The Man with the Golden Arm
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The monkey is never dead, Dealer. The monkey never dies. When you kick him off, he just hides in a corner, waiting his turn.
—"Nifty Louie" Fomorowski (Darren McGavin)
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The subject of drug addiction has been addressed in Hollywood films many times before, dating all the way back to the silent era (Kevin Brownlow's seminal "Behind the Mask of Innocence" chronicles these amazing early productions). But few dared to be as honest, blunt or graphic as The Man With the Golden Arm, a 1955 Otto Preminger film which featured Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak.
Sinatra stars as Frankie "Dealer" Machine, the heroin-addicted hero who, having gotten clean while in prison, now struggles to remain "straight" after release. Oscar-nominated for his work in the film, Sinatra is a raw nerve in his unvarnished portrayal of a "junkie," most memorably in his brutal withdrawal scenes. Along with its still topical subject and powerful storytelling, the film is further enhanced by its eye-popping Saul Bass opening credits sequence and Elmer Bernstein's remarkable jazz score.
Critic Dave Kehr has noted that "Otto Preminger's 1955 adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel is something of a crossroads movie, suspended between the swirling expressionism of Preminger's early career and the balanced realism that would later become his forte."
The Man With the Golden Arm was named to the National Film Registry in 2020. The film was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005 with funding from the Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
The film is in the public domain; you can watch it on this wiki or download it from the Internet Archive.
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