Editing The Man with the Golden Arm (section)

==Plot==
Frankie Machine is released from the federal Narcotic Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, and returns to his run-down neighborhood on the [[North Side, Chicago|North Side]] of [[Chicago]]. A drug addict (the drug is never named, but [[heroin]] is strongly implied), Frankie became clean in prison. On the outside, he greets friends and acquaintances. Sparrow, who runs a con selling homeless dogs, clings to him like a younger brother, but Schwiefka, whom Frankie used to deal for in his illegal card game, has more sinister reasons for welcoming him back, as does Louie, Machine's former drug dealer.

Frankie returns home to his wife Zosh, who supposedly needs to use a wheelchair after a car crash years earlier that was caused by Frankie driving drunk. Zosh is secretly recovered but pretends to be unable to walk to guilt Frankie into staying with her. He thinks he has what it takes to play drums for a big band. While calling to make an appointment, he bumps into an old flame, Molly, who works in a strip joint as a hostess and lives in the apartment below Frankie's. Unlike Zosh, Molly encourages his dream of becoming a drummer.

Frankie soon gets an audition and asks Sparrow to get him a new suit, but the suit is stolen and he ends up in a cell at a local [[Chicago Police Department|Chicago police precinct]]. Schwiefka offers to pay the bail. Frankie refuses at first because he thinks that Schwiefka told the police that the suit is stolen. But soon Frankie changes his mind, hoping to get out and have an audition.

To repay the debt for his bail, he deals cards for Schwiefka again. Soon Frankie succumbs and is back on drugs and dealing marathon all-night card games for Schwiefka. He gets a tryout as a drummer but spends 24 hours straight dealing a poker game, during which he is discovered cheating and beaten up. At the audition, with withdrawal coming on, Frankie cannot keep the beat and ruins his chance of landing the job. When Louie goes to see Zosh to try to find Frankie, he discovers that she has been faking her paralysis. Zosh, scared of being found out, pushes Louie over the railing of the stairwell to his death, but Frankie is sought for the murder.

[[File:The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) by Otto Preminger.webm | thumbtime=19 | thumb | left | The full film]]

Frankie goes to Molly hoping to get money for a fix. After learning that Captain Bednar and the police are looking for him, Molly convinces him that he must go [[cold turkey]] if he is to stand a chance with the police. Frankie agrees and is locked in Molly's apartment where he goes through a grueling withdrawal to clear the drugs from his body. Finally clean again, he tells Zosh he is going to leave her, start anew, and stand trial. In her desperation to keep Frankie from leaving her, Zosh gives herself away, standing up in front of Frankie and the police. She runs but gets no farther than the outside balcony. Trapped, she throws herself off the balcony to her death. A police ambulance arrives to remove Zosh's lifeless body and drives away, while Frankie watches in dismay. He walks away, with Molly following as Sparrow walks away in the opposite direction.