Odds Against Tomorrow

1959

Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller

11
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 84% · 16 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 84% · 500 ratings
IMDb Rating 7.4/10 10 6207 6.2K

noir robbery based on novel or book explosive hold-up robbery heist

Plot summary

An old-time crook plans a heist. When one of his two partners is found out to be a black man tensions flare.

Director

Robert Wise Photo
Robert Wise

Top cast

Gloria Grahame Photo
Gloria Grahame as Helen
Bill Zuckert Photo
Bill Zuckert as Bartender
Wayne Rogers Photo
Wayne Rogers as Soldier in Bar
Carmen De Lavallade Photo
Carmen De Lavallade as Kitty
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
795.48 MB
1280*952
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 36 min
Seeds 1
1.51 GB
1440*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 36 min
Seeds 17

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Hey_Sweden 8 / 10

Well worth your time.

An adaptation of a novel by William P. McGivern, "Odds Against Tomorrow" is a perfectly absorbing example of socially conscious crime-noir. Ed Begley plays Dave Burke, a disgraced former cop who recruits two other participants for a bank job. Earl Slater (Robert Ryan) is a two-time loser with a frustrated girlfriend (Shelley Winters), and Johnny Ingram (Harry Belafonte) is a nightclub entertainer with a weakness for playing the horses. Both are in serious need of some cash, but tensions between the two will be inevitable, because Johnny is black and Earl is an unrepentant racist.Vivid portraits of the personal lives of Earl and Johnny are created in a film that functions mainly as a character study. The big bank heist doesn't take place until the final quarter hour of the film. But director Robert Wise, who moved from genre to genre with ease during his career, guides it all in style. Wise gets excellent performances out of his entire cast. Supporting roles are played by Gloria Grahame (Earls' neighbour Helen), Will Kuluva (the mobster Bacco), Kim Hamilton (Johnny's ex-wife Ruth), and Richard Bright and Lew Gallo (as two of Bacco's henchmen). In small roles, both credited and uncredited, you'll see the likes of Wayne Rogers, Zohra Lampert, Robert Earl Jones, Barney Martin, Mel Stewart, and Cicely Tyson. Anchoring the tale are three highly engaging portrayals by Begley, Belafonte, and Ryan. The latter shines in one of his notable antagonist roles; Earl is such a pathological bigot that it undermines his effectiveness when push comes to shove."Odds Against Tomorrow" is strikingly scored, by John Lewis, and photographed, by Joseph C. Brun. Familiar names among the crew include renowned editor Dede Allen and costume designer Anna Hill Johnstone. The screenplay is the work of Nelson Gidding and the blacklisted Abraham Polonsky, who was originally credited under a pseudonym.This is gripping entertainment that doesn't waste time, wrapping up in a taut 97 minutes. The finale is truly explosive stuff, with a very pertinent comment on humanity right at the end.Eight out of 10.
Reviewed by gbill-74877 9 / 10

Brilliant

A heist film that takes about an hour to get to the heist, something I loved about it. It allows its two main characters to be fully formed, and of course also sows the seeds for what the film is really about, which is racism. Robert Ryan plays an aging lowlife with a record and backward, racist views, and Harry Belafonte plays a nightclub performer with a mountain of gambling debts. Both men are veterans, and each has a complicated relationship (Ryan with a younger woman, Shelley Winters; Belafonte with his ex-wife, Kim Hamilton). They also both play around; Ryan with his neighbor, Gloria Grahame, and Belafonte with a woman at the nightclub. Out of desperation they both allow themselves to get pulled in to the caper by an ex-cop (Ed Begley), who has a "sure thing" lined up for them.The black and white cinematography on location is fantastic and director Robert Wise does a great job telling the story. I was riveted for the full 95 minutes and thought the production quality was very high. For most of the film Wise uses restraint in slipping in the moments that deal with race, even when Belafonte tells his wife "It's their world and we're just living in it!" while they argue over his gambling and her attempts to assimilate, which was a brilliant moment. It's a wee bit heavy-handed towards the end, but the way the message that we're all the same beneath the surface was delivered was clever. While Ryan, Belafonte, and Begley are the stars here and turn in great performances, Winters, Hamilton, and Grahame are also excellent. Grahame's part is small but I loved how she played the part of a woman who didn't have the sassy confidence of her normal roles. Also, keep an eye out for Cicely Tyson and Zohra Lampert. Because of its cast, cinematography, and direction this one is satisfying as a noir/heist film on its own, and special because of how it deals with race. Definitely recommended.
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