Even now, after Requiem and so many other ruthless, horrific portraits of addiction on screen, The Man With the Golden Arm has a primal power and a message that is timeless.
But long before Aronofsky attacked audiences with Requeim, director Otto Preminger broke ground with another film about a junkie perpetually trying to outsmart the drooling monkey that claws at his back, 1955’s The Man With the Golden Arm , based on the novel by Nelson Algren.
Nifty Louie moves in and obliges, jamming his poison into Frankie’s vein and starting the cycle of misery all over again.