Odds Against Tomorrow (United Artists) (1959)

Still OAT-39 Mat 2F Harry Belafonte plays the role of an entertainer in a night club whose heavy gambling debts lead him to become partner in 2 bank stickup. “Odds Against Tomorrow, lease, opens .................... at the (Harry Belafonte Biography) 99 a United Artists re CMe RTM ie cei Theatre. Acting, Singing, Recording— Harry Belafonte Is Tops Harry Belafonte, entertainer superb, now appears in what he claims is his most demanding role. It is that of a man, desperately in debt to a gambler, who allows himself to be partner to a crime he has no heart for. The picture in which he stars with Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters and Gloria Grahame, is “Odds Against Tomorrow,” and it will open ................ at thee se eee Theatre through United Artist release. Belafonte, born in New York City, leaving it with his family to live in Jamaica, British West Indies, and returning to New York five years later, first developed an interest in dramatics after doing a two-year stint in the Navy. He joined the American Negro Theatre, and later the Dramatic Workshop. In one of the productions, he was called upon to sing a number. That event, dismissed by him at the time as just an amusing stunt, turned out later to have been a turning point in his newly chartered career. Acting jobs were scarce, Married, and with a child due soon, he took a job as a package wrapper in the garment center. A friend of his, Monte Kaye, who owned a Greenwich Village night spot, had heard him sing and booked him for a two-week engagement which a repetoire of folk songs, and with a young guitarist, Millard Thomas, was booked into the Village Vanguard and received critical raves. stretched into twenty. He built up A recording contract with RCA Victor records, two Broadway shows (“Almanac” and “Three For Tonight”), two movies (“Bright Road” and ‘Carmen Jones”) followed. Belafonte’s popularity continued to mount. Attendance records were shattered and new statistics frequently set where Belafonte has been a featured club or concert star. In June, 1956, Belafonte broke the 39 yearold attendance record at Lewisohn Stadium, the New York open-air auditorium. A whole cycle of attendance records was set with the star’s national 1957 concert tour. In the summer of 1958, Belafonte made his European concert debut, playing in London, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Milan, Copenhagen and the Brussels World’s Fair, before violently enthusiastic audiences. Belafonte is six feet one inch tall, generally regarded as one of the most handsome men in show business, trimly athletic, and softspoken. He has three children, two daughters, Adrienna and Shari 9 and 4, by a former marriage, and one year and a half old son, David, by his present marriage. Joseph Brun Shoots ‘Tomorrow’ Veteran cinematographer Joseph Brun, was the director of photography for “Odds Against Tomorrow,” starring Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan and Shelley Winters, which will open .................... at the Theatre through United Artists release. Robert Wise produced and di rected the film. Brun, who shot “Middle of The Night,’ was an Academy Award nominee for his work on “Martin Luther.” He also directed the photography for the highly-acclaimed “Cinerama Holiday,” “Cinemiracle Adventure,” and Budd Schulberg’s “Across The Everglades.” Mat 2J Al Hirshfeld delineates the main characters to be seen in the explosive drama, “Odds Against Tomorrow,” a United Artists release opening ..................0660.. twtr, aceon Theatre. Starting at left are Kim Hamilton, Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters and Ed Begley. They are all involved in a planned bank hold-up. pace 12 A Director’s Dilemma By Robert Wise Robert Wise, Academy Award nominee for his direction of “I Want To Live,” produced and directed “Odds Against Tomorrow” which will open ....c.ccc.c0000-. ADEN Ce ie ceceer Theatre through United Artists release. Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters and Gloria Grahame are starred. I suppose there are very few persons outside of the profession who have any conception of the problems facing a director in trying to get ninety or a hundred minutes of a running story pressed on a strip of celluloid. To begin with, chronology must be thrown to the winds in making a movie. The last scene, for any number of reasons, may be shot first, or the first scene last, or part of the middle of the picture made the first day and the oher part of the middle section the last day. The controlling factors are availability of key players, weather conditions for exteriors, the need for building certain sets, tearing them down and then building other sets on the same studio stage. A director’s or producer’s life is replete with unexpected twists and the need to maintain absolute maneuverability” and to make decisions day by day or even by hour in accordance with what seem the movie’s best interests. I have in mind especially the important climactic scene in “Odds Against Tomorrow,” where the three male stars of the picture — Harry Bela‘onte, Robert Ryan and Ed Begley — who are confederates in a bank robbery, are trapped in an explosion in an oil tank where they have taken refuge from police, along the Hudson River. This was a difficult sequence at best to capture, involving use of smudge pots for effect, special photography and a certain kind of psychological approach. We had originally thought it might be one of the last scenes to do in our three weeks of shooting in Hudson. However, on the third day of shooting, working on the scenes of a rendezvous of the three men by the river, we ran into a very rainy afternoon. On the spur of the moment I decided to shift my schedule and do the scene of the explosion, with smoke effects, and bodies on stretchers. As it happened, all the action was enhanced and underscored by the grim, forbidding weather. I have never seen a scene come off better, so our snap decision was a lucky ene. At the end of a hard schedule, a director may wonder how he got through the movie without having a psychiatrist at his side. But memories of tensions and frustrations are, fortunately, fleeting ones. And when the picture is in the can you forget the unceasing worry that went into it, and are ready to start the next one with a clean slate. That’s what makes the business such an interesting one. Still OAT-6 Mat 2E Robert Ryan tells Shelley Winters that he’s going out to see about a business deal. What she doesn’t know is that the “deal” is a bank stick-up. “Odds Against Tomorrow,” a United Artists release, opens .................... AbSENG Sereno eee Theatre. (Location Feature) “Odds Against Tomorrow” Takes Over Central Park The waving, shouting, excited youngsters on Central Park’s famous carousel looked like any normal group of kids out for an outing on an exceptionally balmy first day of spring. Only the presence of a big Mitchell camera and some trucks, giant lights and reflectors revealed the fact that the setting had been prearranged for a movie sequence. The picture, “Odds Against Tomorrow,” which will open. ................ at the eee here Theatre through United Artists release, was being filmed in Central Park. Harry Belafonte, whose company was making the film for United Artists release, brought his seventeen months’ old son, David, to the carousel for a look. But David was a little too small to be smuggled into the scenes made before the grinding camera. Some of the stage hands brought juvenile members of the family, and the general effect was a Fourth of July atmosphere. The hundred and fifty picked extras were a wildly happy lot. Director Robert Wise, fitted out in slacks and a cap, directed them with the ease that only a versatile veteran can bring to children. “Action!” called the director, and three extras started merrily down the pathway. The young actress was just a bit nervous and so the puncturing of the balloon, which had seemed so simple in rehearsal, didn’t quite some off. She aimed the lighted cigarette in passing; it grazed the edge of the balloon, which failed to explode. On the second try the balloon exploded, but only after she had made two stabs at is, so another “take” was called for. This time everything went off according to Hoyle. The balloon broke in perfect synchronization, and the scene was wrapped. The three teenagers went chattering happily off, hoping, undoubtedly, that this modest little scene might just happen to catch the right person’s attention when the movie was released, and pave the way for something big in the next picture. Still OAT-58 Mat IA Robert Ryan checks for last minute instructions before going out on a bank heist. “Odds Against Tomorrow,” in which he is starred with Harry Belafonte, Shelley Winters and Gloria Grahame, will open ............ atthe)... Theatre through United Artists release. Ballerina Debuts In Dramatic Role In “Odds Against Tomorrow” which will open 0.0.0... at thee er cee Theatre through United Artists release, noted ballerina Carmen DeLavallade makes her straight acting debut appearing as Harry Belafonte’s girl friend. In private life the wife of dancer Geoffrey Holder, Miss DeLavallade was prima ballerina of the Metropolitan Opera in New York for three seasons and, for the past two years, filled the leading dancing role on the NBC telecast of “Amah| and The Night Visitors.” She also filled one of the leads on television in Duke Ellington’s memorable “A Drum Is A Woman” and appeared on Broadway in “House of Flowers,” the Harold Arlen musical of a few seasons past. Last summer, she was prima ballerina of the John Butler troupe which performed at the Menotti Festival in Spoleto, Italy, and has recently appeared a number of times in special dance programs on CBS-TV’s “Look Up and Live.” Her first motion picture appearance was in “Carmen Jones,” in which she both acted and danced. In “Odds Against Tomorrow” it’s straight drama for her—no dancing or singing. Author Likes To Work Near Home William McGivern, who wrote the novel, “Odds Against Tomorrow,” from which the new United Artists release of the same title, which will open .................... at the ieee antes Theatre, is adapted, is a native Chicagoan who has now settled down on a forty-acre farm near Avondale, Pa., where he does most of his writing. There are exceptions, when he goes on long treks, as the African one which resulted in his recent book, “Mention My Name in Mombasa.” But in the main McGivern likes to work at home. He has never been interested in writing for the movies, but his books have met with exceptional success in that medium, “Odds Against Tomorrow” is the sixth one to reach the screen. The others include “The Big Heat,” “Rogue Cop,” “The Darkest Hour,” “Shield for Murder” and “The Seven File.” A graduate of Loyola Academy. a former Chicago newspaperman and a member of the anti-aircraft division during Wor'd War II. McGivern is a_ prolific writer of short stories as well as novels. Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters, Gloria Grahame and Ed Begley are co-starred in the film.