Some Came Running

Another prominent film from 1958 was Some Came Running, directed by Vincente Minnelli (who also directed Gigi that year) and co-starring, for the first time, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. It was based on a massive novel by James Jones, his follow-up to From Here to Eternity. The book was over 1,200 pages long, and though the film trimmed a lot of that, it still feels a bit bloated and self-important. It's also a curious hybrid--a cynical, downbeat character study of small-town morals, but shot in glossy Cinemascope.

The story concerns Sinatra as a fellow who's just out of the Army. He's a lapsed writer, with two unsuccessful novels under his belt. He has returned to his hometown, a small burg in Indiana, for no particular reason. When he awakes at the bus stop, he realizes that a good-time girl, Shirley MacLaine, has come along with him from Chicago.

Sinatra has an older brother, Arthur Kennedy, who is a successful businessman and social climber, with a harpie for a wife and a daughter who is on the verge of being exploited by men. They introduce Sinatra to a local professor and his daughter, Martha Hyer, a schoolteacher, who admires his writing. Sinatra is immediately attracted to her, but she resists his overtures.

Meanwhile Sinatra keeps one foot in the town's demimonde, mostly in a friendship with Martin, a professional gambler who drinks excessively and is funny about never removing his hat. MacLaine has decided to stay in town because she is in love with Sinatra, even though she knows that she's not smart or cultured like Hyer.

A lot of this plays like Peyton Place, what with all the secrets under the rock of the superficially ideal Midwest town. But what this film really tries to address is loneliness. Sinatra, Hyer, MacLaine and even Martin deal with a certain kind of loneliness that they cover up either with alcohol or some other panacea. Sinatra bounces back between Hyer and MacLaine almost like a pinball, as each appeal to one aspect of his personality. When Sinatra decides to marry one (I won't tell which) Martin shows an inner misogyny that surprises Sinatra and reveals the previously charming and easy-going character to have much more complexity.

MacLaine, Hyer and Kennedy were all nominated for Oscars. For MacLaine, it was her breakout role, and for a few years she was the distaff member of the Rat Pack. She is wonderful, totally unafraid to embarrass herself by playing a woman without much brains but with a huge heart, a combination of traits that allow her to be used by men. Hyer would end up being considered for the role of Marian Crane in Psycho, but Janet Leigh was the one who ended up making film history.

The DVD of this film contains some critical comments by admiring academics, but ultimately I couldn't get behind it. Minnelli directed it as if were a musical, his speciality, with candy colors and overwrought melodrama, when it probably would have been much better as a shorter, gritty black and white film.