Robert Ryan - Earle Slater
Ed Begley - David Burke
Shelly Winters - Lorry
Robert Wise (Director)
Robert Wise is one of the most interesting people in Hollywood history with one of the most interesting resumes. He worked on Citizen Kane as an editor, then he went on to direct mediocre westerns and sci-fi films before started making it big with The Day the Earth Stood Still. His next hit was I Want to Live! with Susan Hayward. This was sort of an early female exploitation flick. Then came Odds Against Tomorrow.
Odds is a relatively straight forward noir, heist movie. But like in so many heist films there has to be an angle that complicates the robbery. In this case it is racism. The job leader is Burke. A retired cop that is looking for a way out of his stagnant existence. Burke recruits Slater. A down on his luck, aging punk of a racist. The script really plays his negative qualities to the hills. The third member of the trio is Ingram. A black,divorced, jazz musician with a passion for the ponies. Unfortunately for him his passion has been for the wrong ponies as of late. He's got child support due at the first of every month and he is deeply in debt to a loan shark that is looking to collect from him. These 3 sad sacks develop a plan to rob a hayseed bank.
Wise makes a few stand out moments and a few interesting shot selections, but overall I thought this was a color by the numbers heist film. It is probably best known for the use of a black protagonist. A lot of people think that Sidney Poitier was the first black actor working at any regularity in Hollywood. In actuality it was Belafonte. By this time in his career he had 5 other movies under his belt and was a double threat due to his musicianship as well. Poitier open the door for black actors, but Belafonte opened the door for him. Belafonte is very charming in this movie and he puts forward a solid performance to boot.
Some of this films problems is that introduces too many red herrings. By that I mean that the film spends time of sometime small, sometimes larger elements that draw your attention to them. Then they end up not really playing any real part in the story. This movie spends too much time with Burke's dog, Slater's wife (in a flat performance from Shelly Winters) and his neighbor that he is having a torid affair with, and Ingram's ex wife and kid and the bookie. There is too much going on. The heist and the race angle should have been center stage. Another problem for me was the ending. I won't spoil anything, but it totally comes out of left field and really felt tacked on, or like a cop out. There is one really funny element of this film. That lackey that is working for the bookie is so flamboyantly gay, and I think it is supposed to look like is a 50's thug. I laughed every time this queen tried to sound tough!
After this film Wise would go on to to direct other films like West Side Story, The Haunting, The Sound of Music, The Andromeda Strain and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He is kind of like the original Ron Howard. He made a series of good films, in a vast array of genres. I will give Odds Against Tomorrow a 2.5/5 stars. I should mention that this is a critical sweetheart. I didn't come away very excited about the film, but there are those that absolutely adore this movie. Check out the trailer park to see for yourself.
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