Robert Wise, the man who would later helm West Side Story and The Haunting, directed Odds Against Tomorrow, a heist movie based on a novel by William P. McGivern. Gorgeous and exciting, watching it feels something like being in love. And as with being in love, you know it's going to end badly. (With notably rare exceptions, of course.)
Dave Burke (Ed Begley, not Jr.) is an ex-cop, dirty, although he says he was just the one left holding the bag. He's a New Yorker, and he's been staking out a bank in a small town upstate, one that looks to him like easy pickings. He thinks he knows just the two guys to help him.
Johnny Ingram (Harry Belafonte) dresses well, lives high, and is catnip to the ladies. One or two men seem to like what they see two. One extended scene shows him singing and playing vibes at a fun looking nightclub, although it's not clear whether performing there is a job or a hobby. His main problem is that he likes to play the horses and is bad at it. So on top of child support he owes money to people who could hurt him, his ex, his daughter, you get the idea.
Earl Slater (Robert Ryan) is trouble. He's haunted by the war and he's killed at least one man since then. He hasn't been able to get a job lately, leaving him dependent on his waitress girlfriend (Shelley Winters). Inconveniently, for a man who'll be expected to work with a fellow robber played by Harry Belafonte, he is also a massive racist. This is worth unpacking, though. He's pretty much an asshole to everyone, as shown by a scene where he fights and hurts a young soldier (future MASH-ie Wayne Rogers) demonstrating judo moves in a bar. It's just that as a Southerner he seems to feel obligated to add insult to injury with black people.
So obviously this is going to go great.
Odds Against Tomorrow was released in 1959, later than most classic film noir. The city scenes show the dreams of the jet age future already starting to fail. The more sylvan setting of the final act looks beautiful and bleak. Haunting overall.
The movie marches to its own drummer in other ways as well. Gloria Grahame, who plays Slater's neighbor, is almost as much of a vamp here as she was in real life. (Look up details of her divorce from Nicholas Ray sometime.) In most films in this genre she would be a siren calling him to his doom. Well, he's going nowhere good, but she's got nothing to do with that. All she can do, really, is get a taste while he's still here.
So yes, much better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
2 comments:
Nice going. Your review of Odds Against Tomorrow was intriguing enough that we watched it this evening and soon realized we remembered parts of it (we went through the youtube noirs a couple of years ago). The scene with Ed Begley and Robert Ryan checking out the bank and the waiter carrying the box brought it all back. You're right that it's an excellent noir film but at the same time it's so very atmospheric the essential criminal endeavor gets short shrift.
Nevertheless, the director and cast made an impressive group.
Not only did Robert Wise direct the famous films you mentioned, but far more as well as I'm sure you're aware. One of my favourites was The Sand Pebbles, never mind The Day the Earth Stood Still, and The Andromeda Strain. (I wonder why even though I've enjoyed movies made of Crichton's books I've never felt the urge to read one?)
Ed Begley was a juror in 12 Angry Men, a landmark American movie.
Harry Belafonte has had an amazing career as actor, singer and political activist. He was a friend of MLK and didn't like GW Bush's gwot. What more can be said but that it's good to know he's still around.
It's interesting to know Robert Ryan Ryan's roles as cynical, prejudiced, violent characters, often ran counter to the causes he embraced. I wonder what 'the wokesters' of today would make of him?
I know Shelley Winters was famous as an actress and even won some major awards, but I mostly remember her from television shows she appeared in later, ie, Ma Barker in Batman.
I don't know much about Gloria Grahame either, but I did look up the details of her divorce from Nicholas Ray as you suggested. Being caught in bed with one's 13 year old stepson could present a problem in any marriage. What was even more interesting was that she and Tony eventually married and stayed that way for 14 years and had two children of their own.
Anyhow, yours was a fascinating review; you definitely focused on some of the best bits. It was a tragedy that took its time happening. The chase between Ryan and Belafonte at the finale (with the cops almost an afterthought) ending with the gasworks exploding felt detached enough that, although I understood it was meant to be dark and depressing, I couldn't help but pine for a Jimmy Cagney moment.
****
btw - Just in case you get the urge to read more criticism of Canadian politics and our leader in particular you might get a laugh out of this.
Ah, so you had seen it before. I had heard about it and I think I checked to see if it was in the library system, which it wasn't. Where I did find it was YouTube, although I don't know offhand if it's in public domain. The robbery may have gotten short shrift, but the movie does convey that there's a big difference between thinking that you have an airtight plan and actually having one. The New York locations are shot beautifully, too.
Oh yeah, I had forgotten about The Day the Earth Stood Still. It's been some time since I've seen it but it is a classic. Wise wrings a lot of suspense out of the alien visitors, even if they do have noble intentions. Haven't seen Andromeda Strain yet. My impression of Crichton is that he has decent plots but benefits from having screenwriters rework his dialogue and actors put some dimension into his characters.
That's right, Begley was the antagonist, basically, in Twelve Angry Men. Probably had a lot to do with its success. I saw him as a judge on The Dick Van Dyke Show once as well.
I've heard some of the records Belafonte put out in his youth. Clear right away that he was a great performer, and you can see why people started paying attention. He was in a post-apocalyptic movie called The World, The Flesh and The Devil as well, which I remember as being worth seeing.
God's Little Acre, which I blogged about a few weeks ago, had Robert Ryan in the lead as well. He was playing a Southerner, but not an apparent racist. The black sharecropper working on his farm seemed to be the brains of the operation. No, he was just nuts over gold in that one. But the obvious clash between him and Belafonte's character in this does make Begley look like the world's most beleaguered liberal.
Shelley Winters was quite cute when she made this. Within a few years she definitely had transitioned to the mom-and-then-grandma phase of her career, although she had fun doing so.
Grahame I'm familiar with from In a Lonely Place with Humphrey Bogart, which was excellent (and one of Ray's). She was also in a vampire movie I'm curious to see. Interesting that she settled down with the stepson later on. People are funny.
Ending a crime picture with an exploding fuel tank can't help but bring White Heat to mind. The difference is that Cody Jarrett was consciously and intentionally driving toward his own destruction, at least after his mother died.
Anyway, I'm glad you liked the review/essay/whatever this was. I like to do this kind of thing now and then.
That Saker piece was pretty devastating--and funny--about Justin Trudeau. Looking at him makes me feel not exactly good about having a useless fossil like Biden in charge, but slightly less bad. Things are indeed tough all over.
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