Although dated in some ways, the man with the golden arm still packs a powerful punch. Yes, it is melodramatic and rather too stagey for modern tastes and there is a lot of scenery chewing from some of the actors, but this piece still has a level of intensity and integrity beyond what most films can achieve this days. Frank Sinatra, giving perhaps his finest performance, is magisterial throughout as Frankie Mahine, but it is in the druggy scenes where he is most convincing. Other characters are less well defined particularly Sinatra's 'comical' sidekick Sparrow, obviously thrown in to lighten the mood of what otherwise would be an overly bleak film. He is however merely an annoyance and detracts from the intensity more than anything. The script is probably rather too in love with its own metaphorical cleverness. The 'golden arm' angle refers not only to Machine's drumming ability and his love of injecting himself with heroin but his gifts as a card dealer. Incidentally it is hard to see what about Sinatra would make him so highly prized as a dealer; dealing cards is hardly a difficult activity. It suspect that he is a 'dealer' only because the writer wish to play on the card dealer/drug dealer ambiguity. Again, perhaps the theme of dependency is rather overplayed with the women in Machine's life all exhibiting some sort of co-dependent behaviour. Kim Novak has a parasitic boyfriend she cannot leave and Eleanor Parker (in a hysterical performance) is dependent on the sympathy she receives from an accident which apparently left her wheelchair bound. The ending is rather contrived too and obviously designed merely to bring the strands together but that should not deter the viewer from checking this remarkable film out.
