A Hatful of Rain

A film set in New York. Johnny Pope fought in Korea. He was wounded and spent months in hospital. He is married now. His wife Celia is pregnant. There is a problem. Johnny disappears at night, money vanishes, and he lies constantly. Celia suspects he is with another woman. The truth is different. Johnny came out of hospital addicted to morphine and has told nobody. From there the film is a story of concealment. He has to find money and the dealer is impatient. His brother Polo knows. He has been giving him money for years and has nothing left to give. The father arrives too. John Pope wants to borrow from his sons to start a business. He thinks Polo has been saving. Polo says nothing. The narrative keeps that triangle working. The father is proud of his son, and the son he is proud of is the wrong one. What the narrative is interested in is not addiction but silence: its idea is that everyone knows something and nobody says it, and that the silence around the illness hollows the family out more than the illness does. The dealer's line builds the tension. He and his men wait in the street. The withdrawal scene is the film's centre. Johnny cannot get the drug and suffers through the night. The narrative shows it wholly openly; that is unusual for American cinema of the period. The source is Michael V. Gazzo's stage play. The film is among the first in which Hollywood looked directly at drug addiction. Anthony Franciosa was nominated for the best actor Oscar. The images are black and white and widescreen; the street scenes were shot in New York. Fred Zinnemann directed. Eva Marie Saint, Don Murray, Anthony Franciosa and Lloyd Nolan are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes 1950s American drama and stage adaptations. Who it is not for: anyone looking for pace; the narrative takes place almost entirely in a flat and the tempo is that of the theatre.