THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM
Nelson Algren’s The Man With the Golden Arm rings with the same compelling ugliness. Like Carroll, Algren neither romanticizes nor condemns his junkie hero or his street characters, but rather tells their story simply and compassionately.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The Man With the Golden Arm is mainly the story of Frankie, who comes home to the Division Street ghetto from World War II with a Purple Heart and a drug addition. On the streets he’s known as Frankie Machine, a man of legendary precision with a deck of cards. Like all the characters in the play, Frankie is cursed with a wretched life in a brutal environment. Algren’s Division Street of 1946 is a Polish American ghetto, where, he wrote, people lead “tortured, useless, lightless and loveless lives.” Still, Frankie is generous to his friends with whatever he has, and he tries to take care of people as best he can. He has a sweet, loving mistress, but he can’t find the strength to leave his nagging, wheelchair-bound wife, who constantly accuses him of crippling her (he may or may not have been responsible, according to talk on the street). His best friend is a petty thief, and Frankie himself makes his living dealing cards for a small-time gangster. He dreams of moving up and out, and his ticket, he thinks, is playing the drums for a big band. But Frankie’s hopes are soon dashed. He becomes a slave to his pusher, and eventually his frustration and addiction drive him to commit murder. From there things only get worse.
Neither of the lead women matches the energy of the men. Erica Tobolski is competent as Frankie’s nagging alcoholic wife Sophie, but neither Sophie’s inherent insanity nor her past as a spoiled and arrogant belle of the ball comes through in Tobolski’s performance. Juliet Cella’s Molly-O, Frankie’s mistress, doesn’t ring true. Though Molly-O’s supposedly madly in love with Frankie, Cella seems to dislike him. She shrinks from his touch and pleads with him in flat, unemotional tones.
