The Man with the Golden Arm Film Analysis

The Man With the Golden Arm, made in 1955, stars Frank Sinatra and Eleanor Parker. Frank Sinatra plays Frankie Machine, a one-time heroin addict out of jail and on the search for a new life. Eleanor Parker plays Zosch, Frankie's melodramatic wife who is stuck in a wheelchair. She claims to be paralyzed from a drunk driving accident caused by Frankie some years before. The scene that will be analyzed in this paper deals with many issues vital to the movie. Frankie is trying to make a new life for himself, while Zosch wants him to deal cards again and make fast cash for her. She manipulates Frankie back into his old life by guilt-tripping him about her situation. She also verbally cuts him down, destroying his self confidence and masculinity. As the psychoanalysis of this scene will show, Zosch is a sexual female character who castrates Frankie and demands power in an aggressive, masculine way.