MartinHafer "A Hatful of Rain" is a film indicative of the realism that had crept into films in the 1950s. The Production Code had gradually relaxed and films dealing with more adult topics were becoming more and more available. Now this is NOT saying the films were dirty or salacious--they just dealt with some of the realities of the pitfalls of modern life. Gangs, drugs and even sexual abuse were now possible topics in films--provided they were presented in a reasonably restrained manner. In this climate, a film like this one is possible--back in the 1940s it simply never could have been made.The film originally was a Broadway play and it depicts the effects of morphine addiction on a Korean War vet (Don Murray). Instead of admitting his problem, Murray gets pulled into the seedy underworld--as he's heavily in debt to a scum-bag pusher (Henry Silva) and it appears as if he has no choice but steal to support this habit. In the meantime, his patient wife (Eva Marie Saint) is lonely and assumes that her husband is cheating on her--after all, he's distant and often gone at night. Living with them is Murray's brother (Anthony Franciosa)--and this creates some sexual tension and an interesting dynamic considering how lonely his sister-in-law is and that Franciosa knows his brother's secret. Add to that the tough as nails father (Lloyd Nolan) who comes to visit and you've got the ingredients for some fireworks. The family's problems extend well beyond the chemical dependency--and perhaps the drugs in some way relate to all this dysfunction. How all this is sorted out is for you to see for yourself in this excellent drama.Don Murray is hardly a household name, but he was very good in this role because he seems a lot like an ordinary guy--something that really helps in a film like this. A big-name star would have been all wrong for this role as a poor working stiff. As for the rest of the cast, they are all excellent as well. Saint is a lot like other characters she's played--such as in "On the Waterfront" and Franciosa received an Oscar nomination for his performance as the brother living with them.By the way, although the main focus is on Murray, I think the relationship between the scapegoated brother (Franciosa) and the irresponsible father is probably the most interesting one in the picture. There sure is a lot going on here.Overall, an extremely well made movie that it filled with interesting family dynamics. In fact, there's so much to see here--the co-dependent wife, the enabling brother, the emotionally abusive and neglectful father...all which is fascinating and worth your time. Exceptional.

rpvanderlinden This is a compelling movie about drug addiction. It focuses on the many ways in which addicts make hostages of the people who love them. It is accurate, and it doesn't flinch.Don Murray plays Johnny Pope, a closet junkie who, with the co-operation of his brother, Polo (Tony Franciosa), has conspired to keep his addiction a secret from his pregnant and neglected wife, Celia (Eva Marie Saint). Celia's ready to leave. She thinks Johnny's long absences have something to do with another woman. To add to this mess enter the brothers' judgemental dad (Lloyd Nolan) and the dealer Johnny owes money to (the ever-menacing Henry Silva), and Johnny's pressure-cooker world is ready to explode.The story unfolds with gritty realism and poignancy. All four main characters, trapped in their implacable attitudes toward each other early in the film, reveal a surprising moral resiliency later on. There's a top-notch cast, and I was particularly impressed by Tony Franciosa. I had to see this Cinemascope film in a non-letterbox format, which is too bad, because the New York City black-and-white photography, cold, dank, misty, claustrophobic, is breathtaking. Work like this reminds me of why I have a fondness for atmospheric on-location urban dramas. The great Bernard Herrmann's music was moody and tinged with dread. And I enjoyed the restless camera-work. This movie will be a must-have on DVD.The chilling piece of dialogue, "meet me where the children play", is the instruction given by a drug dealer to a potential customer to meet him in a playground. Dealers don't give a rat's ass. They want the money. And the customers, well...they may hate the circumstances they find themselves in, but they need the drug. This is the moral dilemma of drug addiction that this movie touches on so effectively and compassionately.

bkoganbing 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.

dougdoepke Intense and harrowing family drama typical of 50's style New York film-making. At the time, Hollywood was caught up in the double-whammy of TV competition and Cold War scare, so programming from the West Coast tended to emphasize big screen spectacle and politically safe subject matter. On the other hand, films from New York City, such as On the Waterfront and Edge of the City, emphasized small screen black & white, with urban settings and grittier subject matter. Here it's drug addiction among a white-collar family ensconced in a Manhattan apartment. Hooked because of a war wound, Johnny (Don Murray) has a loving wife Celia (Eva Marie Saint), a loyal brother Polo (Anthony Franciosa), and an arrogantly insensitive father (Lloyd Nolan). There's real tension between husband and wife because Johnny is fearful of confessing his secret addiction. As a result, Celia feels neglected by his drug-created absences, while Johnny keeps losing jobs, and Polo ends up paying for his brother's habit. When Dad comes from Florida to collect promised money from Polo that he now doesn't have, events begin spiraling out of control.Needless to say, acting here is front and center stage. The cast comes through beautifully, especially Franciosa as the intensely conflicted Polo who's attracted to his brother's wife while providing Johnny the needed support. And it doesn't help that Dad has always favored Johnny even as Polo must keep that same brother's ruinous secret. Poor Polo, the stress may appear to be on Johnny and his addiction, but it's really Polo who's emotionally torn.This is not a movie for the depressed. Nearly all the scenes take place in the couple's rather drab apartment, except for a few street shots of Johnny trapped by Manhattan's towering impersonality. This is urban despair 50's style, when drugs and addiction were considered a strictly urban problem related to unwholesome types that thrived there. The darker skinned drug-pusher Mother (Henry Silva)) conforms to a popular stereotype of the time, along with his be-bopping confederate Apple (Bill Hickey), another popular stereotype. And when Mother says it's only business after threatening Johnny, we get a different perspective on the rise of post-war commercialism. (Why the lugubrious name "Mother" for a low-life drug dealer? My guess is that it characterizes in ironic fashion the dependent relation addicts have with their supplier.)The image that stays with me is a strung-out Johnny, hunkered down in his coat, drifting alone on the streets of Manhattan. It's a grim existential moment, especially for that upbeat decade. Anyway, the movie remains a dramatic powerhouse that still packs a wallop. And even that bane of 50's films, the required happy ending, is finessed in suitably ambiguous fashion.