Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Robert Wise

Writers (WGA):

William P. McGivern (novel)
Abraham Polonsky (screenplay) (front John O. Killens) ...

Release Date:

15 October 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

By All Odds... It Stands Big And Breathless At The Top Of The List!

Plot:

Dave Burke is looking to hire two men to assist him in a bank raid: Earl Slater, an white ex-convict...

Plot Keywords:

Ex Convict | Neo Noir | Racial Slur | New York | Bank Robbery

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe.

Cast

Harry Belafonte	...	Johnny Ingram
Robert Ryan	...	Earle Slater
Shelley Winters	...	Lorry
Ed Begley	...	Dave Burke
Gloria Grahame	...	Helen
Will Kuluva	...	Bacco
Kim Hamilton	...	Ruth Ingram
Mae Barnes	...	Annie
Richard Bright	...	Coco
Carmen De Lavallade	...	Kittie
Lew Gallo	...	Moriarty
Lois Thorne	...	Edie Ingram
Wayne Rogers	...	Soldier in bar
Zohra Lampert	...	Girl in Bar
Allen Nourse	...	Melton Police Chief

Runtime:

96 min | Canada:100 min (Ontario)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | USA:Approved (PCA #19371) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

HarBel Productions

Trivia:

The original title for the movie was suppose to have been 'Reach For Tomorrow'.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Johnny is rudely interrupting the female singer, she says "Harry, please", using Belafonte's real name instead of his character's name.

Quotes:

Kittie: [after kissing Johnny] That's good. But it was better when you wanted it.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Classified X (1998) (TV)

Soundtrack:

My Baby's Not Around

Tomorrow is such a long time.

Nowadays Robert Wise has been restored to critical favor.It was about time.An eclectic talent,he tackled sci-fi (the day the earth stood still),musicals (west side story) ,social topics (I want to live),film noir (this one),horror("haunting" is better than any horror film I can think of).He invented the movie "in real time":"the set-up" occurred more than ten years before "Cleo de 5 à 7".

"Odds against tomorrow" is one of these films that seems better today than before.Influenced by John Huston (the asphalt jungle),it did influence French director Jean-Pierre Melville(le samouraï,le cercle rouge).Wise's movie represents the twilight of film noir,the dead end (check the last picture),the terminus of the genre.

It's the story of a hold-up,but action aficionados will not be satisfied.Wise wants to communicate a whole context,he wants to detail his characters to a fault.How many directors would dare that today?Robert Ryan's part is very complex.First he seems friendly,but further acquaintance shows a lack of self-confidence (he's getting old,he's a washout,he wants to go for broke) .And he is a racist.Rarely,this obnoxious feeling has been depicted with such wit.Why is he so?No answer,no explanation,he's racist,period.The ending which I will not reveal of course demonstrates (watch out for the two last lines of dialogue,they are simply fantastic!),the absurdity of this cancer of our societies.Harry Belafonte is on a par with Ryan:he's a gambler down on his luck,and he,too,is enduring personal turmoil:his wife wants to break off communication with him,not only because he lives in a dangerous world,but,because he sticks with his black brothers(the songs in the cabaret are telling;and the way Belafonte uses the xylophone as drums is too)This wife ,like Sarah-Jane in "imitation of life" (released the same year),is dreaming of a "white" life.Their couple is doomed whatever they may do.Ed Begley,always smiling,beaming ,is the threesome's troubleshooter.In his own way,he seems wise (no joke intended),the good guy that wants to retire after the hold-up.

Then,just before the action scenes,suddenly,the earth stands still(again,no joke intended)The atmosphere becomes unusual,poetic,almost pastoral:Belafonte watches the river flow and finds a broken doll in the sludge:he certainly thinks of this life he could have lived with his little girl.Besides,children shots frame the movie as a symbol of a long gone innocence;at the beginning,Ryan meets some on them on his way to Begley's flat;and just before the bank scene,some of them are playing cops and robbers with toy revolvers.While Belafonte is wandering along the river,Begley looks at a statue (a Christ?)and reads a strange and sadly unprophetic inscription carved into the stone.Ryan watches a rabbit,he aims at it,we hear a shot:it's only a tin can.

THe hold-up does not interest Wise.Like the true auteurs,it reduces it to another event,not more important than Ryan's fight with the soldier. And all these pastoral vignettes echo to the urban,almost abstract set where the drama is resolved.There's something apocalyptic here,recalling Walsh's "White heat",the main difference being that James Cagney's character was psychotic and Ryan's and Belafonte's are "ordinary".

This peak of the film noir ,not necessary appealing because drifting too far from the shores of gangsters' paraphernalia,should not be missed.Like most of Wise's movies ,it will still improve with time.