A Hatful of Rain (1957)

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

It's the story of two middle aged brothers, Johnny (Don Murray) and Polo (Anthony Franciosa) and the secrets they keep from their overbearing, self-centered dad (Lloyd Nolan). Given the era of the 1950s, the underlying secret is quite dark and foreboding. And the clever script leads viewers down the garden path for the first twenty minutes or so.Based on a stage play, "A Hatful Of Rain" builds drama, step by step, toward a riveting climax. Along the way, we get to know the personalities of these three men plus Johnny's wife, Celia (Eva Marie Saint). All of these characters are three-dimensional and very human. They deal with conflicts and disappointments as best they can.My main complaint is that the film is a bit lengthy; several segments could have been shortened or cut out altogether. Also, the villains, who show up after about twenty minutes are stereotyped; their appearance ends the mystery. I would have preferred that they seem less villainous and their motive less obvious, to prolong the mystery a bit longer. Finally, the background music is manipulative, but that's not unusual in 1950s film dramas.Casting is pretty good, though I could have wished for someone other than Don Murray as Johnny. Still, acting is terrific; all of the performances are convincing and believable. And although this isn't what I would describe as a noir story, the B&W noir lighting together with the wet streets and rain are ideal, given the film's depressing subject matter.Character driven and with excellent performances, "A Hatful Of Rain" provides viewers with a terrific drama, built around a human interest topic that was generally forbidden during the 1950s. Highly recommended.

When I was in drama school, they were still talking about the verisimilitude and grittiness of this film, from subject matter to acting, and young thespians were dashing around eagerly doing "cuttings" as class exercises or more fully rendered stage presentations.If memory serves, the play and ensuing film grew from a an Actors Studio improvisation, but I can't verify that. But even the suggestion of that underscores its no-nonsense believability. It hit home then, and it does so now, with a vengeance.A rarity for its time _ 1957 _ the film's blunt depiction of the effects of morphine addiction on a returning Korean War vet was said to be medically and sociologically accurate.The film stars Eva Marie Saint, Don Murray, Anthony Franciosa (Oscar nominee for Best Actor), Lloyd Nolan and Henry Silva, and was adapted by Michael V. Gazzo, Alfred Hayes, and Carl Foreman from the play by Gazzo. (Foreman, who was blacklisted at the time of the film's release, had his name added to the credits by The Writers Guild of America in 1998, 14 years after his death). The film was directed by the much-respected Oscar-winner Fred Zinnemann ("High Noon," "From Here to Eternity," "A Man for All Seasons," "Julia"). The setting is a housing-project apartment in New York City near the Brooklyn Bridge. Johnny Pope (Murray) is a soldier just back from the Korean War, where a stay in a military hospital has left him addicted to morphine. His emotional distance and restlessness alienate him from the apartment's other residents _ Johnny's pregnant wife Celia (Saint) and his brother Polo (Franciosa). Celia is convinced that Johnny is having an affair, completely unaware that the truth is far more complex. Compounding the matter, Johnny and Polo's father, John Sr. (Nolan), arrives in town and stays with them in the small apartment.This is a fascinating film, both for its content and as a social document of the time in which it was made. It's well worth your time.

The average fan will know Michael V. Gazzo far better for his career role as Frankie Pantangeli in The Godfather Part 2, but he was so much more than a film gangster. He was an acting teacher of some renown and a writer. This multi-talented man penned A Hatful Of Rain and it ran for 398 performances during the 1955-56 season on Broadway. Two of the players repeated their roles from Broadway, Anthony Franciosa as Polo Pope for which he won a Best Actor nomination to go with the Tony Award nomination he got for Broadway. And as the murderous drug dealer Mother, Henry Silva came over from the East Coast as well.On what should be a happy occasion Lloyd Nolan as father to Franciosa and younger son Don Murray is up from Florida where he's coming to collect on a promise of money from Franciosa. The nest egg that Tony was sitting on is now gone. Little does Nolan dream that the money is being poured into Murray's veins. Murray his beloved younger son and war hero from Korea came home as did so many others a drug addict, hooked on morphine. As we watch the film, bit by bit the Pope family secrets come out. The boys did not have much of a childhood, half the time they were foster care or orphanages as Nolan who was a widower just couldn't take care of them. In addition Franciosa who's bounced from dead end jobs one after another boards with Murray and wife Eva Marie Saint.Because of his addiction Murray has been paying less and less attention to his wife and Eva Marie and Tony are finding a mutual attraction. On stage this played out in real life as Shelley Winters had the wife's part on stage. Franciosa and Winters wound up marrying.A Hatful Of Rain was proof of further cracking of the Code because until The Man With The Golden Arm came out two years earlier, drug addiction was a forbidden subject unless it was covered in something like Reefer Madness. The post World War II film To The Ends Of The Earth that starred Dick Powell as a federal narcotics cop covered the law enforcement part of the story and other films followed that one. But addiction itself was forbidden. As Philip Marlowe in Murder My Sweet, Powell was also shot up with what was called 'hop' at the time, but I can't think of another film where the subject was broached.In between A Hatful Of Rain and The Man With The Golden Arm was also Monkey On My Back, the true story of former welterweight champion Barney Ross who like Murray got addicted during recovery in a military hospital.Although Don Murray does a fine acting job as John Pope, personally I would have much preferred to see Ben Gazzara who originated the part on Broadway. The film was shot on location in New York City and Gazzara is so much more an urban type than Murray.The only recognition A Hatful Of Rain received from the Motion Picture Academy was Anthony Franciosa's nomination for Best Actor. He's always been a favorite of mine, he's never bad in anything he does. But sad to say that Tony ran up against The Bridge On The River Kwai. Usually a big budget film like that will always buck a small feature like A Hatful Of Rain. And Alec Guinness was not going to be denied that year.A Hatful Of Rain though has stood the test of time. It could easily be done again today with the protagonist being a veteran of Iraq or Afghanistan. We may yet see that, but believe me this film will more than do until then.

A Korean war veteran (Don Murray) has developed a raging heroin habit which he hides from his pregnant wife (Eva Marie Saint)and his father (Lloyd Nolan). He has those classic "I've got a monkey on my back" mannerisms which the audience can appreciate, while the wife and father wonder why he seems nervous all the time. His dealer, a character known as Mother, played by Henry Silva, and Mother's sidekick, a beatnik type known as Chuch, played by Gerald S. O Laughlin, are memorable characters. Murray is great as his desperation grows, in debt to Mother, trying to keep his problem a secret, pushed to the extreme. The powerhouse drama features an utterly fantastic role, played by Anthony Franciosa, as Murray's heavy drinking brother, who protects Murray but is in love with his wife at the same time. It could have all been too stagey, but thanks to director Fred Zinneman, there's action to spare in this gritty New York drama.