Review of Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) by Martin T — 14 May 2010

Ten years after The Set-Up, Robert Wise and Robert Ryan team up for another brilliant noir. Two down-on-their-luck guys are driven to bank robbery by desperate circumstances. Complicating matters is that one is a bigot (Ryan) and one is black (Harry Belafonte).

As a late-period noir, there are some apparent differences. Although the production code is still in effect, you can see it starting to bend, with overt references to rape and orgies, and a blatantly homosexual character (about as blatant as you could be in 1959, anyway).

There also isn't the high-contrast photography characteristic of noir. Instead, Wise (and cinematographer Joseph C. Brun) beautifully paints the screen in shades of gray, appropriate for the more nuanced aura of the story.

Ryan, one of the most underappreciated actors, is at his very best. Belafonte is absolutely wonderful, hip and charming but also dark, and with his own set of prejudices. It seems he was more willing to take chances than his friend and contemporary, Sidney Poitier.

There's also a fine roster of excellent supporting actors, including Ed Begley, Shelley Winters, Gloria Grahame (looking very, um, tempting in her bra), Kim Hamilton and a brief appearance by young Wayne Rogers ("Trapper John" from the M*A*S*H show).

I also have to mention the amazing avant-garde score by Jazz Hall of Famer John Lewis, and the striking use of sound design, often bridging scenes with a particular sound effect. Another sign of the times: scattered references to atom bombs.

The film's climax even evokes a post-nuclear landscape, and suggests that racism has no place in an atomic age. The film is grim, claustrophobic, gripping, sharp, and damn near perfectly executed.

I'm trying of think of anything bad to say about it and coming up blank.