Directed by Otto Preminger | 119 mins | 1955
Incendiary at the time for its depiction of drug addiction, Otto Preminger’s noir-ish expedition through the caliginous slums and backdoor casinos of ’50s Chicago was so popular that it incited an investigation into cinema censorship—and an eventual loosening of decades-long restrictions around film taboos. Frank Sinatra stars as Frankie Machine, a smooth criminal and recovering heroin addict whose efforts to stay clean and woo an old flame (Kim Novak) are threatened by ever-mounting debts and the lures of the underworld.