The Man with the golden arm starts of with a black background with white typed handwriting which introduces the actors names and has a jazzy score and this creates a close synchronization between the visual and auditory rhythms, paying close attention to pace, rhythm and detail. Slim white bars appear on the black background before it al turns into a jagged arm. This arm in the German Expressionist style was a symbol of heroin addiction which was easily recognisable. This one image condensed the whole story into one concept in which the whole film could market it self. This one image was and still is very powerful as it gives us an insight to the chaotic and difficult life of a herion addict. The soundtrack or background music is jazz and lets the audience know that this particular music could have something to do with the plot.The camera focuses solely on the slim white bars. This film deals with a herion addict musician (Frank Sinatra) a topic which was very taboo at the time. Saul Bass created this because he was working on the film poster when Otto Preminger was so impressed that he asked him to create the opening sequence. It was a very risky move not to use the famous face of Frank Sinatra, considering that in the 1950s, famous names were closely associated with the successfulness of a film and before studios used to depend on these famous faces to market films and this was a big change as the film posters were also of the arm.
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