| Odds Against Tomorrow | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Robert Wise |
| Produced by | Robert Wise Co-producer: Harry Belafonte |
| Screenplay by | Abraham Polonsky Nelson Gidding |
| Story by | William P. McGivern |
| Starring | Harry Belafonte Robert Ryan Ed Begley Gloria Grahame |
| Music by | John Lewis |
| Cinematography | Joseph C. Brun |
| Editing by | Dede Allen |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | October 15, 1959 (United States) |
| Running time | 95 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Odds Against Tomorrow is a 1959 film noir produced and directed by Robert Wise for HarBel Productions,[2] a company founded by the film's star, Harry Belafonte. Belafonte selected Abraham Polonsky to write the script, which is based on a novel by William P. McGivern. As a blacklisted writer Polonsky used a front, John O. Killens, a black novelist and friend of Belafonte's. In 1996, the Writers Guild of America restored Polonsky's credit under his real name.[3]
Odds Against Tomorrow is the first noir with a black protagonist.[4] It was the last time Wise shot black-and-white film in the standard aspect ratio, which "gave his films the gritty realism they were known for".[1]
Contents |
David Burke (Ed Begley) is a former policeman who was ruined when he refused to cooperate with state crime investigators. He has asked hard-bitten, racist, ex-con Earl Slater (Robert Ryan) to help him rob an upstate bank, promising him $50,000 if the robbery is successful. Burke also recruits Johnny Ingram (Belafonte), a nightclub entertainer who doesn’t want the job but who is addicted to gambling and is in debt.
Slater, who is supported by his girlfriend, Lorry (Shelley Winters), finds out Ingram is black and refuses the job. Later, he realizes that he needs the money, and joins Ingram and Burke in the enterprise.
Tensions between Ingram and Slater increase as they near completion of the crime. Burke is seen by a police officer leaving the scene of the raid, and is mortally wounded in the ensuing shootout with local Police, so he commits suicide by gunshot. Ingram and Slater escape and chase after each other over fuel tanks. They exchange gunfire and ignite the fuel tanks and cause an explosion. Afterward, their corpses are indistinguishable.
Principal photography began in March 1959.[5] All outdoor scenes were shot in New York City and Hudson, New York.[2] According to director Robert Wise:[6]
Composer John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet, contributed the film's jazz score, played by an orchestra that included Milt Jackson on vibraphone, Percy Heath on bass, Connie Kay on drums, Bill Evans on piano, and Jim Hall on guitar.[1]
Bosley Crowther called Wise's direction "tight and strong" and the film a "sharp, hard, suspenseful melodrama" with a "sheer dramatic build-up ... of an artistic caliber that is rarely achieved on the screen."[2]
Time magazine wrote, "The tension builds well to the climax—thanks partly to Director Robert Wise (I Want to Live!), partly to an able Negro scriptwriter named John O. Killens, but mostly to Actor Ryan, a menace who can look bullets and smile sulphuric acid. But the tension is released too soon—and much too trickily. The spectator is left with a feeling that is aptly expressed in the final frame of the film, when the camera focuses on a street sign that reads: STOP—DEAD END."[7]
Variety said "On one level, Odds against Tomorrow is a taut crime melodrama. On another, it is an allegory about racism, greed and man's propensity for self-destruction. Not altogether successful in the second category, it still succeeds on its first."[8]
Forty years after its release, Stephen Holden called the film "sadly overlooked."[4]
The film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Motion Picture Promoting International Understanding, losing at the 17th Golden Globe Awards to The Diary Of Anne Frank.
A screenplay book, Odds Against Tomorrow: A Critical Edition (ISBN 0963582348), was published in 1999 by The Center for Telecommunication Studies, a university press sponsored by the Radio-TV-Film Department at California State University, Northridge (CSUN).[9] The book includes the film's complete script (which "blends" the shooting script and the continuity script), and critical analysis, written by CSUN professor John Schultheiss, based on interviews with Wise, Belafonte and Polonsky.