The Man with the Golden Arm - 1955

I suppose every human being will struggle with some type of addiction in their mortal lives. The flesh is weak. But not all addictions are like a heroin addiction, at least that is what this movie portrays to the viewer. Sinatra plays Frankie Machine. A good guy who got mixed up with the wrong kind of drug. The movie starts out with Frankie on top of the world. He is out of rehab and ready to start a clean life. He wants to be a musician, a drummer. He wants to leave behind his legacy of dealing cards and doing drugs. Frankie goes against the advice from his doctor, and decides to return to his old stomping grounds. It doesn't take long for Frankie to take his first heroin hit, start working as a dishonest card dealer for a shark named Louise (played fantasticly by Darren McGavin (who you will recognize from The Christmas Story, The Natural and Billy Madison). Frankie is torn between an old life with his wife Zosch Machine (played by the same actress who plays the cold hearted baroness in Sound of Music) and his girlfriend Molly (played by Kim Novak). Believe it or not in this movie his girlfriends is actually the better influence for Frankie. Zosch is a liar and manipulates Frankie. I love how the director (Otto Preminger) portrays Frankie. It really is creepy how much the drug controls him. I did not like how bad the copy of the film was, hard to see images and hard to hear the voices talking. This would be a great movie to do a remake off. 3 stars for me. If the sound was better as well as the picture quality I would give this 4 stars and make my kids watch this show.