Frank Sinatra gives one of his most powerful screen performances in this Otto Preminger movie about drug addiction. Some of the scenes with Sinatra shooting up or going through withdrawal are harrowing still today; they must've been devastating to audiences back in the mid-50s. Sinatra plays ex-addict Frankie Machine, married to needy Eleanor Parker; Darren McGavin is the dope peddler who gets Sinatra hooked again and derails his hopes of becoming a jazz drummer. Kim Novak tries to foster Sinatra's drumming dreams, in contrast to Parker who just wants to keep him under her thumb. The script is based on Nelson Algren's book of the same name, but the movie is quite different, mainly in character focus: in the book Machine is much more self-driven and Novak's character is less supportive. Sinatra locked in a room going through withdrawal hell is one powerful performance. The music, by Elmer Bernstein, is jazzy and apt.