Dated melodrama still packs a punch as family try to help a Korean war veteran with his morphine addiction.
Living in inner New York, married for four years, Johnny (Don Murray) and Celia Pope (Eva Marie Saint) are expecting their first child. But it’s Johnny’s brother, Polo (Anthony Franciosa), who, living with the couple, is the main breadwinner. The arrival of the brothers’ bullying father (Lloyd Nolan) from Miami sets in motion a series of events that lead to the reveal of Johnny’s addiction and the level of debt he owes local supplier, Mother (Henry Silva).
Adapted from the play by Michael V. Gazzo and directed by Fred Zinnemann, A Hatful of Rain is an appropriately claustrophobic drama. A strident jazz score (Bernard Herrmann) and intense characterisation, particularly from Franciosa (winner of the best actor award at the 1957 Venice Film Festival), add weight to a narrative that, at the time, was relatively controversial.
Nominated for best actor Oscar in 1958.
Rating: 63%
Director: Fred Zinnemann (The Nun’s Story, From Here to Eternity)
Writer: Michael V. Gazzo (King Creole), Alfred Hayes (Paisan, The Mountain Road), Carl Foreman (High Noon, The Bridge on the River Kwai)
Main cast: Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront, North by Northwest), Don Murray (Bus Stop, Peggy Sue Got Married), Anthony Franciosa (A Face in the Crowd, Wild Is the Wind)
An Opinion or Two 