Customer Ratings & Reviews

Whodathunk? Frank Sinatra does a good job as a frustrated drum player, professional card dealer, responsible, if not loving, husband to his invalid wife, while struggling to stay 'clean' from a very huge and ugly 'monkey on his back'.....a heroin drug habit he is trying desperately to shake. Great cast with surprisingly creditable performances by: Kim Novak as the sympathetic local hooker; Darren McGavin as the evil drug dealer trying to re-hook his old customer; Eleanor Parker as the wife, faking being invalid from an accident her husband caused while he was high on heroin; plus other 'low-lives' natural to his environment. Under Otto Preminger's masterful direction, an atmospherically correct backdrop is created for this unlikely cast of characters to come together and play out this very tangible drama of 'struggle against all odds'. Well done movie, well acted with a plausible story that will keep your attention until its conclusion. This movie and its subject matter was WAY AHEAD OF ITS TIME for its release in 1955!