When Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra), a heroin addict who cleans up in prison, is released, he encounters an old flame Molly (Kim Novak). Jobless, in debt, and in the care of illicit friends, he feels pressure mounting from all directions. Exploring a taboo subject at the time, the film challenged Hollywood’s Production Code, ultimately paving the way for future films dealing with drug abuse and related subjects. This classic film is based on the Nelson Algren novel. Restored by the Academy Film Archive with funding from the Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Focus on Otto Preminger

The legendary film director and Austrian-Jewish emigré Otto Preminger helped jumpstart Saul Bass’s career as a movie poster and title sequence designer by asking him to design the poster for his film Carmen Jones (1954). Preminger was so impressed that he asked Bass to design the movie titles as well, and the two would go on to have a longstanding professional relationship. In this mini-retrospective, the NYJFF presents three of Preminger’s masterpieces for which Bass designed titles.