Some Came Running

Some Came Running (1958) is a Vincente Minnelli melodrama you can watch online on iFILM. Dave Hirsh, a discharged soldier and washed-up writer, drifts back to his hometown of Parkman, Illinois, carrying an unfinished manuscript and a girl he picked up on the bus.

Dave's respectable older brother is ashamed of him, and the town greets the prodigal with smiles that don't reach the eyes. Frank Sinatra plays a man sick of his own past; Dean Martin is Bama, a gambler who refuses to take off his hat even at the poker table; Shirley MacLaine is Ginny, the dime-a-dance girl who loves Dave with no chance of being loved back. A cool schoolteacher, Gwen (Martha Hyer), keeps him at arm's length.

Adapted from the James Jones novel, it picked up five Oscar nominations, MacLaine's among them, and Elmer Bernstein's score drives the whole thing toward a carnival-set finale that film schools still pull apart frame by frame. A story about a small town grinding down anyone who won't play by its rules. Stream Some Came Running (1958) online on iFILM.