To me, this movie is perfection.

Overrated and overhyped

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

In the post-war, the alcoholic and bitter veteran military and former writer Dave Hirsch (Frank Sinatra) returns from Chicago to his hometown Parkman, Indiana. He is followed by Ginnie Moorehead (Shirley MacLaine), a vulgar and easy woman with whom he spent his last night in Chicago that has fallen in love with him.Much of the film was shot in and around the town of Madison, Indiana. Shirley MacLaine reported that Sinatra was "besieged" by the local Indiana women, and that at one point a woman broke through a rope barrier around a house and flung herself at Sinatra as her husband ran to stop her, pleading "Helen, you don't even know the man!" I would not say this is a must-see film, but MacLaine in her early days was always a great actress to see, and this is the first pairing of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. This was 1958, still a few years before the glory days of the Rat Pack.

Accompanied by Shirley MacLaine, a hooker he picked up in Chicago, Sinatra, a self-described failed writer, is discharged from the US Army and wakes up, hung over, in his home town of Parkman, Indiana. It's the first time he's been home in eighteen years. It's supposed to be 1948, although you'd never know it. Thereafter, intrigues and jealousies and conflicts come and go, evoking memories of soap operas, only told from the man's point of view instead of Craig's other wife's.There are no bands to welcome Sinatra. His older brother, Arthur Kennedy, is a pompous loudmouth who owns a jewelry shop. The script renders Kennedy as a hypocrite but doesn't deprive him of some human qualities. He loves his teen-aged daughter, is treated indifferently by his wealthy wife, and suffers a lapse in his morality when, stricken by an understandable loneliness, he makes it with his attractive secretary, Nancy Gates.Sinatra has given up writing, almost, but take up with the town's intellectuals, including Martha Hyer as a professor of creative writing, who finds his work admirable and sells one of his stories to The Atlantic magazine. (Short story writing; an art now as dead as Medieval glass blowing.) Hyer is an actress whose appeal has always eluded me. She's attractive enough but her performances always sound as if she's demonstrating her skill in a beauty contest. Her character here is cultured and unnatural. She's physically attracted to Sinatra. Of course. He's Chairman of the Board. But the ex-soldier's emotions are to powerful for her and she rejects him and his lower-class friends.Sinatra's friends include the gambler, Dean Martin, who is able to drink three times as much as Old Blue Eyes and the next morning, when Sinatra looks a thorough wreck, manages to be spic and span and on top of his game -- at least until he discovers he has Type 2 diabetes, which he shrugs off.Shirley MacLaine is an agreeable actress. She's pretty, despite the make-up overload and wretched wardrobe, and forthright in her artless candor. She'd do anything for Frank because she loves him beyond imagining. In the end, that's what's required of her.I know it was directed by Vincent Minelli but it's hard to tell. Everything about the movie is more or less routine. It's not one of Elmer Bernstein's better scores -- superabundant and lurid. Colorful characters in everyday settings doing things that aren't especially interesting.

This is a really good story, for adults who've seen something of life and know the score. Life and relationships aren't simple, things are often sad, unfair, bitter; but we all cling to the hope offered by understanding and love from other people. Dave Hirsch (Frank Sinatra) is a good character, a writer who returns in his Army uniform to the small town where he was never especially happy. He's been hurt, but he's still willing to be vulnerable and open. He's a fair, decent guy, a good friend, a person others lean on and like for his strength.One of the more interesting things in the film is how he interacts with Gwen French (Martha Hyer), the schoolteacher who appreciates and is excited by his talent but who can't relate to his world. It's sad to see these two trying to relate to one another. Him with his straightforward approach to life, and his openness, and her with her many layers of defenses, and shut-down emotions. The overall feeling I got was frustration that she couldn't appreciate the good things in the man.Martha Hyer plays Miss French very well, though you must accept her somewhat mannered approach that is a little like Grace Kelly's. I was a bit baffled by Gwen's motivations at times and I wondered if censorship had anything to do with it. The three leads are marvelous. Shirley MacLaine is like you've never seen her before. Playing a dumb but happy chick who is pure as the driven slush, she is funny, annoying, touching, and at times, the most sensible person in the room.Dean Martin gives one of his first non-musical, dramatic, post-Jerry Lewis portrayals as card sharp Bama Dillard, who Dave takes up with in his home town of Parkman, Indiana (and on a big side trip to Terre Haute). Dean is perfect in the role, and his interactions with Sinatra are full of sparks.As Dave's brother, a small town hypocrite who owns and operates the local jewelry store, Arthur Kennedy gives an excellent performance. His lavish home, and the home of Gwen and her professor father, are in stark visual contrast to the very humble surroundings of Dave and his friends - bars, rented houses, bus stations, etc.In smaller parts, Viola Dana and Connie Gilchrist are among the standouts.Minnelli described his desire to make the holiday-carnival atmosphere in the final scenes seem like "the inside of a jukebox." And that's exactly what it's like.Some Came Running is a satisfying, beautifully directed and designed, well acted drama of Midwestern postwar 1940's angst, filmed in gorgeous 1950's CinemaScope. The score by Elmer Bernstein is wonderfully evocative.

Soldier comes back to his small home town in Indiana after the war and disrupts some lives. Sinatra is solid as the disgruntled soldier and former writer. MacLaine is wonderful as a dim-witted floozy that swoons after Sinatra, who inexplicably wants to marry Hyer after spending a few hours with her. Sinatra's interest in Hyer, an attractive but cold-hearted and stuck-up schoolteacher, is never believable. Kennedy is fine as Sinatra's brother while Martin barely registers in an unsubstantial role. The finale feels contrived and out of place, an indication that Minnelli was out of his comfort zone with this material. Good score by Bernstein.