has her sluttish moments.

Dave's rediscovery of his writing talent is somewhat improbable, as is the volume of whiskey supposedly consumed by these 'real men'. Even more unlikely is Dave's romantic rush of blood to the head near the end of the picture, and the melodramatic consequences which flow from it.

There is a Cahn and Van Heusen theme song, of course ("To Love And Be Loved"). Shirley Maclaine is good as Ginnie the 'escort' with the heart of gold. She tended hereafter to be typecast as a trollop ("Irma La Douce", "Woman Times Seven", "My Geisha", "Sweet Charity", "Two Mules"). The set of the French house is marvellous, with its easy-on-the -eye three-dimensional layout. Martha Hyer as Gwen seems miscast as Frankie's love interest, not least because her head is twice the size of his.

A garish , extreme drama about thunderous relationships , complex love stories and tragic events . Madison, Indiana , 73 miles from Cincinnati , suddenly found itself elevated to more than just an insignificant spot on the American map due to this film . Dealing with a burn-out writer called David Hirsh : Frank Sinatra returning from the war to the small town he grew up, and along the way , he is chased by a vulgar , neurotic woman : Shirley McLaine who fell in love for him . Concerning the dramatic curve of Sinatra's agonising voyage of self-discovery and as a result ends in his self-acceptance . Other central characters are Arthur Kennedy as his brother , Dean Martin as a compulsive card player , the wealthy teacher Martha Hyer , among others

An intense, spectacular drama about snobbishness with thrills , brawls , emotion , tragic romances and anything else . It provides a contrived plot with superbly orchestred intensity of the feelings the main roles generate in their numerous clashes . Producers financed a big budget and star-studded cast to carry out this great production in which 80 actors and location workers moved in overnight to make the movie of James Jones' massive novel. Madison bore a remarkable resemblance to Jones' description of the fictional town of Parkman. Main and support cast are pretty good . Frank Sinatra is frankly well as Dave Hirsh returning serviceman meets all shorts of prejudices and problems, and Shirley MacLaine provides overacting as a silly street girl , while Dean Martin gives surprisingly one of his best interpretations as a stubborn gambler . And support cast is frankly magnificent , such as : Arthur Kennedy , Nancy Gates , Leora Dana , but was durable blonde Martha Hyer who grabbed the movie's nomination .

Colorful cinematography in Technicolor by William H Daniels , showing splendidly cheap-neon lit bars and cold houses . Moving and stirring musical score by Elmer Bernstein in his usual style. This brawling and attractive motion picture was competently directed by Vincente Minnelli . Vincente was one of the best Hollywod professionals , shooting a lot of films with penchant for Musical , Drama and Comedy , such as : Cabin in the Sky, Meet me in St Louis , Yolanda and the Thief, The Clock , Ziegfeld Follies , The Pirate , Undercurrent , Madame Bovary , Father of the Bride, An American in París, The Bad and the Beautiful, The Band Wagon, The long long trailer , Brigadoon , Kismet, The Cobweb , Tea and sympathy , Gigi , Bells are ringing , Two weeks in another town, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse , Goodbye Charlie , The Sandpiper , A matter of Time , among others. Rating 7/10 . Better that average . Worthwhile watching .

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.