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Some Came Running Movie Review

Some Came Running is a 1958 drama film directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine. It’s a fun movie for what it is, which is soapy entertainment.

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“Your first novel was a really powerful study of rejection.

Oh, that it was. It was rejected by forty-two publishers“

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A veteran returns home to deal with family secrets and small-town scandals. Apparently, when this movie came out, it was lauded by critics across the board. Nowadays, its impact is rather blunted as it has a storyline that is empty and not that meaningful. The movie would have benefited from at least some theme introduced.

It’s all very soapy, which is perfect for those who are into this kind of stuff, but I personally am not. It started off very strong with that intriguing beginning hinting at the strained brotherly relationship and the rather mysterious backstory to everybody involved. The problem is that from the second act onward, the movie just piled on arguments and character relationships without properly exploring them at depth.

Frank Sinatra was terrific in what was one of his greatest performances. He is by far the most interesting person of the bunch. He has such an air of mystery and coolness surrounding him that all the others faded in comparison. Dean Martin was fine as was Arthur Kennedy, but both needed more development.

As for the female characters, they were unfortunately straddled with these very stereotypical, old-fashioned female roles of lovestruck and fragile women. The early performance from Shirley MacLaine is excellent, but her role was quite weak and not deserving of her talent.

Some Came Running was nominated for five Oscars, neither of them deserved. Sinatra was snubbed, but MacLaine, Hyer and Kennedy all got the noms, which was fine for them, but overall the roles simply weren’t as worthy.

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I did not care for the film’s ending at all. It was abrupt and overly melodramatic as is the whole movie. This is the type of heightened melodrama work that is a bit dated nowadays, but was very popular back in its day. I found that it has too many characters and an overlong runtime to work properly.

Some Came Running started off very strong with an intriguing premise, but eventually it devolved into a standard, heightened melodrama with too many characters, too much unnecessary drama and a particularly weak ending. The acting is strong cross the board with MacLaine, Hyer and Kennedy all receiving Oscar noms for their work, but it was actually Frank Sinatra who stole the show in one of his best performances.

My Rating – 3