Review of Some Came Running (1958) by David U — 20 Mar 2004

(VHS) (First Viewing, 7th Minnelli film).

I have an odd affection for this type of 1950's melodrama- the kind that usually takes place in a small town and deals with a large group of interconnected characters, all who have lots and lots of problems. Think Tennessee Williams adaptations, think [b]Peyton Place[/b]. Now [b]Some Came Running[/b] isn't quite on the same level as those films, but it's a solid character-driven drama featuring some darn fine acting.

Frank Sinatra is the ex-writer, ex-GI who stumbles back into his small hometown after a long period away (he's not even aware his father died years ago). His respected brother (Arthur Kennedy) isn't glad to see him, Kennedy's wife even less so, bitter at an unflattering treatement a character based on her received in one of his novels. A sweet but rather dumb floozy (Shirley MacLaine) Sinatra had picked up while in a drunken state shows up, causing complications when he falls for a wealthy and respectable school teacher (Martha Hyer) who tries to help him with his writing. And of course there's lots of alcohol, drugs and sex lurking beneath the fresh-scrubbed surface, and naturally it causes a great deal of friction for all the characters involved.

I really liked Vincente Minnelli as a director, but for some reason he seems slightly out of his element here. He's a superb director of musicals ([b]Meet Me in St. Louis[/b]), romantic comedy ([b]Father of the Bride[/b]), and bittersweet comedy ([b]The Clock[/b]), and he has [b]The Bad and the Beautiful[/b], a very respectable Hollywood melodrama, to his credit too. But there's just something slightly off in his direction here, most apparent in his sluggish staging of the carnival chase finale, which lacks all the tension that should have made it a nail-biting sequence.

It's a young Shirley MacLaine who's the stand-out here. Her cheerful and vulnerable (implied) hooker is both comical and heartbreaking- she really has a marvelous, indescribable quality about her, and she justly received an Academy Award nomination for her performance. Elmer Bernstein's lush score is also quite lovely, and I'd say that the visuals are top-notch, which is usually the case in a Minnelli film, but the VHS copy not only was of crappy quality, but obviously was a cut-down widescreen film, which hurt the film visually. I'd love to see this one again on a fully restored DVD.

So though I liked it a lot, [b]Some Came Running[/b] is a rather mixed bag. I have friends who love it, but for now I'm going to have to categorize it as a competant but weaker Minnelli effort.