Directed by Vincente Minnelli • 1958 • United States
Starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine
Master stylist Vincente Minnelli applies his spectacular visual flair to this feverish melodrama, a scorching indictment of small-town hypocrisy that sets every inch of the CinemaScope frame ablaze in expressionist color. Frank Sinatra stars as Dave Hirsh, a cynical, hard-drinking Army veteran with literary aspirations. When he returns to his Indiana hometown, his unconventional lifestyle—including his associations with an alcoholic gambler (Dean Martin) and a disreputable party girl (a heartbreaking Shirley MacLaine)—clashes with the town’s conservative morality. It all explodes in a kaleidoscopic fairground climax that blends visual delirium with heartbreaking tragedy.
Up Next in Murderous Melodramas
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The Long, Hot Summer
Directed by Martin Ritt • 1958 • United States
Starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Orson WellesSex, pyromania, and epic family drama heat up this southern-gothic scorcher adapted from three works by William Faulkner. In his first screen pairing opposite his soon-to-be wife Joanne Woodward, P...
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Home from the Hill
Directed by Vincente Minnelli • 1960 • United States
Starring Robert Mitchum, Eleanor Parker, George PeppardVincente Minnelli’s baroquely stylized melodrama casts Robert Mitchum as the patriarch of a wealthy Texas family who must confront their hidden secrets when his philandering ways come bac...
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Portrait in Black
Directed by Michael Gordon • 1960 • United States
Starring Lana Turner, Anthony Quinn, Richard BasehartIn this lavishly entertaining noir melodrama, bored, glamorous housewife Sheila Cabot (Lana Turner, swathed in luxe couture), wishing to be free of her crippled husband but not his enormous fo...
