Customer Reviews
Odds Against Tomorrow 
2007-06-26
This nail-biting noir features the estimable talents of Ryan, a progressive in real life who plays a noxious bigot to the hilt, and handsome singer-actor Belafonte, showing a decidedly less wholesome side here. Director Wise and writer Abraham Polonsky add complexity to both characters, detailing the gnarled emotions Slater has for well-meaning girlfriend Lorry (Winters) and sexy upstairs neighbor Helen (Gloria Grahame), while depicting Ingram's barely concealed desperation, as he attempts to revive a marriage that's crumbled due to his gambling habits. It's all downhill from there, as everything goes awry on the day of the job. Considered one of the last bona-fide noirs, those in the mood for a tense, intelligent crime caper will like these "Odds."
Cultural Shift 
2007-05-08
Watch those early city scenes, they foreshadow a cultural shift then underway. The cool jazz score, the hip sports car, the dominant racial theme-- all suggest the urban chic of the Kennedy years, no longer Eisenhower's small-town middle America. Noir enthusiasts peg this film as the last true noir of the era. Certainly there are the icons: Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Ed Begley, and blacklisted scenarist Abraham Polonsky (Force of Evil; Body and Soul). But it's not classic noir.The usual light and shadow give way to a gritty gray look, the calculated result of winter filming. The bleak landscape is heavy with machinery gone to rust, mirroring the desolation of the plotters as they reach for the big score.
Given the talent involved, the results are surprisingly uneven. Gloria Grahame's role is intriguingly kinky, but dangles like a loose appendage-- a favor to someone I suppose, her looks fading now as quickly as her skills in a badly performed part. Belafonte too looks the part, a frustrated yuppie, yet he deadpans his way through the crucial robbery sequence. And whose idea was that final `message" scene . They should be forced to sit through a hammer blow, the same way as that piece of obviousness slugged the audience. Director Wise's lacklustre pacing doesn't help eirher, draining the film of much needed snap and suspense.
Nonetheless, the film has the great Robert Ryan in a tailor-made part. Who else could smoulder anger or distance alienation better than this gangly near-forgotten performer. The bar scene alone is worth the viewing. Watch the subtle tics flicker across an anguished face as the rage builds. His despairing Old South confederate remains a scary symbol of decades of Jim Crow, not about to give up without a fight. There's also the telling reaction in Begley's apartment after Belafonte comes up with a clever solution. Ryan looks away, the disgust all over a pained visage-- shouldn't it be he, the white man, who solves tricky brain problems. It's just one more frustration for a man emasculated now by a wife earning a living for the two of them. Blacks and women!-- between them, he's dying inside. And underneath it all is the feeling of "the natural order betrayed", a very contemporary grudge that lives on in the likes of call-in radio.
This may not be a very good caper film, nor a very compelling example of film noir. But as a reflection of a society in transition, the powerful sub-texts endure and are well worth a look-see.
Dated period piece 
2006-04-27
An ex-cop, a chronic loser, and a lounge singer with a serious gambling problem join forces to commit a crime. Ed Begley plays the ex-cop, who is also an ex-con and the mastermind of a robbery planned against a bank in a small city in upstate New York. To pull it off Begley recruits two accomplices. The first is Robert Ryan, an aging, two-bit hood who views the job as his last, best chance to make a big score. Presently he's a `kept' man, tenuously attached to Shelley Winters. The second is Harry Belafonte, a jazz singer whose addiction to the ponies has put him deeply, and dangerously, in debt to Bacco, the local loan shark.
Robert Wise directed the black-and-white ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW on the mean streets of New York City in 1959. The movie is appropriately seedy and run-down looking, a quality that is enhanced by the kool jazz scoring of pianist John Lewis. There's a certain ragged edginess to the look and music which, unfortunately, is undercut when the `message' of the movie hijacks the plot.
You see, Robert Ryan's character is a racist, Belafonte's character has some tolerance issues of his own, and what looks like a juicy heist movie loses itself somewhere along the way, forgets about the crime and turns its attention to its two lead characters. What ought to be five minutes of backstory is brought to the front and consumes most of the movie. Ryan's wife/girlfriend Shelley Winters has a job - he doesn't - and she has afternoons full of housewife-y tasks for him to do. One of which she should have kept off the list was having upstairs neighbor Gloria Grahame come knocking when she needs a baby sitter. Typically Grahame plays the ripely seducible Other Woman, and ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW is not an exception. I'm not complaining. Well, not much, anyway. No actor was better at going from faux charm to sincere menace than Robert Ryan, and Grahame always had a tough fawn quality about her. Their scenes together are very good, but... they feel false, superficial, and melodramatic. The movie really didn't have to keep telling me the many ways Ryan was a creep. At least Belafonte's character, who we spend roughly the same amount of time with, is more three-dimensional. Divorced from his wife yet still a devoted and doting father, his intolerance is more subdued, more reactive, and more understandable.
ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW isn't a bad movie, but it's a little too preachy for my tastes. I enjoyed it more as an example of the treatment of race relations in the late `50s than anything else.
Noir with a social conscience 2005-12-18
Three desperate men--a racist Southerner (Robert Ryan), a gambling nightclub singer (Harry Belafonte), and a disgraced ex-cop (Ed Begley)--plot to pull off a bank robbery in a small town. In the tradition of classic film noir, luck turns against them and they wind up being in way over their heads. Director Robert Wise uses his black and white photography to great advantage. The film is fascinating as it shows us the pressures that work on the initially reluctant Ryan and Belafonte to force them into cooperation on the heist. Unfortunately, this otherwise nearly flawless film becomes too heavy-handed with its anti-racist theme in its final moments. Still, it's well worth watching.
Between 1950s Film Noir and 1960s Social Conscience Films. 2005-11-29
"Odds Against Tomorrow" is based on the novel by William P. McGivern and was adapted for the screen by Abraham Polonsky, who was blacklisted at the time, so he wrote under novelist John O. Killens' name. The film is sometimes cited as the last film noir of the classic era. Moving into the 1960s, it's a crime film with a social agenda. In contrast to film noir, the most striking visual aspect of "Odds Against Tomorrow" is that it is white. Joseph Brun's cinematography often includes large areas of white or near-white, which I found unusual for black-and-white cinema and quite beautiful at times. The cinematography also tends to open spaces and wide lenses, avoiding the claustrophobia associated with film noir.
During a cold, windy winter in New York City, ex-cop Dave Burke (Ed Begley) has plotted the heist of a bank in the town of Melton, but he needs 2 men to help him pull it off. He turns to an ex-con named Earle Slater (Robert Ryan) who, like Dave, is frustrated by being penniless so late in life. For the other man, he wants jazz singer and gambler Johnny Ingram (Harry Belafonte) who is up to his eyeballs in debt to a bookie. Earle has never stolen anything in his life, and he at first refuses to work with Johnny because he's black. Johnny won't agree to the job until his bookie threatens him. Eventually one pathetic criminal mastermind and his two reluctant accomplices -who hate each other- set out to rob a bank.
"Odds Against Tomorrow" is a classic story of fools doing foolish things with predictable results. The film draws attention to the issue of racial bigotry by making Earle an unabashedly racist Southern farm boy, while Johnny is a suave, stylish, middle class man whose gambling habit compels him to deal with unsavory characters. But that is not the film's overriding theme. It's a character drama with three notable performances. Robert Ryan is a more 3-dimensional bigot here than he was in 1947's "Crossfire". Earle isn't a bad man, but he's an angry, egotistical hick. Robert Ryan had the extraordinary ability to evoke absolute sympathy or total hatred from his audience. Ed Begley makes his pitiful nice-guy crook sympathetic. Harry Belafonte sings (once), and Johnny is driven to desperation by his own flaws. "Odds Against Tomorrow" is a visually interesting film and a picture of doom and gloom among the desperate and criminal, which had become rare at the movies by 1959. No bonus features on the MGM DVD (2003). Subtitles are available in English, Spanish, and French.
A Forgotten Gem 2005-07-28
Odds Against Tomorrow a crackling crime caper with an undercurrent of racial tension combines the desperation of three men--two of whom hate each other--and the culmination of that desperation in the form of a robbery. The film which includes a fantastic jazz score by pianist John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet is a film noir gem. David Burke (Ed Begley) a former policeman who once served a prison sentence has asked bigoted southerner Earl Slater (Robert Ryan) to rob an upstate bank with him promising him $50000 in small bills if the robbery is successful. Burke also recruits Johnny Ingram (Harry Belafonte who also helped produced the film) a nightclub entertainer who doesn t want the job but who is hopelessly addicted to gambling and is in debt. At first Slater who is supported by his girlfriend Lorry (Shelley Winters) finds out Ingram is black and refuses the job but realizing he needs the money decides after all to join Ingram and Burke in the venture. When they embark on the robbery however all hell breaks loose as danger--and the tension between Ingram and Slater--mount.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 027616899583 Manufacturer No: 1005697
Explosive odds (recommended) 2005-05-06
Which is more challenging, the crime or surviving partners' tempers? Growing racial tension among prideful and violent tempers don't add up to ideal partners in crime. Watch the sparks fly as a seemingly simple bank robbery has explosive consequences.
Movie quote: "Well I'm with you, Dave. Like you said, it's just one role of the dice, doesn't matter what color they are. So's they come up seven."
