A Hatful of Rain (1957) on Netflix
In New York, Korean War veteran Johnny Pope hides his morphine addiction from his pregnant wife Celia and father John Sr. His brother Polo secretly covers his debts.
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- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.1/101,790 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
A Korean War veteran, Johnny Pope, shares a New York housing project apartment with Celia, his pregnant wife, and his brother Polo. Injured in a cave during the war, he became secretly addicted to morphine, and only Polo knows. Their father, John Sr., arrives from Florida to collect $2,500 that Polo had saved, but Polo gave the money to Johnny to pay for drugs. John Sr. praises Johnny and belittles Polo, unaware of the addiction. Johnny owes dealer Mother $500 and has no money; Mother gives him one dose and a gun, suggesting robbery. Johnny tries to rob strangers but cannot go through with it. Celia suspects Johnny is seeing another woman.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about A Hatful of Rain (1957)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Carl Foreman co-wrote the screenplay of A Hatful of Rain but was uncredited on its original release because he was blacklisted; the Writers Guild of America added his name to the credits in 1998, 14 years after his death.
- Fred Zinnemann objected to shooting A Hatful of Rain in CinemaScope, which 20th Century Fox required for all its productions; he recalled inventing large foreground pieces to hide at least a third of the screen so viewers' eyes would not roam.
- To prepare, director Fred Zinnemann and star Don Murray went out with the NYPD Narcotics unit, taken into "hot" areas by day and by night, and Zinnemann called seeing patients treated at the corrective hospital on Rikers Island a harrowing experience.
- Fred Zinnemann wanted Don Murray for the role of Polo, but Murray insisted on playing Johnny instead, so Anthony Franciosa, who had played Polo in the stage production, reprised that role in the film.
- Bernard Herrmann wrote the music for A Hatful of Rain, and 20th Century Fox asked him to rescore his prelude because the studio considered the original version "terrifying".
