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Poster for The Man with the Golden Arm
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Released
1955 · FILM

The Man with the Golden Arm

A former convict and recovering addict seeks redemption through music, but his past resurfaces when his old criminal world forces him to choose between his newfound sobriety and survival.

“An 'untouchable' theme… an unusual motion picture!”

Directed by
Otto Preminger
Written by
Walter Newman, Lewis Meltzer
Color
Black & White
Runtime
119 min
CrimeDramaRomance
Streaming on
  • Prime Video

Synopsis

After serving time in prison for dealing illegal cards and struggling with heroin addiction, Frankie Machine seeks to turn his life around. With only an old drum set to his name, he attempts to find legitimate work as a drummer. However, the return of his former employer and his past drug dealer complicates his efforts to remain clean, ultimately leading him back to his old ways.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Director

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 20

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Louis R LoefflerShot by Sam LeavittScored by Elmer BernsteinDesigned by Joseph C Wright

Box Office

1955 · Box office

💰 Box-office hit — grossed 4.3× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$4.3M

Budget$1.0M
Worldwide gross$4.3M
break-even (2.5×)

Also known as

  • Der Mann mit dem goldenen Armde
  • El hombre del brazo de oroes
  • L'Homme au bras d'orfr
  • L'uomo dal braccio d'oroit

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