Preminger’s adaptation of Nelson Algren’s 1949 novel broke taboos in its depiction of drug addiction, and led directly to a change in how films were certified in America.

Frank Sinatra gets one of his weightiest film roles as Frankie Machine, a junkie card shark trying to go straight and make a career as a jazz trumpeter after a spell in jail and rehab. His noble ambitions are hampered by local gamblers and his disabled wife (Eleanor Parker). (Notes by Michael Hayden.)

Restored by the Academy Film Archive with funding from the Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. 

This film is screening as part of Drugs, the second of our three-month season dedicated to excess, presenting examples of how cinema has taken on sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll in Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll.