I saw A Hatful of Rain and Bigger Than Life in the same evening, because they seemed to make the perfect double feature as they both dealt with addictions. (They had been on my short list of movies to see for a while.) I watched A Hatful of Rain first. It features good actors, who give good, thoughtful performances, but the film, on the whole, felt a little too stagy and like it was trying too hard to be self-important and/or preachy with its family dynamics. While it's rather respectful and tender in depicting Don Murray's morphine addiction and Eva Marie Saint's predicament in loving someone she can't altogether help, you begin to tire of its downbeat feel. Tony Franciosa is good as his brother who is tired of helping him out every single time and, at the same time, finds himself attracted to his wife. One may say that comparing this film to Bigger Than Life is not fair to this one, as I found it to be far superior to this, but, if you only have two hours to spare, watch Bigger Than Life first. Then, five minutes into this, you will see a world of difference, as A Hatful of Rain tries to be bigger than life.
Review of A Hatful of Rain
