1958 - SOME CAME RUNNING, another 1950's small town melodrama

There were several  challenges for Vincente Minnelli. He had to take a 1000 page novel and condense it into a coherent narrative and put up with hot tempered Frank Sinatra a performer only interested in shooting 1 or 2 takes in his scenes.  That Minnelli could pull this off is somewhat of a tribute to his skill as a storyteller.

Some Came Running is one of those stories that wants to eviscerate the sleazy underside of small town American life.  Sinatra is a supposedly sensitive author returning home after his service in the army.  He hooks up with cardsharp Dean Martin playing a character called "Bama" who holds women in such low regard he calls them pigs to their faces.  Shirley MacLaine is the trampy women who has a big crush on Sinatra and Martha Hyer is the frigid prude who is enamored of Sinatra's writing talent but doesn't want to sleep with him.  

 

 

Stir this mess of characters up and you've got one fairly stylish Peyton Place of a film.  Minnelli was a director who primarily made his reputation as a director of musicals, but he was pretty good at filming comedies and dramas.  The film is famous for it's crazed carnival scene towards the end of the film where Minnelli and his cameraman William Daniels pull out all the stops.

 

 

 

The screenplay was by John Patrick and Arthur Sheekman.  It runs a rather longish 136 minutes.  This film is for lovers of exaggerated melodrama.