Odds Against Tomorrow

{{Infobox film

| name = Odds Against Tomorrow

| image = Odds Against Tomorrow(1959 film) poster.jpg

| caption = Theatrical release poster

| alt =

| director = Robert Wise

| producer = Robert Wise

| screenplay = Abraham Polonsky
Nelson Gidding

| based_on = {{based on|Odds Against Tomorrow
1957 novel|William P. McGivern}}

| starring = Harry Belafonte
Robert Ryan
Shelley Winters
Ed Begley
Gloria Grahame
Will Kuluva
Kim Hamilton
Mae Barnes
Carmen De Lavallade
Richard Bright
Lew Gallo

| music = John Lewis

| cinematography = Joseph C. Brun

| editing = Dede Allen

| studio = HarBel Productions

| distributor = United Artists

| released = {{Film date|1959|10|15|United States}}

| runtime = 95 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

}}

Odds Against Tomorrow is a 1959 American film noir produced and directed by Robert Wise and starring Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan and Ed Begley. Belafonte selected Abraham Polonsky to write the script, which is based on a novel of the same name by William P. McGivern. Blacklisted in those years, Polonsky had to use a front and John O. Killens was credited. Polonsky's screenwriting credit was restored in 1996 in his own name.

Plot

David Burke is a former policeman who was ruined when he refused to cooperate with state crime investigators. He asks Earle Slater, a tough ex-con and racist, to help him rob a bank, promising him $50,000 if the robbery is successful. Burke also recruits Johnny Ingram, a nightclub entertainer, who doesn't want the job but who is addicted to gambling and deeply in debt.

Slater, who is supported by his girlfriend Lorry, learns that Ingram is black and refuses the job. Later, he realizes that he needs the money, and joins Ingram and Burke in the enterprise. Tensions between Ingram and Slater increase as they near completion of the crime.

On the night of the robbery, the three crooks are able to enter the bank and abscond with stolen money. Burke is seen by a police officer when leaving the scene of the raid and is gunned down in the ensuing shootout. He then shoots himself to avoid capture. Slater and Ingram fight each other while evading the police. They escape and run to a fuel storage depot, chasing each other onto the top of the fuel tanks. When they exchange gunfire, the fuel tanks ignite, causing a large explosion. Later, when police survey the scene, Slater's and Ingram's burned corpses are indistinguishable from each other. The film ends with a shot of a sign at the entrance of the depot reading "STOP—DEAD END".

Cast

{{castlist|

Harry Belafonte as Johnny Ingram
Robert Ryan as Earl Slater
Shelley Winters as Lorry
Ed Begley as David Burke
Gloria Grahame as Helen
Will Kuluva as Bacco
Kim Hamilton as Ruth
Mae Barnes as Annie
Richard Bright as Coco
Carmen De Lavallade as Kitty
Lew Gallo as Moriarty
Lois Thorne as Eadie
Wayne Rogers Soldier in bar
Zohra Lampert as Girl in Bar
Allen Nourse as Police Chief

}}

Production

The film was produced by HarBel Productions,{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/10/16/archives/odds-against-tomorrow-race-prejudice-mars-holdup-of-a-bank.html| title=Odds Against Tomorrow: Race Prejudice Mars Hold-up of a Bank| last=Crowther| first=Bosley| author-link=Bosley Crowther| work=The New York Times| date=October 16, 1959| access-date=2009-03-21}} a company founded by the film's star, Harry Belafonte. He selected Abraham Polonsky as the screenwriter. Polonsky was blacklisted by the House Unamerican Activities Committee at the time, which had conducted extensive hearings on communist influence in the film industry. He used John O. Killens, a black novelist and friend of Belafonte, as a front to be the credited screenwriter. In 1996, the Writers Guild of America restored Polonsky's film credit under his own name.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/29/movies/abraham-polonsky-88-dies-director-damaged-by-blacklist.html| title=Abraham Polonsky, 88, Dies; Director Damaged by Blacklist| last=Honan| first=William| work=The New York Times| date=October 29, 1999| access-date=2009-03-21}}

Principal photography began in March 1959.{{cite magazine| url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,892273,00.html | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120912150744/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,892273,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=September 12, 2012 |title=Lead Man Holler| magazine=Time| date=March 2, 1959| access-date=2009-03-21}} All outdoor scenes were shot in New York City and Hudson, New York. According to director Robert Wise:

I did something in Odds Against Tomorrow I'd been wanting to do in some pictures but hadn't had the chance. I wanted a certain kind of mood in some sequences, such as the opening when Robert Ryan is walking down West Side Street...I used infra-red film. You have to be very careful with that because it turns green things white, and you can't get too close on people's faces. It does distort them but gives that wonderful quality—black skies with white clouds—and it changes the feeling and look of the scenes.

