Some excellent observations, Bob. The movie business usually fails to do justice to many screen adaptations of novels. The shooting script for "The Man With the Golden Arm" reduces most of the main characters to simple composite characters.

Two supporting characters in the movie version of "The Man With the Golden Arm" are really substantially different than in the novel. "Vi" is transformed into a tired old housewife who runs errands for Zosh in the film while "Sparrow" is principally used as a comic relief figure. In the book "Vi" is younger and more seductive. She is married to an older man, who is a building landlord, and she has an extramarital affair with Sparrow. Louie the dope peddler is a much older man in the book than Darrin McGavin.

The police manhunt for Frankie Machine in the book is hampered when the bulls never think to look for him in a neighboring African American district a few miles away from his usual haunts.

As you stated, Nelson Algren's "Never Come Morning" is a powerful novel. It would be a challenge for a movie maker.