Tonight's movie was called "A Hatful Of Rain" (1957), another heavyweight drama, this time set in New York City. Don Murray plays Johnny, a young man in his late 20s who seems to have a good life. He is married to Eva Marie Saint, they have a baby on the way, and they live in a modest but nicely furnished apartment at the edge of Manhattan. But we soon see this is only a facade, and it starts to unravel the minute Johnny's father (Lloyd Nolan) shows up unannounced at their doorstep. "Pop", as Johnny calls him, is friendly enough, though boisterous. He inquires about Johnny's brother Polo, who works as a bouncer at a local bar. Johnny was his father's favorite. Nolan considers Polo a "bum", even though it is Polo who is employed and Johnny who is only pretending to lead a normal life. But Johnny is starting to break down, and soon it will become difficult for him to maintain his composure.
Johnny is a junkie, addicted to heroin. When he has his fix, he can appear to be his everyday self, but it is becoming hard for him to score because he owes his dealer (Henry Silva) a ton of dough. Silva and his two cronies keep showing up at Johnny's door at the most inopportune moments - like when his Dad is there - and they want their money. Silva threatens to put Johnny in the hospital if he doesn't pay.
Johnny is a mess by now, trying to keep his addiction secret from his father and his wife, who knows something is wrong but thinks it has to do with another woman. His brother Polo knows all about Johnny's problem; he has gone broke from loaning Johnny money to pay for his dope.
His dealer Henry Silva has gone so far as providing Johnny with a pistol so he can rob someone in order to have the cash to pay his drug debt. But Johnny can't bring himself to do it. He is now in the bind of his life, as his pregnant wife is threatening to leave him and his domineering Dad is demanding to know what is wrong, as Johnny stays out night after night without coming home. He is going through the throes of withdrawal, he needs a fix, he has no money and his dealer is gonna kill him.
Man, was this ever a great "New York Movie". I discovered it during my "Fox Cinema Archives" search, and I was a little worried that it was gonna be one of those overly melodramatic, ultra method acted movies from the late 50s and early 60s that dealt with previously taboo subjects like drug addiction or schizophrenia. But to my pleasant surprise, the acting and script were realistic, about as close as you could get to a real life scenario. I would bet that Martin Scorcese is a fan of this movie, as it presages everything he would try to do in films like "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver", to use the city as a canvas on which to paint the lives of real people. In a "New York" movie, the concrete jungle is itself a character, and I have remarked that - having seen so many NYC films, I feel as if I know the neighborhoods even though I've never been there.
As with last night's picture "The Moon Is Down", we once again have an all-star cast in "A Hatful Of Rain". This is New York Actor's Studio progeny at their finest : Don Murray, who has had a sixty year career and who turned up at age 88 in a major role in the 2017 reboot of "Twin Peaks"; Eva Marie Saint, a legend who had worked with Kazan and Hitchcock; Tony Franciosa, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as "Polo", and Lloyd Nolan, known to my generation for his TV work in the 1960s, but who had a lengthy film career prior to that.
This is the kind of film, and direction (by Fred Zinneman), that set the stage for the gritty New York realism of the 1970s.
The story of heroin addiction is told without cliche and there is nuance in the characters. For instance, the dealer is more interested in getting his money than in killing Johnny. In a lesser film, the violence would win out. Also nuanced is Lloyd Nolan's Dad character. Yes, he shows impersonal bonhomie to his sons, treating them as if they were still twelve years old. But we also see that he has done the best he could as a single father, and that in his repressed way he loves his sons in spite of his damaged psychology.
Big knockout performances abound, especially Don Murray and Tony Franciosa as the brothers. Really though, there is not a lesser role in the film, in what is likely a landmark in drug addiction movies.
Two Huge Thumbs Up for "A Hatful Of Rain", a giant success on every level, for it's acting, it's direction, it's NYC location of the city at it's grittiest, and for it's expert black and white photography. One caveat : the dvd I watched, from Fox Cinema Archives, is presented in full frame, whereas the movie itself was shot in Cinemascope, i.e. widescreen. Hopefully, Criterion will one day get ahold of it and release it in it's original format, but until then don't let the full frame dissuade you.
See "A Hatful Of Rain", a tremendous motion picture and highly recommended.
That's all for tonight. See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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