Tonight's Movie: The Good Die Young (1954) - An MGM Blu-ray Review

The moody British heist melodrama THE GOOD DIE YOUNG (1954) has just been released on Blu-ray by MGM.

THE GOOD DIE YOUNG was directed by Lewis Gilbert (THE SPY WHO LOVED ME); Gilbert wrote the screenplay with Vernon Lewis.

The first hour or more of the film's 100 minutes is told in flashback, as we meet four very different men in London:

*Joe (Richard Basehart), a Korean War vet, abruptly quits his job in New York and goes to England in search of his British wife Mary (Joan Collins), who returned to her native country to care for her ill harridan of mother (Freda Jackson) but inexplicably hasn't returned. It turns out Mary didn't come back on schedule as she's pregnant, but her mother keeps thwarting the couple's plans and they don't have airfare to return to the States.

*Eddie (John Ireland), an Air Force pilot, has a blithely unfaithful movie actress wife (Gloria Grahame) and ends up going AWOL.

*Mike (Stanley Baker, HELL DRIVERS) is a prizefighter who loses a hand along with the money he'd been putting away to start a business once his fighting days were over.

*Rave (Laurence Harvey) is a disturbed man who comes from money, but his usual financial support from his father (Robert Morley) and wife (Margaret Leighton) dries up just as he owes money to some bad sorts.

Eventually the quartet gets to know one another in a pub, where Rave puts forward a heist plan that would solve everyone's financial issues.

Little do they know just how awry things will go...though anyone familiar with heist films from THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950) to RIFIFI (1954) and more can probably guess.

With its significant use of flashbacks, the movie also made me think a bit of the later "non-linear" heist film THE KILLING (1956), and I especially had to wonder if Stanley Kubrick drew inspiration from this film's final scene for the later movie.

THE GOOD DIE YOUNG is almost two movies (or more!) in one; initially it's the story of working class men struggling to get out of dead-end jobs or relationships. The time spent on this background does make it more plausible that three men with no criminal backgrounds would fall into crime, though questions lingered in my mind.

The three working-class men are largely sympathetic, though the frustrated Ireland threatening to drown Grahame in a bathtub pushes the envelope. (Apparently this scene was more lighthearted in the original UK release.) Harvey, as the criminal plotter, is curious as his character is a very evil sort for many reasons, yet I found him absolutely boring in a leadership role that calls for someone with charisma.

We should see more of what is so alluring to the men about Harvey and his plan, but while their need for money is clear, I found him very flat and not particularly believable as the ringleader -- or at least it wasn't believable to me they would all throw in with the edgy Harvey, especially when he unexpectedly hands out guns.

Ironically Morley (in a single scene) and Leighton are very much more interesting as the other people in Harvey's life. Among the supporting cast it's also fun to see the 20-year-old, lovely Joan Collins, though her character is more than a bit of a wet noodle, so to speak.

The movie lags a bit as it gradually builds a sense of impending doom, but the well-done heist sequence is beautifully filmed in black and white by Jack Asher; it's all dark streets, wet pavement, and shocking moments. A scene in a train yard is particularly memorable.

In the end I found the film worth seeing, though not on a par with favorite heist films cited above; that said, I suspect that like another gloomy film set in London, NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950), this film could grow on me with further acquaintance.

Print and sound quality are fine; this is a good-looking disc. There are English subtitles but no extras.

Thanks to Allied Vaughn and MGM for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. THE GOOD DIE YOUNG may be purchased from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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