Odds Against Tomorrow

Robert Wise approaches a classic film noir premise—a team of volatile criminals gather for a heist that goes fatally awry—with a modern style and a story that turns on the poison of hate, anger, and racism. Harry Belafonte—who developed this 1959 project based on the titular 1957 novel by William P. McGivern—gets top billing as Johnny, a jazz musician, divorced father of a young daughter, and gambling addict in debt to the mob. Robert Ryan is Earle, a resentful, hot-tempered war veteran and ex-con with a history of violence and a deep-seeded bigotry. Ed Begley is the disgraced ex-cop who masterminds a bank heist in a small town and recruits the two initially resistant men. Wise brings a modernist look to the film with austere imagery and a style that favors close, intimate shots that foreground the intensity of the characters’ emotions and conflicts. The score by John Lewis (of The Modern Jazz Quartet) combines classical and jazz approaches for an unconventional soundtrack that enhances the tension. The social commentary here is hardly subtle, but this is an intense crime drama with vivid performances and terrific supporting turns by Shelley Winters and Gloria Grahame. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)