The Defiant Ones

The Defiant Ones is yet another example of what too much money and too low an opinion of the general mentality can do to a potentially fine picture. The basic idea is a fine one: a white convict and a black one escape from a chain gang together. They hate one another as only a poor white and a down-trodden negro can; but they must co-operate in even the simplest act of daily life.

The situation may be unlikely penology and ponderous allegory, but it is dramatic as can be, and could have made for a memorable film. But our old friend Stanley Kramer got hold of this and decided to hit the great American public between the eyes. He made sure that every scene was underlined as firmly as possible. He managed, perhaps with difficulty, to secure Tony Curtis for the lead. While he did not spoil The Defiant Ones, he cheapened it.

And so the film is spotted with a succession of little horrors. We see the two convicts with nooses around their necks, surrounded by an angry mob; a woman's voice pipes up, "What you menfolks goin' t' do?" The pursuing posse includes a little man who plays rock and roll on a portable radio--so that, with each flashback, the audience will remember who these people are.

The posse also includes the usual comic dog handler, in a movie that needs no comic relief. Yet the basic structure is still sound, despite one of the least likely romantic interludes on the modern screen.

The white convict is played by Tony Curtis, who rose to fame as the schoolgirl's delight. This was probably because he looks like a slightly effeminate schoolboy at an inferior school. I had never seen him before, and he was a good deal better than I feared he would be, though he was a little hard to take in his reflective moments.

The characterization of the other convict is a stereotype--the cheery, flippant, singing Negro who turns out, not unnaturally, to bear a heavy burden of bitterness. Sidney Poitier plays the role as convincingly as possible, though he, too, is at his worst when philosophical.

Theodore Bikel, a considerably older pro than Curtis or Poitier, turns in a fine performance as the sheriff. No one else is much good at all.

The Defiant Ones would have been better in the hands of Kazan or Houston, but it does not turn out badly under Kramer's administration. And it will not, at any rate, wow them in Mobile.