Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

While it may come along at the very end of the classic film noir cycle, Odds Against Tomorrow is highly recommended to fans of those movies. It’s about one great big score, of course, it’s about tension between the robbers, and it’s a heavy-handed, but well-intentioned, condemnation of racism.

Ed Begley plays an ex-cop, Burke, who thinks he has a foolproof robbery plan. He cannot do it alone though, so he enlists the assistance of Slater (Robert Ryan). He also needs a black man in the team, as the plan relies on a guard opening the door to the African American gentleman delivering some food, so he brings in Ingram (Harry Belafonte). Both Slater and Ingram have debts to pay off, which means both are highly motivated to get the job done right, but Slater continues to be perturbed while he has to work alongside a black man.

Based on a novel by William P. McGivern, Odds Against Tomorrow was adapted into film form by Nelson Gidding and Abraham Polonsky (blacklisted at the time, therefore credited as John O. Killens). While the robbery itself makes up the third act of the movie, as you would expect, the majority of the runtime is a look at two damaged characters who don’t see themselves as having any other choices on their path through life. Luck hasn’t been with them, which hasn’t stopped them gambling, so this big score is needed to set them free from misery of their own making.

Both Ryan and Belafonte are excellent in their lead roles, both carrying different weights on their shoulders as they resolve to do whatever it takes to improve their lot in life. Ryan allows the prejudice to emanate from his character in waves, no edges softened or ugliness hidden, and that makes him even more unsavory than your typical noir lead, but he’s counter-balanced by the pragmatism of the very charismatic, but hot-headed, character played by Belafonte. Begley is also very good, spending a lot of his time as a buffer between the two men that he needs to stay focused on the job in hand. Will Kuluva and Richard Bright provide extra “motivation”, and there’s time for some solid work from Shelley Winters, Gloria Grahame, and Kim Hamilton, among others.

It is far from the best of film noir, in many ways, but it also has a hell of a lot to enjoy. The direction from Robert Wise is as solid and straightforward as usual (Wise is a name I always feel is far-too-rarely mentioned when discussing the absolute greats of cinema, he has at least three masterpieces to his name in three different genres), the pacing allows viewers to enjoy the fleshing out of the characters as they also see the robbery plan being hatched, and the friction between Ryan and Belafonte keeps simmering away until the point when it inevitably rises up to worsen a bad situation.

The very end may be a bit eye-rollingly clumsy, like a moral punchline underlining a central message of the movie, but it doesn’t undo everything that came along before it. All in all, wonderful stuff.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: The Big Heat (1953)

Glenn Ford is a cop named Dave Bannion who cannot stand aside and turn a blind eye to the corruption going on around him in this fantastic, thrilling, film noir, directed by Fritz Lang. Bannion is shown at his determined best when called upon to investigate the suicide of another officer. It's not long until he realises that the story doesn't add up, leading him to head over and question the local crime boss (Mike Lagana, played by Alexander Scourby). This gets him into quite a bit of trouble with his boss, only made worse when he accuses him of being in Lagana's pocket, which gets him kicked off the force. But that's not the end of his involvement in the case, far from it, and the events that follow see him finding an unexpected ally in the shape of an ill-treated "gangster's moll" (Gloria Grahame). Perhaps the two of them can do what the police seem unable to.

You have pretty much everything here that you could want from a film noir, even if they're not as strictly pigeonholed as purists might like. The femme fatale, for example, isn't necessarily who you expect it to be. Bannion is a flawed hero in the way he storms into situations, not for any skewed moral compass. And the downbeat tone is woven throughout a number of main scenes as opposed to being dealt out in a bleak and nihilistic finale.

The script, by Sydney Boehm, manages to stretch everything out to just the right length without overcomplicating what is essentially a simple premise. You get a decent cast of characters who are all given perfect introductions. Lang directs everything with his usual level of skill, nothing too flashy but masterfully handling the material with just the right touch to keep it all entertaining, even as it bobs and weaves around some very nasty moments.

Ford is as dependable as ever in the lead role, not the best actor ever but one of the best at delivering dogged determination and a resignation to take the right path, not the easiest one. Grahame is a lively presence, lifting the film slightly as soon as she first appears, and Scourby is fine, outshone in the villain stakes by a young and heartless Lee Marvin. Jeanette Nolan is also very good, the widow of the deceased who may well know more than she is letting on.

Both typical and atypical as a film noir, this should still work for all fans of classic cinema. Did Lang ever make a bad film? From what I have seen so far, I have to say no.

9/10

Here's the blu for you.
American shoppers can get it here.

Crossfire (1947)

While investigating the death of a man named Samuels (Sam Levene), a Police Inspector (Robert Young) starts off with one prime suspect (an army lad named Mitchell, played by George Cooper) but soon realises that there may be more to the crime. Mitchell has Keeley (Robert Mitchum) on his side, but there's also someone (Montgomery, played by Robert Ryan) who seems determined to help the police strengthen their case against Mitchell.

Written by John Paxton, and based on the book by Richard Brooks, Crossfire is an enjoyable, dark thriller that also takes some time to highlight the ugliness of anti-Semitism while never feeling too preachy. There are one or two moments that stop the action in order to make a major point or relate an appropriate moral anecdote, but the performances from everyone onscreen ensure that the film never feels as if it's trying too hard to make its points.

Director Edward Dmytryk does a decent job, but most of the groundwork is laid out by both the fine script and the casting of the lead roles.

Young is great as Finlay, a conscientious policeman who doesn't take long to suspect that he may have been put on the trail of the wrong man. Mitchum doesn't have too many scenes in the movie, but he does well with what he's given. Cooper may be a bit weak in his role, but this works just fine, considering the nature of his character. Last, but far from least in this little tale of death and deceit, we have Ryan, who excels with a performance that makes him easy to hate. Gloria Grahame and Jacqueline White both do good work, with the former especially enjoyable as an unhappily married woman who may be able to provide Mitchell with a vital alibi.

It may be, in many ways, a low-key movie that focuses on characters more than major plot twists and turns, but Crossfire still manages to be surprisingly enjoyable and exciting from start to finish. It's well worth a watch.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Film-Noir-Collection-Kirk-Douglas/dp/B000UWXM1C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383652224&sr=8-1&keywords=film+noir