This film was the last in which Wise shot black-and-white film in the standard aspect ratio. This technique "gave his films the gritty realism they were known for."{{cite web| title=Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)| url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53473-ODDS-AGAINST-TOMORROW| website=American Film Institute| access-date=2024-12-09}} After this film, Wise shot two black-and-white films, both in the cinemascope (2.35:1) aspect ratio: Two for the Seesaw and The Haunting.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Musical score and soundtrack

{{Infobox album

| name = Odds Against Tomorrow

| type = Soundtrack

| artist = John Lewis

| cover =

| caption =

| alt =

| released = 1959

| recorded = July 16, 17 & 20, 1959 in NYC

| venue =

| studio =

| genre = film score

| length = 43:11

| label = United Artists
UAL 4061

| producer =

| chronology = John Lewis

| prev_title = Improvised Meditations and Excursions

| prev_year = 1959

| next_title = The Golden Striker

| next_year = 1960

}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = Allmusic

| rev1Score = {{rating|4.5|5}}

}}

The film score was composed, arranged, and conducted by John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. The soundtrack album was released on the United Artists label in 1959.{{cite web|url=http://www.bsnpubs.com/ua/ua4000-5000.pdf |title=United Artists Album Discography: 4000/5000 Series (1958-1972) |website=bsnpubs.com |access-date=September 11, 2015}} To realize his score, Lewis assembled a 22-piece orchestra, which included MJQ bandmates Milt Jackson on vibraphone, Percy Heath on bass, and Connie Kay on drums along with Bill Evans on piano and Jim Hall on guitar.{{cite web|url=http://www.jazzdisco.org/milt-jackson/catalog/#united-artists-ual-4061 |title=Milt Jackson catalog |website=jazzdisco.org |access-date=September 11, 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Schuller/gas-disc.htm |title=Gunther Schuller discography |website=Jazz Discography |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927184832/http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Schuller/gas-disc.htm |archive-date=2015-09-27 |access-date=September 11, 2015 |url-status=dead}}

AllMusic's Bruce Eder noted, "This superb jazz score by John Lewis was later turned into a hit by The Modern Jazz Quartet. It's dark and dynamic, and a classic."{{AllMusic|first=Bruce |last=Eder |class=album |id=mw0000674521 |title=Odds Against Tomorrow [Original Soundtrack] – Review |access-date=September 11, 2015}} The Modern Jazz Quartet's album of Lewis' themes, Music from Odds Against Tomorrow, was recorded in October 1959. The track "Skating in Central Park" became a permanent part of the MJQ's repertoire{{cite web|url=http://www.jazzdisco.org/the-modern-jazz-quartet/catalog/#united-artists-ual-4063 |title=Modern Jazz Quartet catalog |website=jazzdisco.org |access-date=September 11, 2015}} and was recorded by Evans and Hall on the album Undercurrent. It was reused for a similar scene in the 1971 film Little Murders.

=Track listing=

All compositions by John Lewis

"Prelude to Odds Against Tomorrow" - 1:44
"A Cold Wind Is Blowing" - 1:20
"Five Figure People Crossing Paths" - 1:40
"How to Frame Pigeons" - 1:04
"Morning Trip to Melton" - 3:09
"Looking at the Caper" - 2:01
"Johnny Ingram's Possessions" - 1:08
"The Carousel Incident" - 1:44
"Skating in Central Park" - 3:29
"No Happiness for Slater" - 3:56
"Main Theme: Odds Against Tomorrow" - 3:24
"Games" - 2:17
"Social Call" - 3:53
"The Impractical Man - 3:00
Advance on Melton"- 1:58
"Waiting Around the River" - 3:51
"Distractions" - 1:25
"The Caper Failure" - 1:23
"Postlude" - 0:45

