Spikeopath
The Good Die Young is a cracking British Noir picture directed by Lewis Gilbert and featuring a strong cast of British and American actors. Laurence Harvey, Stanley Baker, Richard Basehart, John Ireland, Gloria Grahame, Margaret Leighton, Joan Collins and Rene Ray are the principals. While support comes from Robert Morley and Freda Jackson.Adapted from the novel written by Richard MacAuley, the story starts with four men pulling up in a car, guns are passed around them and it's soon evident they are about to commit a serious crime. We are then taken through the sequences for each man, how they came to be at that point in time, what brought them together and their common interest; that of women trouble and financial strife. It's excellently structured by Gilbert, four separate stories, yet all of them are on the same track and heading towards the grim and potently "noirish" final quarter. Such is the way that we as viewers have been fully informed about our characters, the impact when things get violent is doubly strong. It takes you by surprise at first because the makers have given us a smooth set-up, and then there is the shock factor because these were not criminal men at the outset. But then..A real pleasant surprise to this particular viewer was The Good Die Young, it's got fully formed characters within a tight and interesting story. The cast do fine work, yes one could probably complain a touch that the ladies are under written, but they each get in and flesh out the downward spiral of the male protagonists. Rene Ray is particularly impressive as the fraught wife of Stanley Baker's injured boxer, Mike, while Gloria Grahame (walking like a panther) is memorable as a bitch-a-like babe driving her husband Eddie (Ireland) to distraction. Basehart is his usual value for money self, but it's Baker and Harvey who own the picture. Baker does a great line in raw emotion, a big man, big heart and a big conscious; his journey is the films emotional axis, while Harvey is positively weasel like as playboy sponger Miles Ravenscourt; someone who is guaranteed to have you hissing at the screen with his stiffness perfectly befitting the character. Top stuff. 8/10
writers_reign
All About Eve has a lot to answer for, not least the idea - which wasn't exactly new but Mank gave it a great new coat of paint - of starting the action in the present then letting a voice-over narration introduce the principals. The difference, of course, is that 'Eve' was scripted by a pro, Mank, whose name on the credits assured the viewer that Wit and Style would follow, whilst The Good Die Young was scripted by a couple of hacks I won't embarrass by naming. Seldom has a more disparate and incongruous cast been assembled in one movie. Top billing went to Mr. Mahogony aka Laurence Harvey and in an effort to give him some class the script had him married to Margaret Leighton, the only person remotely resembling an actor in the cast; the fifties was a time when Hollywood actors on the skids came to England in an attempt to revive flagging careers and three of them were wheeled out for this caper movie in the shape of John Ireland, Richard Basehart and Gloria Graham. There's also a nice touch of irony at work in the fact that Joan Collins and Graham share the same screen though never meet. Collins aims for demure though in her case it's more like demure the merrier while Graham, who was born sleazy and shop-soiled, took the kind of role (sluttish wife) that Collins would eventually make her own. Other imitators have proved that the flashback technique with voice-over narrator can and does work but usually the back stories are not warmed over clichés as here, in fact a good alternate title would be Four Losers In Search Of A Cliché.
jc-osms
Better than it has a right to be this film starts somewhat uncomfortably in very British stiff-upper-lip fashion, stagily introducing four very different couples all with problems which under the self-serving guidance of ringleader Laurence Harvey moves unexpectedly to an excellent almost UK take on film noir. Basically a cautionary tale of when thieves fall out the film meanders fairly lightly to the trigger point in the film where Harvey ups the ante on their post office heist by inexplicably shooting a nosey policeman right in the face. From there on it's all darkness and shade with some fine cinematography effectively conveying the mean streets which will eventually claim them all as victims. Of course some of the language is dated and some of the performances mannered but the four male leads are contrastingly good, particularly Harvey as the suave psychopath who clearly has no plans to share any of the hard won loot with his erstwhile colleagues. The female players, starry as they are, are less effective, conveying less realism than their male partners. Director Lewis Gilbert, later to helm a number of James Bond outings, prefigures this work here by demonstrating his greater grasp of action set pieces than character study. Certainly worth watching, especially the suspenseful second half, which lifts the film to a different level altogether.
didi-5
Coming to this with neutral expectations, and fresh from seeing Harvey in 'Room at the Top' for the umpteenth time, I was quite surprised to find it watchable, with lots of interesting facets and a cast who complement each other well. Baker (an actor whose work seems to be undergoing some appraisal at film festivals lately) gives some dignity to the down-on-his-luck prizefighter; Harvey convincingly plays an upper-class slimeball alternatively charming and terrorising his wife (interesting played by Margaret Leighton, who would become Mrs Harvey in real life), sparring with the father who despises him, and poisoning his 'friends' lives like a devious snake. Ireland, as the bitter GI with a film star wife flaunting her infidelities each time he comes home from leave, is effective, while Basehart, with a weedy wife and an overbearing mother-in-law, puts across his frustations nicely. So much for characterisation. The film is mainly taken up with a series of flashbacks, showing how the four men find themselves in the situation we see them in at the start. Once it moves back into the present, it feels rushed and the final moralistic voiceover almost kills it. Amongst the other players, Joan Collins as Basehart's wife doesn't do much besides pout and look pretty, while Gloria Grahame as the film actress manages to be simply irritating. All things considered, the film isn't a total success but has enough going on to keep you there with it.
AD
