Some Came Running

Some Came Running is a raw and gritty story wrapped up in rose colored cellophane and placed carefully on a soft embroidered pillow. 

I wonder if Vincente Minnelli intended to create something different, but just couldn’t help himself and added beautiful lighting and character sympathy. Was the studio aware of the audiences’ sensibilities of the time and wanted to appeal to a broader viewership? Or, perhaps the decade of retrospective carried a weight of deference? Whatever the reason, it was a movie at odds with itself, with an undercurrent not fully explored.  Like a fog, the back stories were obscured with only the occasional wind gust of clarity by way of a pointed comment of a barbed comeback.  But then the fog would roll back in and nothing more was known.

Many of the characters were shrouded in a fog as well; the fog of numbness brought about by drink, work, societal expectations and buried feelings. As Dave Hirsch put down the bottle and remembered his love of words and his ability to love another, he too had a gust of clarity; which overwhelmed the object of his love, Gwen French. I never did see her clearly, since she remained close to the vest. Shirley MacLaine’s a wonder and played the only character that was crystal clear. Minnie’s openness and naiveté were perfectly portrayed with no barriers to her feelings or her actions.