The fifties were melodrama heyday:Douglas Sirk and Vincente Minelli were masters of the genre at the time.Frank Sinatra plays the main character,but,little by little,it's Shirley Mac Laine who steals the show.She's the hackneyed big-hearted whore -a character she was to play again,on a more comic mode,in "Irma la douce"-,and what's extraordinary is that such a clichéd woman can touch us so closely.Her scene with Martha Hyer who plays a chic lit university professor is absolutely mind-boggling when she humbles before her.Her love for Dave is not shared,because,although the former writer stands aloof from his brother's respectable family,Gwen (Hyer) represents something he can't renounce.He does not marry Ginny (MCLaine) out of love but in a fit of pique.Ginny knows she's been cheated,but her love is so strong that she accepts everything.When Dave understands,it will be too late.The final scene is not far from that of "Imitation of life" and Ginny and the black servant Annie in Sirk's movie are some kind of cousins.
Review of Some Came Running
