Review of Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) by Tom H — 10 Nov 2007

Superb film noir with finely drawn characters and a deliberate but engrossing build-up. Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan play two sides to the same coin, and each elicits a performance so layered that they are at once sympathetic and unlikeable at times.

Ed Begley, as the shopworn ex-cop looking for his own slice of the American Dream maintains just the right level of neutrality, likability, and ruthlessness to keep these two from tearing each other's throat out.

Coming a year after Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil," it's proof that in 1959, the noir genre still wasn't dead, and multi-genre super-director Robert Wise does a masterful job of keeping the pace fluid and straddling the edge between taking sides.

Ryan was one of the best badasses of his time, and Belafonte proves his acting chops with flying colors.