From the 1950s: The Good Die Young

1954 Crime Drama

From Romulus Films

Directed by Lewis Gilbert

Starring

Laurence Harvey

Gloria Grahame

Richard Basehart

Joan Collins

John Ireland

Stanley Baker

Rene Ray

Robert Morley

Freda Jackson 

Lee Patterson

Two of my favorite actors, Laurence Harvey and Gloria Grahame, are what induced me to see this in the first place but a highly entertaining story and some delicious acting are what's kept me singing the film's praises all these years later. 

Essentially a crime caper, maybe with a little film noir thrown in, what is most unusual about a film of this genre is the high degree of character development that is offered.  How rare that is and due to it we come to understand much about the male characters especially but also their wives.  What comes out of this development is we get emotionally involved and while I feel a little anger in the film, it is sadness that predominantly gets to me.  It is sad all the way through but the ending, which first raises one's hopes, ultimately envelops us in such profound sadness.

What I have always found riveting about Harvey's acting is how often and how well he plays amoral, unscrupulous characters.  There's a reason for that, too... they were two character traits he understood quite well.  Here he plays a psychotic, married playboy whose wealthy wife (Leighton) has decided to put her checkbook away.  After a unsuccessful quest for cash from his father (Morley), who can't stand him, he decides to steal it.

He plans to rob a post office one late night as thousands of pounds are involved but he knows that he needs assistance.  He knows one man (Basehart) who knows another man (Ireland) and together they meet still another (Baker) and ultimately they all meet up with Harvey (see clip at end here).  What Harvey comes to realize is that the trio all has something in common... they're needy, they're broke and their lives are not quite working out.

The film opens after they've met and decided to engage in the robbery.  They are in a car that Harvey is driving discussing how it will all turn out.  The other three are all dismayed when Harvey gives them guns.  Hey, one cries out, you said these wouldn't be necessary.  From there the story dissolves into flashbacks so we can get the character development on all four.

Basehart and Collins

Basehart is actually a good guy but so desperately in need of money that he allows himself to be sucked into Harvey's diabolical scheme.  He is an American who has returned to London to claim his wife (Collins) who has stayed behind to care for her mother (Jackson) who claims to be too ill to be left on her own.  Mama also hates her son-in-law and Collins is too programmed by Mama to think for herself.  It takes so long for Basehart to finally persuade Collins to return with him that he loses his return flight, his money runs out and he cannot find work.

Baker is a prizefighter who planned to quit the ring after his last fight during which he severely injures his hand.  Ignoring his wife (Ray) who wants him to see a doctor, gangrene sets in and his hand must be amputated.  He turned over a thousand pounds to his wife from his last fight and when he comes across a business deal requiring just that amount of cash, he finds she used it to get her deadbeat brother out of jail.  Where he would never have entertained Harvey's wild ideas earlier, he is now listening.

AWOL Air Force sergeant Ireland is a mixed-up guy who's hiding out while married to a floozy actress (Grahame) who is carrying on with one of her costars (Patterson) right in front of him.  Ireland doesn't know whether to hit her or kiss her so he opts to push her under water in the tub.  She is screaming as he walks out the door for his date with destiny.

It's a little clearer why Baker and Basehart have joined the robbery brigade than it is Ireland but one can assume if he's on the run he's going to need some cash.

Most of the film's time is taken up with the stories of these couples.  The robbery itself actually takes up very little time near the end but their escape is very exciting.

Most of the story is focused on Harvey as the ringleader and the most troubled and dangerous.  He would go on to other roles similar to this one... a scumbag user of women... but he cut his teeth on them here.  Leighton may have had the best woman's role.  Her insouciant manner is masked by her biting determination to not give Harvey what he wants.  She expertly plays a wealthy woman of a certain age who is abused emotionally by a nasty husband who is probably gay.

Grahame and Ireland

Here's the kick in the shorts... if that weren't true for the film, it certainly was in real life because Leighton and the bisexual Harvey did, in fact, briefly marry sometime after the film was completed and it became a case of life imitating art..

Ireland and Grahame were old friends, having worked together before and apparently knew one another well.  There was never a better actress to play a brazen, trampy wife than Grahame.  I don't mean to be heartless because most everyone knows I was utterly drawn to her as an actress.  She was an expert in a certain type of screen acting.  I have no doubt the Brits said... OMG, do you think we could get Gloria Grahame to come over for this?  Too bad the role is so small.

Harvey was apparently out of sorts (such an adorably sweet thing to say about him) for all of the shoot.  He had started a new friendship with Ireland (and may be the reason Ireland is in the film) and the two would remain good friends until the end of Harvey's life.  I've never understood what they had in common although I am certain no one was ever in Harvey's life unless they served a purpose.

I don't feel that Baker was gay but his name has come up in several gay actor books and that includes in stories about Harvey.  Also James Woolf, a longtime manager of Harvey, his longtime lover and brother of the film's co-producer John Woolf, was hanging around the set most days.  And don't forget Margaret Leighton.  I'll bet he was out of sorts.

Anyway, Ireland does well as the cuckold soldier and the same could be said for Baker, who is usually a tough guy but here, although a boxer, is a decent chap we root for.  Ray as his loving wife is also winning.

This is my favorite Basehart flick.  He has his hands full with a wife and her mother (exquisitely played by Jackson, selfish and deceitful).  His is the character whose conscience sets off a tense finale.

Collins decided she wanted to play a nice girl for a change.  She was getting a reputation she didn't like playing vamps.  She's so nice here they even named her character Mary.  I did think having her in a scene where she's sitting in a rocker while she sews was a bit over the top.

 

By the way, all women's roles are fairly small... each only appearing in three of four scenes with their husbands and maybe one other person.  The actresses do not have any scenes with one another nor with any other male lead.

Ray and Baker

Based on American Richard Macauley's book about a stateside bank robbery, when the locale was changed to England, the bank got changed to a post office.  Brits were fussy about their banks being robbed but hope the change didn't bring about a run on postal robberies.

Lewis Gilbert is a director whose work I have enjoyed and respected...  The 7th Dawn, Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine and a couple of Bond movies, Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me, among them.  This bloke knew his business.  A real pro.

The title has brought into focus the fact that Harvey died at age 45, Baker at 48, Leighton at 53 and Grahame at 57.

Good film.  Here's that clip: 

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One of the great dancing ladies