frank sinatra play a no goodnik ex soldier and frustrated writer and hard living and hard drinking and who return to his midwestern hometown and reunite with his estrange brother ( arthur kennedy ) and now the town big shot with a disinterested wife and headstrong daughter . frank get involve with gambler dean martin and uneducated flooze shirley maclaine and and have some run ins with the law and but what he really want to do be write and settle down with a good woman . over simplified drama verge on soap opera and with a role for maclaine that be by turn overly colorful and embarrassingly sentimental ( her drunken belting on after you have go be however the film highlight and and be expertly handle ) . director vincente minnelli oversee it in straight forward fashion and but he in surprisingly glum spirit and most of the big scene be flat or dense . the picture look incredibly handsome in widescreen and with a nice eye for detail and composition and but the story and these character be stick in the dreg . from .