Odds Against Tomorrow became an influence on French New Wave directors. It has aged well, is available for streaming and on disc, and should be seen by all generations of film enthusiasts.
Since the pioneering days of silent cinema, motion pictures have been shot in the Hudson Valley. Occasionally, one of those projects stands out and with age is deemed a classic. Tootsie, Splendor in the Grass, Nobody’s Fool and Odds Against Tomorrow are a few examples.
So, the other day, when my close friend, film maven Lois Farber, mentioned that she recently had watched Odds Against Tomorrow, I realized it was time for me to take another look at this noir classic, released in 1959, with scenes shot New York City and in downtown Hudson NY.
Odds Against Tomorrow was made on a conservative budget by HarBel Films, the production company owned by Harry Belafonte. It was produced and directed by the talented Robert Wise, whose credits include The Day the Earth Stood Still, Somebody Up There Likes Me, West Side Story, and a couple Star Trek features.
Harry Belafonte also stars as an entertainer who owes big money to a gangster, money he cannot pay unless he has success with a bank heist job that is offered to him by a corrupt retired cop, played by Ed Begley, Sr. It may well be that, with this role, Belafonte became the first person of color to play the protagonist in an American film noir.
Starring alongside Belafonte is Robert Ryan, a mainstay in the noir genre, with leads in The Set Up, Beware My Lovely, Clash By Night, and the incredibly taut drama Crossfire. In his real life, Ryan was a passionate civil rights activist, so it is no surprise he signed on to act in Odds Against Tomorrow. Female cast include Shelley Winters and Gloria Grahame.
Unlike so many other films of 1959, this movie is a poster child for the fight against racism in America. Ryan’s character, an ex-con who has a natural bent towards violence, is a racist farm-boy from Oklahoma. In a move against the production code which was being enforced in 1959, he calls a black child a “pickaninny,” a nasty slur even sixty years ago. His character calls Belafonte’s character the “N” word, a “black spot” in a crowd. Ryan was fifty years old when he made Odds Against Tomorrow, but looks sixty. With a weather-beaten face and still powerful body, he is the proverbial tough guy.
The film was written by political liberal Abraham Polonsky, a blacklisted screen writer who showed bravery in appearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee during Joe McCarthy’s “Red Scare,” refusing to name names. He was not allowed to work in the film industry as a result, so he worked surreptitiously, and his name did not appear in the credits. Only in 1996 did this and other shameful attempts to restrict the work of many of America’s finest talents get somewhat corrected. It was that year that blacklisted writers’ names were revealed and finally added to the credits of their films. Among Polonsky’s other works are noir classics Body and Soul and Force of Evil.
The city of Hudson is not just a blip in the storytelling. The name of the city is changed to Melton, but Hudson is unmistakable. The downtown Warren Street area, and the neighborhood along the Hudson River are shown in detail. Some of the film’s greatest excitement takes place there. In 1959, the businesses were more serviceable on a practical level than the boutiques, cafes, and art galleries which stand there now. There are hardware stores, drug stores, a soda fountain that offers Hershey Ice Cream, a luncheonette, an insurance company, a store that sells GE appliances… and there is the stately corner bank building, the scene of the movie’s heist, which remains a landmark in downtown Hudson.
Audrey Kupferberg is a film and video archivist and retired appraiser. She is lecturer emeritus and the former director of Film Studies at the University at Albany and co-authored several entertainment biographies with her late husband and creative partner, Rob Edelman.
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