BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

JohnHowardReid A film that I did catch on first release - unlucky me! - Odds Against Tomorrow (1963) proved to be 76 minutes of stifling boredom which eventually came to a top 20 minute action climax and a homage to James Cagney's White Heat (but not Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, as implied by the title). Unfortunately, you can't capture an audience by casting all five of your star leads as unsympathetic characters, unless at least one of them displays Cagney's charisma. You can enthuse critics maybe, but paying picturegoers, no! At the theater screening I attended, we started off 58 at the morning session, but only I remained at the bitter end. There were some good things in the movie too - all the Melton material was great - but the writers, the director (Robert Wise) and the players (Ryan, Begley, Winters and Belafonte) drove the audience away beforehand. (The M-G-M DVD rates no more than 7/10. The image is cropped on the left hand side).

bob-790-196018 I suppose "Odds against Tomorrow" can be classified as film noir or as a caper movie, but, whatever it is, for me the excitement of this film has to do with the characterizations, Abraham Polonsky's fine screenplay, Joseph Brun's cinematography and location shooting, and the fine jazz score by John Lewis. I would throw in the intriguing opening credits for good measure, though I'm sure I missed a lot of the impact because I saw the movie on a TV screen.Robert Ryan was a masterful actor. A good many of his characters were bad guys, but they were bad guys with the depth, subtleties, and contradictions of human beings. So it is in this picture. His Earle Slater is a tortured man--unable to contain the violent urges that had put him in prison for manslaughter, haunted by a lifetime of squandered opportunities, and pathetically dependent on his late-in-life lover as a last bid for some sort of stability. Even so, he readily betrays his lover by putting the make on Helen, a woman who lives in the building. In a terrific bar scene, he struggles mightily with his urge to pound a bragging young soldier and ultimately can stand it no longer and decks the kid with a single brutal punch.Earle's racism is only one manifestation of his explosive personality but in this movie it is the crucial factor in the fate of him and his two partners in crime.Harry Belafonte as Johnny Ingram seemed a bit out of place in a crime picture but does an adequate job. His charm and musical talent count for a lot, and the subplot involving his estranged wife and beloved little daughter is credible and interesting. Here too, as with Robert Ryan's Earle Slater, what counts is character exploration, with action put off until the very end.There are fine performances by Shelly Winters and Ed Begley. I am a longtime fan of sultry, sexy Gloria Grahame, but there was something off about her very mannered performance as the neighbor woman. For a time, I thought she was portraying someone with a speech impediment or other disability.Then of course there is the programmatic ending that everyone complains about--the desperate struggle between black man and white man amid the giant gas tanks, the explosion that reduces them to cinders so that no one knows their identities let alone their race, and the glimpse of a sign that says "Dead End"--just in case you missed the lesson about racial hatred.Nevertheless, this is a terrific movie.

classicsoncall I thought this was a fine movie but would have liked it better without the contrived ending. How does a large industrial plant blow up from a single gunshot, and from a revolver no less. However the commentary from the ambulance guy regarding the inability to distinguish between a black and white man after being immolated was a clever way to state that underneath, we're all just human beings trying to make our own way in the world.What distracted me from the flow of the story was when Ed Begley's character tried to diffuse the tension between Slater (Robert Ryan) and Johnny (Harry Belafonte) by stating that they both served in the same war. What war would that have been? If you consider the actor's real ages to correspond to their roles, Ryan would have been in his early forties for Korea, while Belafonte would have been in his teens during World War II. Neither scenario theoretically impossible of course, but neither one very likely either. Unless there was another war in between, but then I missed it somehow.I liked this picture. Along with other movies of the era like 1958's "The Defiant Ones" (Curtis and Poitier) and 1967's "In The Heat Of The Night" (Steiger and Poitier again), film makers seemed to be more honest in their portrayals of race relations compared to the political correctness of present day. The tension between Slater and Johnny was palpable of course, but I had the feeling that Ryan's character was more of an equal opportunity hater all around. However Johnny had no qualms about lashing out against his ex (Kim Hamilton) for mingling with whites and attempting a better life for herself and their daughter.Apart from the story itself, I was intrigued by the great location photography of those awesome New York City neighborhoods in the early going. The transition to upstate New York had me fact checking the existence of Melton, but if you take a good look at Slater's map, you'll see the city of Hudson where the filming took place, along with a host of small towns on the way up the State Thruway and branching off into the countryside. Having grown up mid-way between both areas, it made the story that much more accessible for me.As far as the story goes, it serves well on both the noir and caper levels. With it's emphasis on the racial component, the thing that continually intruded was the idea that Belafonte, portraying a generally more enlightened and tolerant person than Ryan's character, wound up fifty plus years later as an overt racist by the way he lashes out in the media in the present day. That's really too bad, as he could much better serve as a role model by recognizing the country has changed for the better over the span of a half century.

TedMichaelMor "Odds Against Tomorrow" embodies and, I suppose, calumniates "film noir" though as a sort of message or propaganda movie. Propaganda here is not pejorative but descriptive even to the extent that the film ends with excellent if blunt irony.I think that I most enjoy the high contrast cinematography by Joseph C. Brun, though, perhaps, none of it is technically innovative. It simply embraces and exploits a rich tradition. I very much liked the scenes shot in Central Park. I enjoy watching this one with the sound off simply to celebrate the look, but an excellent jazz score by John Lewis is another joy.The casting is outstanding. Ed Begley has a stony, rough face that defines the tone of the work. Robert Ryan always distinguishes himself. And Harry Belafonte is well into his campaign to remake America. I love Shelly Winters, especially in a scene when he prepares to go out to work to take care of Slater.Gloria Graham with just an open coat and a black bra with her pout defines sexual vulnerability. We sometimes forget her range. Robert Wise always seem in charge in his films. The screenplay by Abraham Polonsky sounds authentic.There is even an appearance by Wayne Rogers as a soldier in an early performance in his career. I think this is an almost lost classic. It deserves attention.