~
vinyl LP front cover detail
cover design by Saul Bass
detail photo of album cover by Styrous®
Today, December 12, is the birthday of singer, crooner, Frank Sinatra, who was born in 1915, in an upstairs tenement at 415 Monroe Street in Hoboken, New Jersey. I have dozens of albums by him but to me this is the perfect tribute to him as he experienced, as a youth, the world of Francis Majcinek, known as "Frankie Machine", a card dealer and amateur drummer, the character he portrayed in the 1955 film, The Man With The Golden Arm. Also, it demonstrated that he was much more than a great singer, he was a great actor. He
doesn't sing a single note in the film
and he was stunning!
vinyl LP front cover
cover design by Saul Bass
photo of album cover by Styrous®
The Man With The Golden Arm is based on the 1949 novel by Nelson Algren. The novel was controversial at the time, and it did receive some bad reviews. In a 1956 article for The New Yorker entitled The Man with the Golden Beef, Norman Podhoretz was critical of what he saw as the glorification of the underclass at the expense of "respectable society".
When the book was made into a film, Algren was initially brought to Hollywood to work on the screenplay, but was replaced by Walter Newman.
Algren felt negatively about his experiences in Hollywood, the lack of
compensation he received, and the liberties taken by the filmmakers
(which included an entirely different ending from the novel). When
photographer and friend Art Shay asked Algren to pose below the film's marquee, he is reported to have said "What does that movie have to do with me?"
The book won the National Book Award in 1950. Algren wrote A Walk on the Wild Side in 1956 which was also made into a film in 1965.
vinyl LP front cover detail
cover design by Saul Bass
detail photo of album cover by Styrous®
The Man With The Golden Arm, shot in the tradition of thirties & forties film noir, deals with the nightmare of drug addition; the first time Hollywood acknowledged its existence. The black and white adds to the gritty feeling of the milieu
in which the characters are immersed. Also contributing to this gritty feeling is a fitting and flawless score by Elmer Bernstein performed by a stellar jazz personnel (links below). The film was directed by Otto Preminger.
vinyl LP back cover detail
cover design by Saul Bass
detail photo of album back cover by Styrous®
The casting for the film was brilliant. Eleanor Parker,
as Sophie (nicknamed "Zosh"), Frankie Machine's wife, who is crippled after a car crash caused by Frankie driving while drunk; but she is secretly fully
recovered and pretends to be crippled to make
Frankie feel guilty so he will stay with her.
A wonderful job of acting was done by Kim Novak, at the height of her beauty, as "Molly-O" Novotny
who works in a local strip joint as a hostess and lives in the
apartment below them; unlike Zosh, Molly encourages his dream of
becoming a drummer.
Arnold Stang, usually a comic, was perfect as weaselly "Sparrow" Saltskin, who runs a con selling homeless dogs.
Darren McGavin superbly portrayed "Nifty Louie" Fomorowski, the slimy pusher who sells heroin to Machine (links to cast and plot below).
Frank Sinatra (Frankie Machine) & Darren McGavin
Elmer Bernstein - The Man With The Golden Arm
vinyl LP back cover detail
cover design by Saul Bass
detail photo of album back cover by Styrous®
vinyl LP back cover detail
cover design by Saul Bass
detail photo of album back cover by Styrous®
The score by Elmer Bernstein is jazzy, jittery, frenetic, dissonant, at times suspenseful and pensive, even when it's orchestral, befitting the mood of the film. The one exception is Moly. It is slow, romantic and beautiful with full orchestra and a soft piano played by Ray Turner. However, it does have its stress points towards the end of the piece.
There have been many covers of the Main Theme from The Man With The Golden Arm; not all of them have been jazz versions (link below).
One of my favorite hard rock groups, Sweet, a British glam rock band that rose to worldwide fame in the 1970s, did a fantastic cover of the Main Theme from the film on their album, Desolation Boulevard, added the line, "Watch that man with the golden arm!", tympani and chimes. They performed it for a concert in Germany in 1974; there is a video of the rehearsal for the concert on YouTube (link below). Mick Tucker performs amazing drum solos on both.
Elmer Bernstein - The Man With The Golden Arm
vinyl LP back cover detail
cover design by Saul Bass
detail photo of album back cover by Styrous®
Although the addictive drug is never identified in the film, according to the American Film Institute "most contemporary and modern sources assume that it is heroin", in contrast to Algren's book which named the drug as morphine. The film's initial release was controversial for its treatment of the then-taboo subject of drug addiction.
The
"quitting, cold turkey" scene in the film is graphic and frightening;
it is only matched by the similar theme in the 1945 film, Lost Weekend, which starred Ray Milland as an alcoholic (links below).
The Man With The Golden Arm was nominated for three Academy Awards: Sinatra for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Joseph C. Wright and Darrell Silvera for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White and Elmer Bernstein for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. Sinatra was also nominated for best actor awards by the BAFTAs and The New York Film Critics. The film is in the public domain.
Born to Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra was greatly influenced by the intimate easy listening vocal style of Bing Crosby and began his musical career in the swing era with bandleaders Harry James and Tommy Dorsey.
Sinatra found success as a solo artist after he signed with Columbia Records in 1943; his debut album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, was released in 1946. By the early 1950s his professional career had stalled and he turned to Las Vegas. In 1965, he recorded the retrospective album, September of My Years, to me the best album he ever made (link below).
