En Londres, tres hombres buenos respetuosos de la ley y su líder sin escrúpulos están a punto de cometer un delito grave, pero por diferentes razones.En Londres, tres hombres buenos respetuosos de la ley y su líder sin escrúpulos están a punto de cometer un delito grave, pero por diferentes razones.En Londres, tres hombres buenos respetuosos de la ley y su líder sin escrúpulos están a punto de cometer un delito grave, pero por diferentes razones.
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For a while back in the fifties, British cinema seemed to have enough grit and clout to it to almost be able to compete with the American market in regards crime thrillers (if not quite noirs); The Good Die Young is one of those that has a good try and is a pretty enjoyable piece even if it lacks the grit and tension of similar American products. The film opens with an intriguing set up but then jumps back to establish the story and characters and it is here where it becomes weak. The back stories are rather melodramatic and it doesn't fit well with what was meant to be a bit tougher and gripping; they are interesting enough to do the job but I must admit to feeling that they were a bit dragged out and unnecessarily long. However, if you make it through this main body of the film you'll get to an ending that is just what the film should have been throughout. I won't spoil it but it is enjoyably brutal, downbeat and gripping "about time" was my thought when I realised that the film had gotten going.
The cast do their best with the melodrama but the material isn't there for them and they are mixed. Harvey and Baker stand out with strong performances; Basehart is good but Ireland feels like he is just making up the numbers. Naturally Collins stands out today, and she is quite good but the melodrama is made better by Grahame, Ray and, to a lesser extent, Leighton. Of course the men are all much better in the proper crime side of the film and this is partly due to better and more atmospheric direction from writer/director Gilbert, who also injects the pace when it is required.
Overall this is an average film mainly because the back story takes up far too much of the film, is too melodramatic and doesn't sit well with the tough tension promised in the first scene and delivered at the end. With the main trunk being rather plodding, the ending does feel a lot better mainly because you're grateful that the film has gotten going. Could have been great but is merely reasonably good; worth seeing for genre and period fans but will not impress a wider audience.
Four unhappy plot lines converge into one very unhappy ending: Prizefighter Stanley Baker boxes with a broken hand that ends up gangrenous and amputated. Since his wife (Rene Ray) has given their meager life savings to her wastrel brother, he doesn't know where his next farthing is coming from.
Richard Basehart quits his job in New York to return to London and fetch his English wife (Joan Collins), who is being held hostage by her manipulative, malingering old monster of a mother (Freda Jackson).
G.I. John Ireland, on 48-hour furlough, goes AWOL when he can't find a minute to spend with his self-absorbed starlet wife Gloria Grahame, making time with the hot young star on her picture (Lee Patterson).
Lawrence Harvey, a sadistic sweet-talker, gambles and carouses on the money of his rich wife (Margaret Leighton), who's fast getting fed up with his feckless ways; he dines out on being a decorated war hero, but the father who disowns him (Robert Morley) believes he exterminated a nest of Germans who were unarmed and unconscious.
During a chance meeting in a pub, Harvey, desperate to make good on a bad check he wrote, wheedles the at-first-reluctant others into a scheme for robbing a postal truck of recycled Bank of England currency. He claims to be doing it only to help them out of their jams, but his sole interest lies in helping himself....
Lewis Gilbert (later to direct Alfie and three installments of the 007 franchise) opens just as the robbery is about to take place. Then he quickly flashes back to tell how the four perpetrators got there. He intercuts their stories (rather deftly), returning to the scene of the crime and its grisly aftermath only at the end. So the strength of the movie lies in its individual vignettes and the actors who bring them to life. These are variable.
Top-billed Harvey overplays his hand as the scheming psycho, as does Grahame as the round-heeled twitch. Ireland and Basehart cope well with loosely textured roles. The breakthrough performance is Baker's, who brings to mind all those deluded pugilists in American ropes-and-canvas epics, dying for illusory glory. The wives are mostly afterthoughts, though Ray and Leighton bring some poignancy to their plights. Morley and Jackson deserve mention for the incisiveness of their peripheral roles. More a drama of converging fates than a film noir (even a Britnoir), The Good Die Young holds attention owing to its large and seasoned cast and its slow but determined pace.
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- Trivia(at around 31 mins) The prominent painting in the apartment of Eve (Margaret Leighton) of Rave (Laurence Harvey) as a polo player was clearly altered from a copy of one of an American "old money" socialite and sportsman, Winston Guest, a top polo player in his day.
- ErroresDuring the robbery, Miles Ravenscourt fires 9 shots from a 6-shot revolver without reloading.
- Citas
Miles Ravenscourt: Someone who is quite determined to be most unpleasant about it has a cheque of mine for a thousand which is probably bouncing at this very moment. So if you are determined not to share the money, in a few days from now, you'll be sharing some very lurid headlines.
Sir Francis Ravenscourt: You can't threaten me any more. Public disgrace couldn't be worse than sitting here being reminded that I'm your father.
Miles Ravenscourt: You really do hate me, don't you?
Sir Francis Ravenscourt: I don't hate you. I Ioathe and despise the very sight of you.
- ConexionesFeatured in Frances Farmer Presents: The Good Die Young (1958)
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Detalles
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- The Good Die Young
- Locaciones de filmación
- Barbican Estate, City of London, Inglaterra, Reino Unido(Barbican train platform used for the fictional High Street Station)
- Productoras
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- Tiempo de ejecución1 hora 40 minutos
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