THE GOOD DIE YOUNG
UK, 1954, 91 minutes, Black and white.
Laurence Harvey, Gloria Grahame, Richard Basehart, Joan Collins, John Ireland, Renee Rae, Stanley Baker, Margaret Leighton, Robert Morley, Freda Jackson, Susan Shaw, Lee Patterson, Leslie Dwyer.
Directed by Lewis Gilbert.
The Good Die Young was co-written by its director Lewis Gilbert who had been making small-budget films but was to move into a higher bracket with this film and some war films including Carve Her Name With Pride. During the 1960s he made Alfie and also You Only Live Twice. He was also to make two of the James Bond films with Roger Moore, Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me. In the 80s he made Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine.
Laurence Harvey was emerging as a British star at this time before making his name internationally during the 1960s. The film has several Hollywood stars including Gloria Grahame (who had just won an Oscar for The Bad and the Beautiful), Richard Basehart and John Ireland. Joan Collins appears as Richard Basehart’s wife. She was twenty at the time. Stanley Baker has a good role as has Margaret Leighton with a guest performance by Robert Morley. Freda Jackson is quite sinister as the self-centred mother of Joan Collins.
The film is about a heist. However, the film spends most of the time filling in the background of the four men who are in the car to do the robbery: Laurence Harvey as a spiv type, married to a wealthy woman (Margaret Leighton, to whom he was married at the time), Richard Basehart as a man who had fought in Korea, had married an Englishwoman, tended to be paranoid about her and had come to England and was delayed by his pregnant wife’s wanting to stay with her mother. John Ireland is in the service, married to actress Gloria Grahame. Stanley Baker is a prizefighter who has injured his hand in his last fight and is unable to find employment.
While the film shows these stories quite well, the climax is the actual robbery with betrayal by Laurence Harvey’s character.
Quite a good crime thriller of the 50s – British style.
1.A psychological drama? Portrait of unemployed men? A robbery movie? The British style?
2.Black and white photography, the London settings? Homes, pubs, post offices? A dark view of London? The musical score?
3.The title, the ironies? Three of the four men dying? Joe surviving?
4.The voice-over, the commentary on the four men in the car? Their stories, the intercutting of the stories? Their meeting at the pub? Rave taking control, the organisation of the robbery, the execution, the killings? The climax at the airport?
5.The focus on Joe, service in Korea, his being fired from his job, his marriage to an English girl, his paranoia, going to England, meeting Mary, the domination of her mother? His losing his savings? Having to stay in England? Going to the pub, meeting the friends? A good man, drawn into the robbery? Seeing the others killed? His going to the airport, taking Mary away (and the good advice of the doctor)? The confrontation with his mother-in-law? At the airport, his making the phone call, wanting to indicate where the money was, Rave attacking him in the phone box, the shooting? His survival?
6.Mary, young, her love for her husband? Her dominating mother? The mother and her self-centredness, ironic comments, antagonism towards Joe? Mary’s pregnancy? Her making the decision to leave her mother?
7.Eddie, his being on service in Germany? His marriage to Denise, her infidelities, his growing anxiety? Catching her with Todd? At the pub? AWOL? Joining in the robbery, his being with Rave, pushed onto the railway line? Denise, the starlet, her callous attitude, with Todd? Todd and his knowing his way around the apartment? The future for Denise and Todd?
8.Mike, his fights, the trainers, the up-and-coming boxers? Injuring his hand? The decision of the doctor, telling his wife? Angela, her support? Her brother wanting money, giving the savings as bail and her brother skipping the country? Her remorse? Her feeling she had to give the money? Mike, applying for jobs, not getting one? At the pub, with the group? In the robbery, his being shot by Rave?
9.Rave, the rich playboy, relying on his wife? Her being long-suffering, going to Kenya, loving him but not giving him money? His visit to his father, his father disowning him? His meeting the men in the pub, the idea of the robbery, smooth talk? The robbery itself, his violence against the police, shooting Mike, pushing Eddie onto the railway line? The final confrontation with Joe, the airport, his death?
10.A film about good and evil? Social conditions, unemployment? The conman and psychopath?
