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Otto Preminger: Golden Arm
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In 1956, Preminger directed Frank Sinatra as a junkie in The Man With the Golden Arm. It was Hollywood's first serious look at drug addiction and included sensational scenes of Sinatra's character going "cold turkey" to kick his habit. The film was banned in Boston among other cities, but again Preminger went to the courts and beat the censors. Though it caused a sensation, critics didn't think much of the way Preminger had lightened up his subject and tacked on a happy ending. Diana Willing in Films in Review called it "a very inferior film….The script is inexcusably clumsy, the sets are unbelievable, and the casting is ridiculous." Nonetheless, Preminger's challenge to the studios' rating system proved a success.
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A man of strong beliefs, Preminger delighted in challenging authority, a quality that often led to clashes with studio executives and censors. In the early 1950s, Preminger formed his own production company, and as an independent producer he became known for taking on controversial topics. The Moon Is Blue (1953), a sex comedy that contained themes considered mature at the time, was released without a Production Code seal of approval. Preminger tackled heroin addiction in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), frankly addressed the issue of rape in Anatomy of a Murder (1959), and took a strong stand in support of the founding of Israel with Exodus (1960). He ... continued to direct adaptations of stage productions, including the black-cast musicals Carmen Jones (1954) and Porgy and Bess (1959). Preminger received his second Academy Award nomination for directing for his work on The Cardinal (1963); he was also nominated for producing Anatomy of a Murder.
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Preminger's 1955 film The Man with the Golden Arm (Dec. 2) is tamer than Nelson Algren's drug novel, with Frank Sinatra as Frankie Machine, a Chicago jazz drummer going down the drain thanks to dope. Long visible in grimy public domain copies, the film was in desperate need of a new print and has finally been restored. Preminger's daughter Victoria and eminent film historian David Thomson discuss this pioneering drama after the screening.
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If Hitchcock may have echoed the power of repetition in Angel Face, then Preminger may well have noted the power of the single set in Rear Window, when he was preparing The Man with the Golden Arm. Preminger had deemed it too complicated to use Chicago locations. So he designed something quite close to a Weimar street movie, in which a single street acts a conduit for all the places and spaces in the action, the bars and dingy apartments all off the same street. His camera glides through the space of the studio back-lot capturing grey interiors through window shots – another Preminger favourite – moving in and out with consummate ease. This, for sure, is a one-dimensional movie with a knowable neighbourhood into which Frankie returns after his gaol stretch, familiar surroundings which trap him once more. Preminger makes the set a site of staged exits and entrances, filming a living theatre of poor white hustlers seeking a lucky break.
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One of Otto Preminger's most compelling and perfectly realized films, this is a detailed and exciting account of the efforts of a small-town lawyer (Jimmy Stewart) to defend an army sergeant (Ben Gazzara) accused of murdering a bartender. Featuring crystal cool direction and a terrific Duke Ellington score.
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Zanuck returned from the armed services still with a grudge against Preminger. Although Preminger had been "forgiven" by Zanuck, he was not granted permission to direct Laura, but only allowed to produce the picture. Instead, Rouben Mamoulian would be at the directing helm. Much to Preminger's dismay, Mamoulian began ignoring his producer and even started to rewrite the script. Although Preminger had no complaints about the casting of the young actor's Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, he balked at their choice for Waldo: Laird Cregar. Preminger explained to Zanuck that audiences would immediately identify with Cregar as a villain, especially after Cregar's role as Jack the Ripper a year earlier in The Lodger.
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Golden Arm