Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

“Odds Against Tomorrow” is a film positively greedy with the ambition of its allegories.  It had all rights to be. Every card in the deck of its era seemed stacked against putting “Odds” in favor.  Harry Belafonte stars as the first black protagonist of a noir picture.…

theriverjordan

Odds Against Tomorrow is, on the surface, similar to The Defiant Ones and films of its ilk in that it creates a situation in which a racist white man (Robert Ryan, here) has to work with a black man (Harry Belafonte, here) in order to achieve a goal that they both share.…

Brian Formo

Action! - Robert the Wise As I type this review, I’m still unsure I will go as far as to call this an underrated or hidden gem in the heist genre, but it’s definitely a great addition to the genre. There’s this whole almost sad angle to the whole film, in which we see how…

Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine

Legendary editor Dede Allen’s first major gig, and it shows. “Intellect and taste count,” she once said, “but I cut with my feelings.”

Sean Fennessey

Honestly, until I saw this, I didn’t realise you could angry-play the xylophone. But it turns out you can. Or at least Harry Belafonte can. And he looks cool doing it. Quite the feat. Musicianship aside, this is an interesting noir-crime tale. The story is simple: three…

Lexzilla

A tale of three men who spent their whole lives running from what they couldn’t have; A happy family, a stable career, a clean sheet, any luck in this draw of cards we like to call life. But in the end, were stopped short. Of outrunning themselves. What are the ODDS AGAINST…

Cormac 👑

May I propose, in contrast to Chekhov’s gun, a new dramatic principle?  We’ll call it Burke’s Dog, named for Dave Burke’s lovable german shepherd, Ulee. Ulee appears early in the film and seems to serve no discernible purpose, beyond being a general nuisance to his…

Christian Ryan

Back to back brilliant films with my classic June list with this and Champion and I’m finding it hard on which I prefer but both are equally impactful and acted incredibly well. This one is tacking a different subject matter all together and uses the framing of bank heist…

Sam

thinking about gloria grahame in this movie saying, "what's going on in there, an orgy?"

nora