No Down Payment (1957)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Martin Ritt

Writers:

Ben Maddow (front Philip Yordan)
John McPartland (novel)

Release Date:

30 October 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The marital difficulties of four couples living in a southern California housing development become intertwined...

Plot Keywords:

Suburbia | Beautiful Woman | Based On Novel

Awards:

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 1 win

Cast

Joanne Woodward	...	Leola Boone
Sheree North	...	Isabelle Flagg
Tony Randall	...	Jerry Flagg
Jeffrey Hunter	...	David Martin
Cameron Mitchell	...	Troy Boone
Patricia Owens	...	Jean Martin
Barbara Rush	...	Betty Kreitzer
Pat Hingle	...	Herman Kreitzer
Robert H. Harris	...	Markham (as Robert Harris)
Aki Aleong	...	Iko
Jim Hayward	...	Mr. Burnett

Runtime:

USA:105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Jerry Wald Productions

Trivia:

Inspiration for the long-running prime time TV soap opera "Knots Landing" (1979).

Movie Connections:

Featured in Sex at 24 Frames Per Second (2003) (V)

Not Much In The Way of Rewards, Either

Four couples in a community of look-alike houses. On the outside they seem attractive and up-and-coming. Inside they are in bad shape.

Tony Randall and Sheree North are one unlikely couple. To be honest, keeping tack of all the couples was a bit difficult. The characters were not well differentiated.

The most interesting is Joanne Woodward and Cameron Mitchell. He is a very angry person. Mitchell looks uncharacteristically beefy and brawny but his performance is excellent. He does a pretty terrible thing, which has repercussions for many in the community.

Many of the performers did far more interesting work elsewhere. Pat Hingle, one of the husbands, for example. But the characters and characterization are as generic as the houses.

(I was interested, as a total aside, to note that all the houses seemed to have paintings on their walls. This seemed unlikely.) Mitchell and Woodward stand out, though. And their story is truly moving.