These weaknesses can be ignored thanks to the admirable verisimilitude and powerful originality of the main character, wonderfully interpreted by Frank Sinatra.

| Dec 7, 2021

The scene in which Sinatra writhes and screams in pain and delirium is one of the most shocking I have ever seen on the screen. But it is strong and effective, and, I believe, justifiable.

| Dec 23, 2020

Producer-director Premlnger is one of Holly wood's most intelligent film makers. It is to be regretted that his artistic gifts were not channeled into a more uplifting drama.

| Dec 23, 2020

This dramatization of Nelson Algren's novel provides a sometimes revolting, sometimes dreary excursion into the lives of a full set of American lower-depths characters.

| Dec 23, 2020

Forgetting for a moment the contempt Otto Preminger has shown for the spirit of Algren's novel, he has committed the commercial sin of producing and directing a dull movie.

| Dec 23, 2020

Saul Bass's credit titles are as brilliant as one might expect after Carmen Jones but this is an unattractive film: not because the subject is painful, but because [Preminger], with his thorough skill, shows himself so profoundly insensitive to its pain.

| Dec 23, 2020

Sinatra gives a perfect portrayal of a man pulled out of line by forces stronger than he. Torn between his dream of a new life and the insidious circumstances of the old, Frankie is caught like a rat in a maze.

| Dec 23, 2020

The core of The Man With the Golden Arm is its horrific and honest theme. And Frank Sinatra's performance makes it valid. This is a strong, lurid and gripping film.

| Dec 23, 2020

It's not a pretty picture, but it packs a lot of punch.

| Dec 23, 2020

Preminger gives you the feeling of claustrophobia, to be sure, but that's not the only reason you'd like to get out. Along with in there is a growing sense of monotony and, in my case at least, an increasing disassociation with the whole shabby affair.

| Dec 23, 2020

The man who thinks The Man With the Golden Arm is apt to encourage would-be addicts just hasn't seen the picture yet. A better idea would be to show the film at high school assemblies. It's enough to discourage that first joy pop we hear about so often.

| Dec 23, 2020

It is not a pretty sight and certainly not fit for the young. But, it is brilliantly acted by the principals.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 23, 2020

After a while, its unbroken grimness... becomes monotonous. The spectator finds his mind straying from the fervid activity taking place on the screen. He may even get a little bored.

| Dec 23, 2020

Sinatra sweats out his craving for a shot -- thirst, hysteria, spasms, cramps, near-madness the will to suicide, unconsciousness, chills, and a hangover craving for sugar. Frankie makes it all look very terrible and very real.

| Dec 23, 2020

It Is an interesting picture but neither so interesting nor effective as it might have been had Producer-Director Otto Preminger subjected himself to a few restraints.

| Dec 22, 2020

It's a strong picture and not a pretty one, but it focuses a spotlight on a problem and uses no pink filter to soften the exposure.

| Dec 22, 2020

The main fact of the matter is that the Golden Arm film isn't by any means the sort of thing that has to depend on widespread sensationalism to get on record as both an unusual and a noteworthy picture.

| Dec 22, 2020

Honest, sympathetic, and highly emotional.

| Dec 22, 2020

Mr. Preminger's examination of a junkie is conventional, unimaginative and without any of the literary quality of the Nelson Algren novel from which it was lifted.

| Dec 22, 2020

Though the story is heavy and in some respects even harrowing, it depicts drug addiction as being so unattractive that it may well be considered a most effective weapon in the effort to combat the use of narcotics.

| Dec 22, 2020