Other dramatic films he starred in are From Here to Eternity in 1953, Suddenly in 1954, Not as a Stranger in 1955, The Pride and the Passion in 1957, Some Came Running and Kings Go Forth both in 1958, The Manchurian Candidate in 1962, and many others.
Tracklist:
Side 1:
Clark Street
A1a The Top
A1b Homecoming, Trumpet – Pete Candoli
A1c Antek's
-
A2 Zosh
A3 Frankie Machine, Flugelhorn – Shorty Rogers
A4 The Fix
A5 Molly
Side 2:
Clark Street
A1a The Top
A1b Homecoming, Trumpet – Pete Candoli
A1c Antek's
-
A2 Zosh
A3 Frankie Machine, Flugelhorn – Shorty Rogers
A4 The Fix
A5 Molly
Side 2:
Breakup
B1a Flight
B1b Louie's
B1c Buriesque
-
B2 Sunday Morning
B3 Desperation
B4 Audition, Drums – Shelly Manne, Flugelhorn – Shorty RogersTrombone – Milt Bernhart
The Cure
B5a Withdraw
B5b Cold
B5c Morning
-
B6 Finale
Companies, etc.
Manufactured By – Decca Records, Inc.
Credits:
Arranged By [Jazz Arrangements] – Shorty Rogers
Bass – Abe Luboff, Ralph Pena*
Cello – Armand Kaproff
Clarinet – Mitchell Lurie
Composed By, Conductor – Elmer Bernstein
Design – Saul Bass
Drums, Arranged By [Drumming Sequences] – Shelly Manne
Edited By – Leon Birbaum
Flute – Martin Ruderman*
French Horn – Joseph Eger
Musical Assistance [Assistant To Mr. Bernstein] – Robert Helfer
Oboe – Arnold Koblentz
Orchestrated By – Fred Steiner
Piano – Ray Turner
Saxophone [Alto] – Bud Shank
Saxophone [Tenor] – Bob Cooper
Trombone – Milt Bernhart
Trumpet – Bob Fleming
Violin – Anatol Kaminsky
Notes:
Jazz sequences arranged and played by SHORTY ROGERS and His Giants with SHELLY MANNE
Black Decca label with "Long Play 33 1/3 RPM" along the bottom
Barcode and Other Identifiers
Matrix / Runout (A-Side - Label): MG 4524
Matrix / Runout (A-Side - Stamped): MG4524T6 3 //\
Matrix / Runout (B-Side - Label): MG 4525
Matrix / Runout (B-Side - Stamped): MG4525T6 3 ///
B1a Flight
B1b Louie's
B1c Buriesque
-
B2 Sunday Morning
B3 Desperation
B4 Audition, Drums – Shelly Manne, Flugelhorn – Shorty RogersTrombone – Milt Bernhart
The Cure
B5a Withdraw
B5b Cold
B5c Morning
-
B6 Finale
Companies, etc.
Manufactured By – Decca Records, Inc.
Credits:
Arranged By [Jazz Arrangements] – Shorty Rogers
Bass – Abe Luboff, Ralph Pena*
Cello – Armand Kaproff
Clarinet – Mitchell Lurie
Composed By, Conductor – Elmer Bernstein
Design – Saul Bass
Drums, Arranged By [Drumming Sequences] – Shelly Manne
Edited By – Leon Birbaum
Flute – Martin Ruderman*
French Horn – Joseph Eger
Musical Assistance [Assistant To Mr. Bernstein] – Robert Helfer
Oboe – Arnold Koblentz
Orchestrated By – Fred Steiner
Piano – Ray Turner
Saxophone [Alto] – Bud Shank
Saxophone [Tenor] – Bob Cooper
Trombone – Milt Bernhart
Trumpet – Bob Fleming
Violin – Anatol Kaminsky
Notes:
Jazz sequences arranged and played by SHORTY ROGERS and His Giants with SHELLY MANNE
Black Decca label with "Long Play 33 1/3 RPM" along the bottom
Barcode and Other Identifiers
Matrix / Runout (A-Side - Label): MG 4524
Matrix / Runout (A-Side - Stamped): MG4524T6 3 //\
Matrix / Runout (B-Side - Label): MG 4525
Matrix / Runout (B-Side - Stamped): MG4525T6 3 ///
Viewfinder links:
Frank Sinatra ~ September of My Years
Net links:
The Man With The Golden Arm
Reviews:
Empire Online ~ The Man With The Golden Arm
NY Times ~ Narcotics Addict; Man With the Golden Arm
The New Republic ~ The Man With the Golden Arm
Variety ~ The Man With The Golden Arm
Vulture Culture ~ The Man with the Golden Arm
YouTube links:
Music:
Leonard Cohen - The Stranger Song
The Man with the Golden Arm (Soundtrack Suite) (1955) (15 mins.)
Sweet ~ The Man with the Golden Arm (8 mins., 48 sec.,)
Videos:
The Man with the Golden Arm (complete) (1955) (1 hr., 59 mins.)
The Man With The Golden Arm ~
“There's people in hell who want ice water.”
~ Nelson Algren
Styrous® ~ Saturday, December 12, 2020
