Odds Against Tomorrow

When Mae Barnes performs “All Men Are Evil” onstage at the jazz club in Robert Wise’s Odds Against Tomorrow, it’s hard to argue with her after having been introduced to the abominable ex-con Slater (Robert Ryan), who shows off his cruelty, racism, insecurity, and violent tendencies every chance he gets, especially whenever he’s in the company of his wife Lorry (Shelley Winters), whose financial support he repays by having sex with the neighbor across the hall (Gloria Grahame). His manhood threatened by economic reliance on his wife, Slater accepts an invitation from former cop Burke (Ed Begley) to participate in a bank robbery upstate along with a third man, professional musician and gambling addict Ingram (Harry Belafonte), whose black skin is an object of Slater’s disdain (he almost refuses the gig because of it). Despite meticulous planning, the heist goes less than perfectly, ultimately leaving Slater and Ingram to rely on each other for escape (the sequence in which Burke is gunned down in possession of the getaway car key is magnificent), their mutual hatred assuring mutual destruction, the final conflagration perhaps even a symbol of hatred in the nuclear age. Wise incorporates noir visual tropes vividly if not frequently, notably a resplendent shot of Slater in front of a Venetian blind whose illuminated stripes pop off the screen, and using skewed angles, deep shadows, and cage symbolism during the gas complex chase. Also notable for 1959 is a hoodlum with an overtly gay affectation who teases Ingram at the club (Belafonte stated many years later this was an impromptu decision by the actor).