What a voice! What eyes! What an arm!

It's no secret--the contempt Frank Sinatra had for: 1. doing scene rehearsals and 2. Marlon Brando, but when Ol' Blue Eyes discovered that Brando had been tapped for the lead role in Warner Bros. groundbreaking drama, The Man with the Golden Arm, his desire for the chance to play him was unbearable. The work Frank put into it, after winning the part, is reflected in every way, every second he is on screen. The result: Frank's only Best Actor Oscar Nomination and inarguably, the most powerful performance of his career.
For 1955, a mention of drug addiction in film was non-existent, but Director Otto Preminger turned the tumultuous effects of heroin into anything but discreet. Frank Sinatra plays Frankie Machine, an ex-convict card dealer who returns from prison back to his old neighborhood and habit. His wife Zosch, played brilliantly by Eleanor Parker, is bound to a wheelchair after a disasterous car crash at the hands of Frankie. Her main goal in life is to forever keep him by her side and at any cost, that drives him to get those fixes. As one witnessed Frankie fall faster and further down into the dark well past recovery, nothing could warn nor prepare you for the harrowing realism of addiction this film portrays. But the true shining light that comes out of this picture is redemption and the performance from it's star.
Frank as Frankie Machine is an example of acting at it's finest. As with any picture with Frank in it, the main thing noticed, apart from his trademark Jersey accent, is his realism. For this film, anything short of complete believability would cause it to fall, fast and hard, right on it's face. But Preminger and his illustrious cast, to the score of Elmer Bernstein, come as close to real life as Hollywood could.
Adding to The Man with the Golden Arm, in her best peerformance as an actress, Kim Novak brings such beauty and grace to one of the finest female leads ever written for the screen. She plays Molly, Frankie's lover who, despite her occupation and relationship standing is a beautiful, moral and kind woman. Kim's chemistry with Frank sizzles and one cannot help but love her and her charm.
Although The Voice overall is not considered on the same caliber as an actor as Marlon Brando, imagining anyone else playing Frankie Machine is excruciating. The Man with the Golden Arm may have been filmed in black & white but even through the grayscale, Frank's pain and passion behind his blue eyes comes through in true Hollywood gold.

FILM TO WATCH--Frank Sinatra: The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) Dir. Otto Preminger. *for more Frank---From Here to Eternity (1943).