“A CAPER IN WHITE… AND BLACK”

By Raymond Benson

The film noir movement/trend in Hollywood was fading away by the end of the 1950s decade. Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil (1958) is often cited by film historians and film noir aficionados as the “last true film noir.” However, one picture released in 1959 could very well take that honor, for it indeed exhibits many of the traits of pure film noir (black and white photography, gritty realism, cynical and edgy characters, a heist, and an ending that is, well, not a happy one).

Odds Against Tomorrow was set up by actor and musician Harry Belafonte and was made by his production company. Is it the first film noir with a Black protagonist? This reviewer can’t think of another that preceded it. Basing it on a novel by William P. McGivern, Belafonte hired blacklisted Abraham Polonsky to write the screenplay. Polonsky (who had written the great Body and Soul, 1947) had been caught up in the HUAC investigations in Hollywood, refused to testify in the hearings, and was subsequently blacklisted along with many other writers, producers, directors, and actors. Polonsky, working with co-writer Nelson Gidding, wrote the script under a front-pseudonym, John O. Killens, a living Black novelist. It wasn’t until 1996 that the Writers Guild restored Polonsky’s real name to the credits.

Belafonte apparently had wanted to make a movie that was not only a gripping heist drama but also a statement about prejudice. Of the trio of robbers who attempt a bank robbery in the film, one is Black (Belafonte), the other two are White, and one of the latter is terribly racist… a factor that plays into how the caper ultimately plays out.

New York City. Dave Burke (Ed Begley) is a disgraced former cop who needs money. Earl Slater (Robert Ryan) is an embittered, racist war veteran and ex-con who needs money. Johnny Ingram (Belafonte) is a musician in debt to a gangster because of a gambling addiction, so he needs money, too. Slater lives with needy Lorry (Shelley Winters, in one of her whiny roles) but he has the hots for apartment building neighbor Helen (Gloria Grahame). Johnny is separated from his wife, Ruth (Kim Hamilton) and daughter Edie, but he desperately wants to make good and reunite the family. When Dave learns about an upstate smalltown bank with a vulnerability, he enlists Earl and Johnny in a scheme to steal $150,000, split three ways. Johnny doesn’t want to do it, but the pressure from the mobster and threats to his family force him into it. Earl is not happy that a Black man is part of the plan, and this tension is a major conflict in the heist proceedings. To reveal more would spoil the excitement.

Robert Wise, a filmmaker who seemed to be able to make a great film out of any genre, is at the helm, and he does a terrific job. He had worked with Ryan before in the film noir, The Set-Up (1949). Wise, of course, won Oscars for directing The Sound of Music (1965) and co-directing West Side Story (1961), but also made such diverse classics as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), The Haunting (1963), and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)!

This is an intense, engaging picture that generates suspense and has something to say. The script is top-notch, and the performances are heightened just enough to fit firmly into the film noir style. The music, composed by John Lewis and performed by the Modern Jazz Quartet, is phenomenally good, adding another level to the tone and feel of the movie.

Kino Lorber Studio Classics’ new Blu-ray presentation is sharp and clean in glorious black and white. There is an accompanying audio commentary by author/film historian Alan K. Rode. Supplements include Post Screening Q&A interviews with Harry Belafonte (in 2009) and Kim Hamilton (in 2007), plus the theatrical trailer for this and other Kino Lorber film noir titles.

Odds Against Tomorrow is for fans of film noir, heist movies, Robert Wise, Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, and other members of the sparkling cast. Highly recommended.

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