Themes: One Last Heist, Race Relations, Down on Their Luck
Main Cast: Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters, Ed Begley, Sr., Gloria Grahame
Release Year: 1959
Country: US
Run Time: 95 minutes
Plot
Harry Belafonte was both producer and star of this hard-edged film noir crime drama. Dave Burke (Ed Begley, Sr.) is an ex-cop who has been kicked off the force for refusing to inform on his colleagues to the State Crime Committee. Short on money, the former policeman jumps to the other side of the law and plans to knock over a bank in upstate New York. He'll need help, so Burke brings in two other men to assist him -- Johnny Ingram (Belafonte), a jazz musician with an addiction to gambling that's put him deep in debt to gangster Bacco (Will Kuluva), and Earl Slater (Robert Ryan), a disturbed war veteran who hasn't been able to find work after serving time for manslaughter. While their common greed and desperation has brought these men together, their differences threaten to tear them apart, especially when Slater's fear and hatred of black men rises to the surface. Blacklisted screenwriter Abraham Polonsky co-wrote the screenplay for Odds Against Tomorrow, using his friend John O. Killens as a "front." John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet contributed a memorable musical score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Robert Wise's noir heist is an interesting if not entirely successful project, most notable for Joseph Brun's crisp black-and-white photography and John Lewis' atmospheric jazz score. Reminiscent of Kubrick's The Killing (1956) in its unsparing portrait of a group of desperate amateur crooks, the film labors awkwardly with the theme of racism, hardly the most pressing problem of a trio whose lives are making a beeline for the gutter. Interestingly, executive producer Belafonte has given himself the most disturbed of these characters, a self-destructive musician, and the memorable scene in the mobbed-up jazz club is one of the most accurate depictions of that milieu on film. When the criminals head out of the city toward the small-town heist location, the film losses much of its urgency, as the bleakness of the rolling countryside emphasizes the grim absurdity of their mission. Noir icons Robert Ryan and Gloria Grahame are joined by an excellent cast including Shelley Winters, Ed Begley Sr., and Cicely Tyson. Noted jazz pianist Bill Evans joins the Modern Jazz Quartet on the soundtrack. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Will Kuluva - Bacco; Richard Bright - Coco; Lew Gallo - Moriarity; Fred J. Scollay - Cannoy; Carmen de Lavallade - Kitty; Mae Barnes - Annie; Kim Hamilton - Ruth Ingram; Lois Thorne - Eadie; Wayne Rogers - Soldier; Zohra Lampert - Girl in Bar; William Zuckert - Bartender; Burtt Harris - Man in Bar; Clint Young - Policeman; Paul Hoffman - Garry; Cicely Tyson - Fra; William Adams - Bank Guard; Fred Herrick - Bank Manager; Mary Boylan - Bank Secretary; Allen Nourse - Police Chief; Robert Earl Jones - Guard; Mel Stewart - Elevator Operator
Credit
Leo Kerz - Art Director, Anna Hill Johnstone - Costume Designer, Robert Wise - Director, Dede Allen - Editor, John Lewis - Composer (Music Score), Robert Jiras - Makeup, Joseph Brun - Cinematographer, Robert Wise - Producer, Fred Ballmeyer - Set Designer, Nelson Gidding - Screenwriter, Abraham Polonsky - Screenwriter, John O. Killens - Screenwriter, William P. McGivern - Book Author
