Some Came Running (1958)

In Vincente Minnelli's widescreen, Peyton Place-like melodrama of sexual repression, a sweeping, slow-burning character study of ugly Americana - and an adaptation of the James Jones novel of the same name:

• after many years, the 'prodigal' return of misfit, hard-drinking, cynical ex-WWII soldier and 'blocked' writer Dave Hirsh (Frank Sinatra) to his hometown of Parkman (Indiana), his failed life mirrored in his attempt at a relationship with cool, repressed and intellectual blonde Miss Gwen French (Martha Hyer), a straight-laced teacher of writing/journalism at the local school
• the shocking lover's lane scene in which Dave's sexually-active young niece Dawn Hirsh (Betty Lou Keim), parked in a car with her boyfriend, spotted her respectable, jewelry business-owning father Frank (Arthur Kennedy) (estranged from Dave) in an open convertible closeby kissing his pretty secretary Edith Barclay (Nancy Gates) after-hours
• the camaraderie between Dave and his Southern gambling, card-shark best friend Bama Dillert (Dean Martin) from the wrong side of the tracks who never removed his hat and labeled loose women as "pigs" - their pairing exemplified one of the earliest examples of a "Rat Pack" film (it was the first of seven films in which Sinatra and Martin would appear together)
• the scene of unrefined, dumb floozy Ginny Moorehead (Shirley MacLaine in her first major screen role, and with her first Best Actress nomination), Dave's on again-off again "hostess" girlfriend, confessing openly to Miss French in her classroom that she unconditionally loved Dave
• the tense, classic set-piece in the finale, masterfully photographed horizontally, of Dave Hirsh and Ginny Moorehead (just married) in a crowded hometown carnival (garishly colorful) when they were pursued and shot by disgruntled Chicago gangster and Ginny's ex-boyfriend Raymond (Steven Peck); Dave was wounded, while she was shot in the back and killed (and fell onto him) when she selflessly tried to protect him
• the concluding two minute scene of Ginny's funeral above the Ohio River, attended by Dave, Bama (who for once removed his hat), and Gwen, all transformed