Take the perfect heist, add three flawed characters and you have a classic film noir.
The heist: a small town bank, and $200,000 extra cash every Thursday night to cover the town’s Friday payroll. The bank workers stay late to balance the books. And every Thursday night at six o’clock the black waiter from a nearby soda fountain brings a box of sandwiches and coffee to the bank employees by a side door in the alley while the rest of the town is at supper.
“It’s a one-time job, one roll of the dice, and then we’re through forever,” says Dave Burke, an embittered ex-cop and the brains of the operation. Dave, played by Ed Begley, lives in a ratty apartment and dreams of a better retirement. He recruits a brutal ex-con only known to Burke by reputation. The con’s name is Earl Slater, played brilliantly by Robert Ryan. Dave’s final choice is Johnny Ingram, played by Harry Belafonte. Johnny is a jazz man and a hopeless gambler, but he’s black, and a perfect stand-in for the regular deliveryman.
Burke assumes that a white man might not notice that a different black man is delivering their sandwiches. Back in 1959, when this film was made, the Jim Crow laws were still enforced. There were still segregation, still lynchings. Harry Belafonte, who helped fund the film, said: “My own personal desire was to put things on the screen that reflected a deeper resonance of black life.”
The success of a heist story depends on how disparate roles cooperate (and how lucky everyone is.) A is chosen because he’s a great safecracker, B is chosen because he can drive through any police trap and has nerves of steel. Dave Burke’s team never has a chance because Burke discounts Earl’s racism. But Earl isn’t the only one with a problem. Johnny bitterly resents being a black man in a white world. No wonder Dave’s “one roll of the dice” ends up snake eyes. Odds Against Tomorrow centers around this racism. And as you would expect in such a tale, the men’s antagonism towards each other blows up in their faces.
The movie is beautifully shot, scored and acted. The film absolutely succeeds in dramatizing the black/ white divide, so I feel like a jerk for wanting one of the leads to be just a little sympathetic.
I also prefer stories with women playing central roles. Three minor roles went to Shelley Winters as Earl’s girlfriend, Mae Barnes as Johnny’s ex-wife and Gloria Grahame as Earl’s sexy neighbor. Through these female characters we see Earl and Johnny’s societal resentments and rebellion. All three actresses did a bang-up job of making the most out of a few lines of script.
Odds Against Tomorrow with its honest look at race relations was among the first of its kind and one of the last films to be shot in the classic period of film noir.
The heist: a small town bank, and $200,000 extra cash every Thursday night to cover the town’s Friday payroll. The bank workers stay late to balance the books. And every Thursday night at six o’clock the black waiter from a nearby soda fountain brings a box of sandwiches and coffee to the bank employees by a side door in the alley while the rest of the town is at supper.
“It’s a one-time job, one roll of the dice, and then we’re through forever,” says Dave Burke, an embittered ex-cop and the brains of the operation. Dave, played by Ed Begley, lives in a ratty apartment and dreams of a better retirement. He recruits a brutal ex-con only known to Burke by reputation. The con’s name is Earl Slater, played brilliantly by Robert Ryan. Dave’s final choice is Johnny Ingram, played by Harry Belafonte. Johnny is a jazz man and a hopeless gambler, but he’s black, and a perfect stand-in for the regular deliveryman.
Burke assumes that a white man might not notice that a different black man is delivering their sandwiches. Back in 1959, when this film was made, the Jim Crow laws were still enforced. There were still segregation, still lynchings. Harry Belafonte, who helped fund the film, said: “My own personal desire was to put things on the screen that reflected a deeper resonance of black life.”
The success of a heist story depends on how disparate roles cooperate (and how lucky everyone is.) A is chosen because he’s a great safecracker, B is chosen because he can drive through any police trap and has nerves of steel. Dave Burke’s team never has a chance because Burke discounts Earl’s racism. But Earl isn’t the only one with a problem. Johnny bitterly resents being a black man in a white world. No wonder Dave’s “one roll of the dice” ends up snake eyes. Odds Against Tomorrow centers around this racism. And as you would expect in such a tale, the men’s antagonism towards each other blows up in their faces.
The movie is beautifully shot, scored and acted. The film absolutely succeeds in dramatizing the black/ white divide, so I feel like a jerk for wanting one of the leads to be just a little sympathetic.
I also prefer stories with women playing central roles. Three minor roles went to Shelley Winters as Earl’s girlfriend, Mae Barnes as Johnny’s ex-wife and Gloria Grahame as Earl’s sexy neighbor. Through these female characters we see Earl and Johnny’s societal resentments and rebellion. All three actresses did a bang-up job of making the most out of a few lines of script.
Odds Against Tomorrow with its honest look at race relations was among the first of its kind and one of the last films to be shot in the classic period of film noir.