the perfect film until...

...the actual heist scene, mostly because it was terribly anti-climactic. I thoroughly enjoyed and absorbed the atmosphere of this film (Wise accomplished something I'd never sceen done in a noir, and that's good daytime shots, with an excellent use of more natural lighting and outdoor scenery, the cityscape was almost ethereal), the score by John Lewis was superb (I dig cool jazz, the song over the opening credits got me into the movie before the flick even started), and of course the acting was perfect, two great leads in Belafonte and Ryan...but this all added up to great disappointment in the heist scene. I though it was a little too short and the actual plot was kind of lame (I personally think films like "The Asphalt Jungle," "The Killing" and "Rififi" get the heist right, whereas this film succeeds really well in it's character development). Granted this wasn't what the film was ALL about, but it certainly builds it up with all the careful planning, the exposition of "the stakes" and those very poignant silent meditations (I particularly liked the cascading water motif). The heist scene was hardly the powder keg I expected with all the amounted racial tensions either. Perhaps it was intentionally minimalist as a sort of commentary on their trivial monetary pursuits amidst their real problems (and social issues)?

Also the conclusion was kind of a rip-off (or possibly an homage to, but to what effect?) of "White Heat"--Cody (James Cagney) met a similar explosive demise (it even looked like they used the same stock footage)...although I recognize "Odds Against Tomorrow" uses the ending as the "final thought" for it's allegory, the two men are equal now.

All that said, on a scale of 1 to 10, I give this film an 8.5.
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Yeah, I'm so bad I kick my own ass twice a day.
-Creeper, the Hamburger Pimp from "Dolemite"