Odds Against Tomorrow
directed by Robert Wise
directed by Robert Wise
Too many modern movies seek to ensure that their political or social message is sent and received regardless of whether the story is any good. Screenwriters, directors, and actors may even deliberately damage the story to put the message front and center. In some films this has become ridiculous, rendering the end product almost unwatchable.
It's one thing to say that a film's heroine is competent or a bada$$. It's something else to make the character perfect from the beginning in everything and thus eliminate challenges, growth and development. It's something else to make every male character incompetent, weak, malicious, or sexist.
It's one thing to say that racism is bad. It's something else to make a racist character so ridiculous that he becomes a live action cartoon who is easily dismissed by real life racists.
Artists who want to entertain and educate the audience could do worse than to watch films created by Robert Wise, who was best known for The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Sound of Music, and West Side Story.
Wise was a passionate liberal who in this 1959 movie joined with two other notable Hollywood liberals, Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan, to make a film noir that tackles racism. Unusually for the times, Belafonte produced the film. His character isn't notable for being Black so much as he is notable for not being a bug eyed buffoon. There's no obvious didacticism. There's just a good story.
David Burke (Ed Begley) is a corrupt former cop who was drummed out of the police force after he refused to name names. This could have been art imitating life as the screenwriter Belafonte hired was blacklisted. A different man was used as a front for credit.
Burke doesn't see himself as corrupt but as the saying goes if you're walking on thin ice, you might as well dance. Burke has a plan to rob a bank for big bucks. He's got everything mapped out. But he needs two people. He asks ex-con Earl Slater (Robert Ryan) and jazz musician Johnny Ingram (Harry Belafonte) to join him. Both men badly need money though neither man initially wants to do the job.
Earl is tired of relying financially on his girlfriend Lorry (Shelley Winters). It offends his masculinity. He's thinking about upgrading to sexy Helen (Gloria Grahame). Johnny has a gambling problem. He's behind on child support to his ex Ruth (Kim Hamilton). Worse, Johnny's in deep debt to mobsters who've made it clear that they are (a) tired of waiting for full payment and (b) have no problem in hurting Ruth and/or Johnny's daughter.
So against his better judgment, each man agrees to do the job with Burke. There's one big drawback though. Earl is a stone cold racist who does not mind letting Black people know exactly just how much contempt and hatred he has for them. Johnny is not the kind of Black man to back down from anyone. He's the incarnation of the Johnny Winter "Dallas" lyric:
"Load up my revolver/Sharpen up my knife
Some redneck messing with me/Man I'm bound to have his life"
Hijinks ensure. Belafonte and Ryan play well off each other. The film is shot in black and white with infrared film in some places. It's just glorious. You should see this for the look alone, if nothing else. Richard Bright, who later played Al Neri in The Godfather, makes his debut here. The Modern Jazz Quartet did the music.
