Except for its patent anti-racist message at the end, this is a top-notch caper picture. Harry Belafonte as an in-debt horse player, Robert Ryan as a southerner with a temper living off a suitably blowzy Shelly Winters, Ed Begley as a bitter ex-cop--all come together in a tightly planned bank hold-up in a small NY town upstate. The black-and-white photography makes you wonder why they ever used color for anything other than musicals and cartoons.
Belafonte's acting never came up to his singing, but he does all right here. Ryan was a consummate actor, and Begley is perfectly cast. Gloria Grahame has a very small part but was never sexier.
The soundtrack, by the Modern Jazz Quartet, may be better than the picture itself (I listen to it all the time), but that's not to slight this gritty little crime flick.
Belafonte's acting never came up to his singing, but he does all right here. Ryan was a consummate actor, and Begley is perfectly cast. Gloria Grahame has a very small part but was never sexier.
The soundtrack, by the Modern Jazz Quartet, may be better than the picture itself (I listen to it all the time), but that's not to slight this gritty little crime flick.