Home from the war is Dave Hirsh (Frank Sinatra), but no one’s waiting for him. In fact, his reappearance in Indiana causes distinct embarrassment to his older brother Frank (Arthur Kennedy) and his brother’s wife Agnes (Leora Dana).
Frank owns a jewellery shop and is a pillar of the community; Agnes doesn’t like the way Dave tore her apart in a novel he wrote. Dave, you see, is a writer, but he isn’t doing much writing now. He’s doing a lot of drinking.
The last time he did a lot of drinking (in Chicago), he picked up Ginny Moorhead (Rat Pack “mascot” Shirley MacLaine), who’d done a lot of loose living. She follows him home and hangs around a saloon frequented by lovable gambler Bama Dillert (Dean Martin).
Gwen French (Martha Hyer), who teaches creative writing, has great admiration for Dave until he tries to teach her creative living – at which point icicles form around that lady’s heart. In a moment of despair and also profound truth – to Dave, anyway – he marries Ginny.
Do they live happily ever after? Not on your life!
When he came to headline his second James Jones adaptation, however, he knew that MGM needed his presence after the 1,266-page novel had failed to find critical favour. He secured a three-picture deal worth an unprecedented $400,000 against 10% of the gross.
Yet, this study of small-town manners and sibling rivalry says more about director Vincente Minnelli than Sinatra or co-stars Dino and MacLaine.
Sinatra knew Minnelli through Humphrey Bogart’s Holmby Hills Rat Pack but quickly came to dislike his relaxed style of directing actors and his perfectionism in composing the CinemaScope imagery.
He also took against the intrusively starstruck residents of Madison, Indiana (where the film was shot). Still, he holds this ensemble melodrama together as the cynical writer with a foot on either side of the tracks.
Dave Hirsh
Frank Sinatra Bama Dillert
Dean Martin Ginny Moorhead
Shirley MacLaine Gwen French
Martha Hyer Frank Hirsh
Arthur Kennedy Edith Barclay
Nancy Gates Agnes Hirsh
Leora Dana Dawn Hirsh
Betty Lou Keim Professor Robert Haven French
Larry Gates Raymond Lanchak
Steve Peck Jane Barclay
Connie Gilchrist Smitty
Ned Wever Ned Deacon
George Brengel Wally Dennis
John Brennan Hubie Nelson
George Cisar Ted Harperspoon
Don Haggerty Judge Baskin
Anthony Jochim George Huff
Paul Jones Dewey Cole
Denny Miller Rosalie
Carmen Phillips Virginia Stevens
Janelle Richards Joe
Ric Roman Sister Mary Joseph
Marion Ross Slim
George E. Stone Mrs Stevens
Geraldine Wall
Director
Vincente Minnelli
Video
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