a HATFUL OF RAIN—-drug addiction and ‘entertainment’ (let alone ‘fun’) make uneasy companions: writhe thru The Man With The Golden Arm, Monkey On My Back, The Panic In Needle Park, French Connection II, Lady Sings The Blues, Bird, etc. But at least you can usually count on some nerve-stripping performances, and in the case of this 1957 downer they were directed by Fred Zinnemann, covering Michael V. Gazzo’s play, adapted by Gazzo with Alfred Hayes and Carl Foreman.

Korean War vet ‘Johnny Pope'(Don Murray) and his wife ‘Celia’ (Eva Marie Saint) share a modest apartment in Brooklyn housing complex with Johnny’s brother ‘Polo’ (Anthony Franciosa). Complicating factors in the arrangement—Celia’s pregnant, Johnny’s jobless and withdrawn; Polo’s loyal to his brother but is also in love with Celia; the guys visiting father, overbearing ‘John Sr.’ (Lloyd Nolan) favors Johnny over Polo in no uncertain terms. Worst, Johnny’s a morphine junkie, in hock to the nasty local dealer. Polo’s clued in to his brother’s plight; Celia and the old man are in for a rude awakening.

No doubt this carried considerably more punch back when; today much of what once seemed fresh and ‘raw’ from Murray and Franciosa (who whacked an Oscar nomination for Best Actor) comes off overwrought, occasionally close to hysterical, ditto the amusing but campy bad guys put over by Henry Silva (sadistic pusher ‘Mother’) and William Hickey (perfectly twitchy-weird in his feature debut as ‘Apples’, Mother’s be-boppy sidekick). Nolan’s solid as the blustering father. Saint is the best in the team with the most honest, controlled and naturalistic delivery.

When some of the histrionics threaten overdose of theatrical kitchen-sink ‘realism’ the essential plight sincerity quotient is prodded back into line by Bernard Herrmann’s ominous scoring, marshaling a sort of intimate grandeur behind the human frailty at the heart of the story.

Done on location for $1,820,000, placing 54th with a gross of $4,300,000. One of the titles mentioned above, Monkey On My Back, also came out in ’57 and likewise dealt with morphine addiction. Cameron Mitchell starred as prizefighter/war hero Barney Ross, who battled with the needle after WW2. It didn’t fare nearly as well, murmuring at 177th place for the year. Murray landed (and was better) in The Bachelor Party, Saint lent some dignity to the melodramatics of Raintree County, and durable pro Nolan knocked down a brace of fine work in the period with The Last Hunt, Santiago, Peyton Place and Abandon Ship!  Though the performances from Saint and Nolan hold up better, ‘Hatful’s walkaway winner at the time was 28-year-old newcomer Franciosa: besides his Oscar nomination he was showcased that year in Wild Is The Wind, A Face In The Crowd and This Could Be The Night.

With Gerald S. O’Loughlin, Art Fleming (the future Jeopardy host has a bit as a mounted policeman) and Herb Vigran. The running time is 109 minutes.