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Some Came Running
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Spurred on by the sales and the critical acclaim of his best-selling From Here to Eternity, James Jones set out to write yet another great American novel. The result was Some Came Running, the story of a war veteran with literary aspirations who returns in 1948 to his hometown of Parkman, Indiana, after a failed writing career.
While it wasn't quite the masterpiece Jones hoped it would be, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, in a bid to duplicate the success of the multi-Academy Award winning film adaptation of From Here to Eternity (1953), optioned the 1,200-plus-page book and cast Frank Sinatra as the lead, Dave Hirsh.
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Encyclopedia
Spurred on by the sales and the critical acclaim of his best-selling From Here to Eternity, James Jones set out to write yet another great American novel. The result was Some Came Running, the story of a war veteran with literary aspirations who returns in 1948 to his hometown of Parkman, Indiana, after a failed writing career.
While it wasn't quite the masterpiece Jones hoped it would be, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, in a bid to duplicate the success of the multi-Academy Award winning film adaptation of From Here to Eternity (1953), optioned the 1,200-plus-page book and cast Frank Sinatra as the lead, Dave Hirsh. Sinatra approved Dean Martin for the role of his gambling pal, Bama Dillert, in what would be their first film together. Martin, who had recently split from a partnership with Jerry Lewis, was just beginning to prove himself as an actor and would win some of the best notices of his career for his performance here.
Shirley MacLaine was cast as the adorable floozy Ginny Moorehead, who falls for Hirsh. MacLaine garnered her first Academy Award nomination which she credited to Sinatra for his insistence on the film's ending being changed. Hailed in years to come as a masterpiece of American cinema, Some Came Running was also a box office success, earning $4.3 million in rentals and being ranked by Variety as the 10th highest-earning film of 1958.
Plot introduction
Dave Hirsh (Frank Sinatra) is a cynical Army veteran who winds up in his hometown of Parkman after being put on a bus in Chicago while intoxicated. A woman of seemingly loose morals and poor education, Ginny Moorehead (Shirley MacLaine), has taken the same bus.
Hirsh left Parkman sixteen years before when his older brother Frank (Arthur Kennedy) placed him in a charity boarding school and is still embittered. Frank has since married well, inherited a jewelry business from the father of his wife Agnes (Leora Dana) and has made their social status his highest priority. Dave's return threatens this, so Frank makes a fruitless stab at arranging respectability, introducing him to Professor French (Larry Gates) and his teacher daughter Gwen (Martha Hyer).
Dave moves in different circles, however. He befriends Bama Dillert (Dean Martin), a gambler who serendipitously has settled in Parkman. Two factors seem to offer Dave hope and redemption: he takes a fatherly interest in his niece, Frank's daughter Dawn, and falls in love with Gwen. Despite his somewhat notorious reputation, Dave Hirsh is basically a good, honest man, well aware of his own shortcomings. His cynicism is often a mask to hide the pain of rejection.
Though Ginny is not his social or intellectual match, he eventually sees the basic good in her and responds to her unconditional love. Stalked by her former boyfriend (a Chicago hoodlum), Ginny proves unequivocally the depth of her love for Dave in the end. In the novel, however, it is Dave who is the innocent victim.
Influence on Cinema
Highly admired in France and Europe and considered a cult film among filmmakers and audiences alike, Some Came Running remains a work of some stature in American cinema.
Jean-Luc Godard in his Le Mepris refers to this film when the main character (a screenwriter) explains his decision to wear a hat in a bathtub by saying that he's "like Dean Martin in 'Some Came Running.'"
Martin Scorsese included a clip from the film for his A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies; the film's final carnival, to Scorsese, remains one of the best and most expressive uses of CinemaScope.
In his book Who the Hell's in It, director Peter Bogdanovich writes extensively about Some Came Running. He later filmed a short segment for TCM on its influence on cinema.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The movie was adapted by John Patrick and Arthur Sheekman from the novel. It was directed by Vincente Minnelli and filmed on location in and around Madison, Indiana.
The town of Parkman was loosely based on author Jones' hometown of Robinson, Illinois. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson,_Illinois
Critical Reception
Released to critical plaudits, Some Came Running was praised both nationally and internationally on release, with star Frank Sinatra garnering some of the strongest notices of his career, Variety noting that "Sinatra gives a top performance, sardonic and compassionate, full of touches both instinctive and technical. It is not easy, either, to play a man dying of a chronic illness and do it with grace and humor, and this Martin does without faltering."
Awards and nominations
Some Came Running was nominated for five Academy Awards, for Best Actress in a Leading Role, (Shirley MacLaine), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Arthur Kennedy), Best Actress in a Supporting Role, (Martha Hyer), Best Costume Design, Black and White or Color (Walter Plunkett) and Best Music, Original Song, "To Love and Be Loved" (words and music by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn).
Shirley MacLaine also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Drama.
External links
- TCM Website: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=1607&category=Overview
- Variety's Review: http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117795014.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0
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