Robert Wise may have won his Oscars for those elephantine musicals about street gangs and singing nuns but everyone knows he did his best work in a number of terse black and white noirish thrillers and dramas that reminded you he once edited "Citizen Kane" and "The Magnificent Ambersons". He made "Odds Against Tomorrow" in 1959 and it's a classic heist movie as well as one of the more forthright films of its period to deal with racism which, in this case, is the principal cause of thieves falling out. The 'bad guys', in that they are forced to steal for a living, are Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan and Ed Begley and it's Begley's idea that they should rob a small-town bank. The problem is that Belafonte is an African-American and Ryan is a racist and we know it can only end in tears. Others in a good cast include Shelley Winters and Gloria Grahame, (both given too little to do), and if you pay attention you might spot Zohra Lampert and Cicely Tyson amongst others. Joseph C Brun did the superlative cinematography and the blacklisted Abraham Polonsky worked on the screenplay.

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.

Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)This is simply a great film. It is dated for its handling of racism, but in another sense, it captures the feeling of racial tensions well for its time, at the end of the Eisenhower, look-the-other-way era. Robert Ryan is a wonder of grimacing unhappiness, and his anger is taken out against everyone in different ways. Harry Belafonte gets to sing and play, and does a good job playing an educated "Negro" like the roles Sidney Poitier played in the same era. And there are strong secondary parts played by Ed Begley, Shelley Winters, and Gloria Grahame.In essence, this is a heist film in the vein of the "Asphalt Jungle" in the way it digs into the lives of the members of the team. So we learn that Ryan's character is a vet who never assimilated (and so is a classic noir type), and Belafonte's role is as a gambling parent whose girlfriend (or wife) has pushed him out of the house. They both need money, and success, and robbing a bank is a way out.But more interesting, if somewhat less convincing, is the racial battles between these two. Mostly fought in words, until after the robbery, which of course doesn't go as planned, when everything goes out of control. At the end of the movie, a man asks, looking at the two of them, "Which is which?" And we see the beginning of the basic cultural acceptance of that well known fact that we are all the same under our skin. This was something neither of them accepted, but it was certainly the white man, Ryan, who caused all the trouble.The filming was mostly done in Hudson, New York (renamed Melton for the movie). I've spent a bit of time there, including doing some photography, so it was pretty fun to see the way the movie found the great spots in town--the mile long main street straight as an arrow up the hill from the river, and the short bluffs overlooking the Hudson itself, down by where the train station is. There are scenes on Route 9 (the real one is used here--if you see the terrible movie called Route 9, you'll see they decided to make it in Nevada, but that's another story), and a trip of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge from Catskill to Hudson. It's beautiful, open countryside two hours from New York, and it gives the film a unique quality.Robert Wise, the director, has already had a long and amazing career, starting with his butchery of the last scene of Orson Welles second film (not entirely his fault, being a newbie in the studio), and running through a series of very good features in the 1950s. But he is on the verge of his most famous efforts, and so in a way we might think of him as being at the peak of his ability, since "West Side Story" was just getting planned, and "The Sound of Music" was on its way a few years later. If nothing else, "Odds Against Tomorrow" is a smartly directed film, beautifully photographed. And wise gets his cast of five well known actors to really perform.A great film, from opening credits to the last spectacular blow out scene, with its final sad irony.

Odds Against Tomorrow is of it's time, being produced in 1959 but because elements of this movie have influenced modern day crime movies it could be said to be ahead of its time. As other reviewers have commented this can be seen for example in the ending of Heat or the soundtrack to The French Connection.When compared to contemporary cinema the pace is somewhat slow. An inordinate amount of time is spent on character development leaving the last 15 minutes or so to squeeze in the heist and its aftermath. The slow pace even shows itself in moody landscape shots depicting the boredom of the protagonists as they wait around until its time for the bank to close.All three leads put in superb performances. They all display bitterness and desperation, with their personal lives riven with problems. The subject of racism rears its head causing Ryan and Belafonte's characters to be continually at conflict and this is utilised as a device during the films denouement.If you are a fan of film noir/heist movies and don't mind the slow pace i highly recommend this movie.