Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

Stars:  Harry Belefonte,  Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Ed Bergley, Shelly Winters
Plot:   A New York City Jazz Singer, a retired disgraced Cop, and a racist muscle-man plan to rob a small town bank in Upstate New York.

Effective little film noir, with some good acting (and some bad), great cinematography, and some good action scenes. Filmed on low "B movie" Budget, director Robert Wise gets all he can out of the location shots on Hudson New York and New York City. Belefonte is surprisingly good as the gambling Jazz Singer who has to become a bank robber to pay-off the Mob, while Bergley is quite sympathetic as the old eccentric who plans the heist. On the minus side, Winters and Grahame aren't given much to do. Ryan does a tired repeat of his usual evil bigot, and the phony southern accent doesn't help.

What keeps "Odds against tomorrow" from being a very good film-noir is the script by Abe Polansky. The movie sags in the middle, and the 3 main characters aren't particularly sympathetic or smart. The 'race issue' stuff is rather dated.  Also, Polansky threw away the book's upbeat ending to create his own downbeat symbolic ending - which has all the subtlety of a jack-hammer.

 **Avast Ye - Spoilers ahead**

 Finally, the heist itself is well filmed except for the incredible idiocy of the police. First, they shoot Ed Bergley six times over 5 minutes, and while having the gang pinned down in the alley never think of sending someone around back to cut off their escape. Later, they let Ryan and Belefonte shoot and chase each other till they get to a Gasworks, where they continue to let the two shoot each other and also blow up the gas works. We don't see any dead Gaswork employees - but no thanks to "Mellon's Finest"!