MovieChat Forums > Some Came Running (1958) Discussion > An Underrated Classic

An Underrated Classic

posted 19 years ago by ijonesiii
9 replies | jump to latest

Saw this film for the first time about five or six years ago and aboslutely loved it. A great story with a solid screenplay and some strong performances and I must agree with the majority of the critics and say that Shirley MacLaine stole this film with her brassy and brilliant turn as good time gal Ginny Moorhead. I think this film kept MacLaine typecast for awhile but it also made her an instant star and earned her her first Oscar nomination. A classic that proved Vincente Minnelli had a flair for melodrama as well as musicals.

[–] marzmello 18 years ago

Shirley MacLaine definitely stole the show. I love her character in this movie, as well as the chemistry between Sinatra and Martin. But I can't say I like the rest of it. The pacing of the story and staging of some of the scenes feel off and awkward. The heavy melodrama between Sinatra and Heyer's characters just didn't work, imho.

[–] terranova22 18 years ago

>The pacing of the story and staging of some of the scenes feel off and awkward. The heavy melodrama between Sinatra and Heyer's characters just didn't work

Yes, like when Frank's character seems to completely lose all of his studied coolness over the teacher dame. If he was supposed to be a writer, wouldn't he have some insight into interpersonal relations and not lunging after and pawing this woman that he put on a pedastal? (the plot would have been much better and believable if it had more nuance with he and the teacher doing some normal dating before she rejects him for his crude lifestyle. Even some 14 year olds would know better than to confess their "true love" for someone that they haven't established any chemistry with!

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Xcalat3 17 years ago

it is underrated

I Worship The Goddess Amber Tamblyn

[–] csu16387 17 years ago

I love Some Came Running. Shirley MacLaine gives a truly remarkable performance in this film.

"Dry your eyes baby, it's out of character."

[–] Death_to_Pan_and_Scan 17 years ago

Shirley MacLaine's character was actually my least favorite thing about the film. This is my least favorite character of the early MacLaine films I've seen, she was more likeable in The Apartment, Trouble About Harry and Irma La Douce. There were lots of things I liked about Some Came Running and her character was none of them.
*SPOILERS*
I can see Sinatra not ending up with the schoolteacher and all (the film provides us with enough good reasons), but to have the film jump the shark in the last 15-20 minutes and have Sinatra propose to the girl who stalked him on the bus from Chicago and who he hangs with out of boredom is like a sad joke. This relationship would never work with him not really giving a damn and her blindly worshipping he whom she doesn't even understand in the slightest. It would be a doomed marriage from the very start even without the silly appearance of the gangster with a gun at the end. At least the writer(s) had enough sense to make Dean Martin's character voice the thoughts of many audience members. Sure, he was terrible to women in general, but in the case of his aversion to Frankie proposing to Shirley he was correct for once. If MacLaine's character had lived, the film could've segued into a really sad version of I Dream of Jeannie...without the Bewitched-mimicking complications of sometimes inconveient magic powers.

The ending (20 mintues) of SCR is almost as bad as the unlikely BS (last 3 minutes) ending of Howard Hawks' John Wayne/Monty Clift western Red River. An even better film with an even more ridiculous wholly implausible ending.

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If you're watching 'Fullscreen' DVDs, you aren't getting the whole picture.

[–] jpseacadets 17 years ago

The way I understood the plot was this Dave character got tired of being
a loser all the time, so when Gwen rejects Dave, he marries Ginny on the
rebound. But, as typical of his streak of bad luck, she dies giving her
life to save him(remember the gangster was after Dave). She becomes the
martyr whereas in the other James Jones novel, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY,
Sinatra's character dies a victim of the subhuman stockade cruelty.
Originally, Dave is killed. Sinatra turned it around after seeing the
rushes of Maclaine's acting, thinking it was Oscar worthy. It was, she
got nominated.

- - SoundTrak

[–] shepardjessica-1 15 years ago

MacLaine's best performance. Martin's best performance.

[–] 15 years ago

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