=Personnel=

John Lewis – arranger, conductor
Bernie Glow, Joe Wilder, John Ware, Melvyn Broiles – trumpet
John Clark, Tom McIntosh – trombone
Al Richman, Gunther Schuller, Paul Ingram, Ray Alonge – French horn
Harvey Phillips – tuba
Robert DiDomenica – flute
Harvey Shapiro, Joseph Tekula – cello
Ruth Berman – harp
Milt Jackson – vibraphone
Bill Evans – piano
Jim Hall – guitar
Percy Heath – bass
Connie Kay – drums
Richard Horowitz – timpani
Walter Rosenberger – percussion

Reception

=Critical response=

The film has an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times described Wise's direction as "tight and strong" and the film as a "sharp, hard, suspenseful melodrama," with a "sheer dramatic build-up...of an artistic caliber that is rarely achieved on the screen."

Time magazine wrote:

The tension builds well to the climax—thanks partly to Director Robert Wise (I Want to Live!), partly to an able Negro scriptwriter named John O. Killens, but mostly to Actor Ryan, a menace who can look bullets and smile sulphuric acid. But the tension is released too soon—and much too trickily. The spectator is left with a feeling that is aptly expressed in the final frame of the film, when the camera focuses on a street sign that reads: STOP—DEAD END.{{cite magazine| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,864987,00.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110201104338/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,864987,00.html| url-status=dead| archive-date=February 1, 2011| title=Cinema: The New Pictures, Oct. 26, 1959| magazine=Time| date=October 26, 1959| access-date=2009-03-21}}

Variety wrote: "On one level, Odds against Tomorrow is a taut crime melodrama. On another, it is an allegory about racism, greed and man's propensity for self-destruction. Not altogether successful in the second category, it still succeeds on its first."{{cite news| url=https://variety.com/1958/film/reviews/odds-against-tomorrow-1200419356|title=Odds Against Tomorrow| work=Variety| date=December 31, 1958| access-date=2024-01-29}}

Forty years after the film's release, critic Stephen Holden called it "sadly overlooked."{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/11/movies/critic-s-choice-film-bringing-home-a-world-of-injustice.html| title=Bringing Home A World Of Injustice| last=Holden| first=Stephen| author-link=Stephen Holden| work=The New York Times| date=June 11, 1999| access-date=2009-03-21}}

=Awards=

The film was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Motion Picture Promoting International Understanding.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Books

A book of the screenplay titled Odds Against Tomorrow: A Critical Edition ({{ISBN|0963582348}}) was published in 1999 by the Center for Telecommunication Studies, sponsored by the Radio-Television-Film department at California State University, Northridge. The book includes the film's complete script, blending the shooting and continuity scripts, and a critical analysis written by CSUN professor John Schultheiss, who conducted interviews with Wise, Belafonte and Polonsky.{{Cite book|last=Polonsky |first=Abraham |editor-last1=Schultheiss |editor-first1=John |title=Odds Against Tomorrow: The Critical Edition |year=1999 |publisher=Center for Telecommunication Studies, California State University |isbn=9780963582348 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kiTuAAAAMAAJ |access-date=2024-12-09}}

Home media

Odds Against Tomorrow was released on DVD by MGM Home Video on December 2, 2003 as a Region 1 full-frame DVD.{{Cite web|title=Odds Against Tomorrow Blu-ray - Robert Ryan|url=http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-ray_reviews_73/odds_against_tomorrow_blu-ray.htm|access-date=2021-03-28|website=www.dvdbeaver.com}} The film was released on Blu-ray disc by Olive Films on May 29, 2018.{{Cite web|title=Odds Against Tomorrow Blu-ray Release Date May 29, 2018|url=https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Odds-Against-Tomorrow-Blu-ray/203387/|website=bluray.com|access-date=2021-03-28}}

References

External links

{{IMDb title|id=0053133|title=Odds Against Tomorrow}}
{{TCMDb title|id=17685|title=Odds Against Tomorrow}}
{{AFI film|53473}}
{{cite web |title=Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) |url=https://nycinfilm.com/2024/01/08/odds-against-tomorrow-1959/ |website=NYC in Film |date=January 8, 2024 |language=en}}
Odds Against Tomorrow essay, [https://archive.today/20130129201605/http://moviemorlocks.com/2009/11/07/robert-ryan-letting-the-demons-out.html "Robert Ryan: Letting the Demons Out"] by Jeff Stafford at Turner Classic Movies{{'}}s Movie Morlocks
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxZmJNzfOkQ Odds Against Tomorrow] film trailer at YouTube