Saul Bass – Title Sequence The Man With The Golden Arm

Saul Bass (1920-1996) is known for his animated motion picture title sequences, the same profession as Kyle Cooper. One of his most famous title sequences is ‘The Man With The Golden Arm’.

The plot in the movie is about a man named ‘Frankie’ (Frank Sinatra) that was a heroin addict but became clean in prison, with the dream of becoming a drummer. Throughout the movie he gets pressured to start taking drugs again, and with this in mind it reminds us of the title sequence.

We see white paper cut-outs come from the top of the screen and down. 3 out of 4 of them disappear and then there comes one from each of the four sides on screen. Then in the middle of these four ‘needles’ the name of the movie flashes up ‘The Man With The Golden Arm’. You feel the pressure of the needles moving into the screen and out intact with the music increasing which is to resemble how pressured he must feel, being forced into drugs again having needles pushed in his face.

The ‘view’ is quite simple colour wise. Black background with white righting and the cut-outs being white. The text is written with a quite standard font with the actors names written in capitals. Like Kyle Cooper there is a lack in continuity where the words are going to pop up and where the needles are coming from making you unsure again to represent the pressure he is under and to make you feel like you are on the drug and it’s increasing more and more. At the end of the sequence all of the needles form into a white arm to represent ‘The Man With The Golden Arm’ where you reach your ‘highness’ and were the music is most tense. 

The music is non-diegetic. It has a jazz feel to it and is played by Shorty Rogers. It starts out in the beginning of the sequence with only a high hat from a drum set, and then a couple of seconds after the beat comes on. From 0.28 the music speeds up as if you are on the drug and it’s effect on you is increasing. The music is most tense where all of the needles form into one arm, and that ‘shot’ is held for a really long time, because it is the whole plot of the movie.     

Here is the title sequence