Some Came Running

Vincente Minnelli's melodrama, adapted from James Jones's novel. Dave comes back after the war to the Indiana town he was born in. With him is Ginnie, a woman who has followed him and who has no place at all in the town's order of class. Dave wants to be a writer; his elder brother is a respectable merchant, ashamed that he exists. Three people are at the centre: Dave, Ginnie, and Bama, the town's gambler. None of the three is accepted, and the film builds that exclusion out of class; who can enter which club, who can be seen with whom, is a constant subject. Frank Sinatra plays Dave, Shirley MacLaine plays Ginnie and Dean Martin plays Bama. MacLaine was Oscar-nominated and the part changed her career. Minnelli's use of colour becomes plain in the closing section: the neon of the town carnival is deployed according to the emotional state of the narrative, and the sequence is among the most discussed passages in American melodrama. An important work for anyone who likes 1950s colour melodrama and Minnelli's formal command. For a viewer expecting restraint, the film runs at a high emotional pitch and makes no secret of it.