The transition from pure film noir to drama 2005-03-21
Not quite the last film noir--that honor would probably go to either or both of Blast of Silence (1961, Allan Baron) or Underground USA (Samuel Fuller, also 1961)--this Robert Wise-directed 1959 movie fuses racial issues into its crime story and pulls it off really well. Robert Ryan and Harry Belafonte go head to head in a heist that's planned by old retiree Ed Begley in one of his better roles; he gives just the right juice to his portrait of a bitter cop who's out to even the score.
Ryan is, as usual, terrific in his role. What's interesting about him is that in real life, he was the exact antithesis of the roles he often played, which were nasty brutal men full of hatred, cynicism, and the urge to kill. Ryan was actually a leftist, one of the first organizers of the Ban the Bomb movement in the 60s out in California. Knowing that, it's absolutely fascinating to see him portray a vicious racist in this film who, as well, gets it on with his sleazy neighbor played by none other than Gloria Grahame, sleaze queen of film noir.
Belafonte is a revelation here. This and his role in Robert Altman's Kansas City, decades later, will probably be seen as his best. Here, dressed in shades and turtleneck, he epitomizes cool, but is in deep s**t, owing a chunk of change in gambling debts. He's got every reason to join up with Begley for the heist of a bank in upstate New York, a so-called easy score.
Heists in film noir never go off as planned and this is no exception. While some of the elements here are standard noir fare (old embittered cop, heist that goes wrong), the addition of the theme of racism, as well as the brilliant acting, sets this apart from a bunch of other similar films. Odds Against Tomorrow can be perceived as a transitional film in the film noir canon, seamlessly bridging the gap from pure noir to social drama, a staple of 50s and 60s film. In that it does a great job.
Director Robert Wise, interestingly, started off his career working with Val Lewton in the great horror series typified by such films as I Walked with a Zombie and Cat People. Wise directed Curse of the Cat People and Body Snatcher in this series, then graduated to Westerns (Blood on the Moon) and film noir (Born to Kill, Odds Against Tomorrow). This last film was a transitional point; he then moved on to big budget productions like The Haunting, West Side Story, and Sound of Music. Odds Against Tomorrow is definitely some of his best work; this is a tightly plotted, crisply executed film whose actors get the whole picture and do a great job.
Great piece of film noir and at the current price, a real steal. Excellent addition to your film noir DVD collection.
The bits are greater than the sum of the parts 2004-09-07
Right from the start of the titles you know this film has high production values. The visuals are quite rivetting backed by John Lewis' orchestrations. The film is based on (then) hot cop shop writer McGivern who also wrote THE BIG HEAT. The dialogue is crisp and witty and philosophical. The photography stylish with much of it shot on location; Add to this Mr Ryan playing an ageing ofay tortured racist ex-vet killer; Mr Begley a larger than life ex-cop out to make the one big score; Mr Belafonte cool black boy racist ex-vet; plus a gaggle of hot women including Gloria (just this once) Grahame; plus some fast cars; plus some cool jazz and a nice blues vocal from Mr Belafonte; plus a theme or two eg, racist hatred will surely have an apocalyptic end, or, when we're dead, your can't tell one man from another. Yet, it doesn't quite come off - maybe because of its didactism. Still, it's worth a look, but do not expect to be either thrilled or otherwise moved by it. A helluva lot of talent but!
TAKING THE ODDS..... 2003-12-04
Excellent, hardbitten crime drama brilliantly directed by Robert Wise about three men planning a bank robbery. Ex-cop Burke (Ed Begley) recruits bitter, aging racist Earl Slater (Robert Ryan) and urban jazz muscian/singer Johnny Ingram (Harry Belafonte) for the big heist. The money will change and better all of their lives for different reasons. Ingram especially, as he's indebted to a brutal gangster with his gambling debts. Burke is hopelessly enthusiastic but Slater and Ingram are skeptical and don't trust each other because of Slater's blatant racism towards Ingram. As the tension of the planning of the robbery mounts, so does the antagonism between the two men. That such ignorance should exist between people who have the same goal is intelligently played out with a realistic script. Belafonte, Ryan and Begley give convincing performances as do Shelley Winters, Gloria Grahame and Kim Hamilton as the women in Slater's and Ingram's lives. Haunting b&w photography expresses the bleak and depressing world of the men and the individual anxieties experienced by each. A smoky jazz club, stark city streets, cramped apartments, the stares of strangers---all contribute to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the film. The tense, moody jazz score underlies the tense feeling that something is going to go horribly wrong. When it does, the brewing hatred between Slater and Ingram finally and (literally) explodes. Don't miss this exciting film if you like good, gritty adult noir crime dramas. The DVD is a good print and you can't beat the price.
