Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

James Hitchcock Although some purists would insist that film noir was an exclusively American genre, I have always taken the view that there were a number of British examples (and possibly also continental European ones such as Clouzot's "Les Diaboliques"). Notable British noirs include Carol Reed's trilogy of "Odd Man Out", "The Third Man" and "The Man Between", and Robert Hamer's "It Always Rains on Sunday" and "The Long Memory". Lewis Gilbert's "The Good Die Young" is another to add to this list. Gilbert was a versatile director; besides crime films he could also turn his hand to war movies ("Sink the Bismarck!"), action-adventure (several James Bonds) and comedies ("Educating Rita", "Shirley Valentine").Although the film is set in Britain it features several American characters, doubtless to increase its marketability across the Atlantic. It opens with four men a car, about to commit an armed robbery. It then tells each man's story in a series of flashbacks, explaining how the four, none of whom has a previous criminal record, came to be in the position where they see crime as the only solution to their problems. The film then flashes forward again to show the robbery itself and its aftermath. Although there is a conventional "crime does not pay" ending, the treatment of the criminals is surprisingly sympathetic, perhaps more sympathetic than the American Production Code would have permitted at this date.The one member of the gang who is an out-and-out scoundrel is their leader, Miles 'Rave' Ravenscourt. Rave is the son of an aristocratic family who has been living beyond his means and has run up heavy gambling debts. Rave's main way of financing his lifestyle has been sponging off his independently wealthy wife Eve- his father, from whom he is estranged, has long since cut him off without a penny- but eventually even Eve's patience has run out, leaving him in need of an alternative source of income.Joe (one of the Americans) needs to find the fare to fly back to the United States with his young English wife Mary to get away from the malign influence of her selfish, manipulative mother. Mike is a former boxer who is unable find work following his retirement from the ring and an accident in which he lost a hand. Eddie is an American airman based in England trapped in a failing marriage to an unsuccessful actress. The script implies that his wife Denise is cheating on Eddie with a handsome young actor, but this is never made completely explicit, perhaps to keep the censors happy. All three men seem to believe that they have some sort of grievance against "the system", and this makes it easy for Rave to recruit them to his scheme.There are several good acting contributions- from Laurence Harvey as the outwardly suave but inwardly vicious Rave, from a strikingly lovely Joan Collins as Mary, from Gloria Grahame as the spiteful, catty Denise and from Richard Basehart as Joe and Stanley Baker as Mike, both essentially decent men lured into criminality by the unscrupulous Rave. The one weak link in the plot was Eddie's participation in the robbery, as his problems are not so much financial as emotional; Denise obviously despises him, and there is no suggestion that his having more money would persuade her to return to him, or that he would welcome her back if she did. There is also an effective cameo from Robert Morley as Rave's autocratic and overbearing father, Sir Francis Ravenscourt; with a parent like that Rave's turning to crime seems perhaps more understandable.British crime dramas in the fifties generally took a fairly simple "cops good, robbers bad" attitude towards their subject-matter; "The Good Die Young" was one of the few to take the line, more common in American noirs, that questions of right and wrong or good and evil are often more complicated than that.The film's climax takes place at Heathrow Airport, and involves a man named Joseph, a girl named Mary and their unborn child who are facing a long and possibly difficult journey. Was this, I wondered, a deliberate reference to certain events which took place in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago? 8/10

GManfred "The Good Die Young" is a slog of a movie with an excess of plot development and a lack of action. Much of it is told in flashback dealing with how the disparate group of robbers was assembled. They are Harvey, Basehart, Ireland and Baker. Never have more time and words been spent in establishing motive and circumstance than in this talk-a-thon of a picture.On the distaff side of the cast are Gloria Grahame (trampy wife), Joan Collins (stalwart wife), and Margaret Leighton(worldly older wife). All acquit themselves very well and acting on both sides may be the only reason to stick this one out. The story itself is not bad, it just takes too long to get underway and by that time one's patience has been severely tried.I had a slight problem with the artificial denouement. I found the coincidental meeting of principals too far-fetched and defying the element of time, but at that point I just wanted it to end.

MartinHafer This is a fabulous movie and just goes to show you how good a film can be with excellent writing and acting. Even if there are no big-time stars in the movie, the four leads do fantastic jobs and are given great roles. The biggest names in the film are Laurence Harvey, Richard Basehart and Gloria Graham, but all three were at the time relatively cheap talent and affordable to this British production company. Additionally, Stanley Baker and John Ireland round out the great cast. It's also interesting that Basehart and John Ireland star in the film since they both play nice guys, as both have played some really wicked and exciting Noir roles and are two of my favorite Noir actors. In fact, ANY Noir film starring either is a must-see in my opinion.The movie is in some ways like Film Noir, but it lacks the same sharp dialog and most of the characters in the film seem like nice ordinary people you can care about--not the usual Noir thugs. Because of this, while the film is about a robbery committed by a gang, it is much different from films like RIFIFI or BOB LE FLAMBEUR because the film isn't about gangsters or professionals. While some might think this makes it less of a film, it deserves to be held in as high an esteem as these two other great films because it offers some amazing character studies and insights you don't normally get from a "caper film". Additionally, the usual film angles and cinematography isn't present but for this film it works out just fine.The film begins just before the quartet rob the post office to steal 90,000 Pounds. Instead of committing the heist, the film then abruptly changes and shows the back story of all four men and how these non-criminals came to a point in their lives where they were so desperate that they risked everything for money. These character studies were great because they really made you care about three of the men and in a way you really did want to see them succeed--now that's excellent writing! Richard Basehart is an American married to a young Joan Collins. Their lives are being ruined by an evil and manipulative mother who will do anything to either break up their marriage or at least keep Collins in London. Unfortunately, instead of just killing the horrid old woman (which most viewers will hope--believe me), he is stranded with his wife in London and living with the old harpy--and it's killing them inside. They need to do something to get back to America before Collins or her unborn child dies or Basehart commits murder!John Ireland is an American in the army and is married to Gloria Grahame. She's a small-time actress but also a tramp who blatantly cheats on him (with Miss Grahame, this is no surprise as her career was based on such roles). He needs out of this awful marriage and he's in trouble with the army and needs to escape.Stanley Baker is a journeyman boxer who has destroyed his body in the hope of retiring. Unfortunately, through no fault of his own, his nest-egg is gone and he is without job prospects after losing his left hand. He loves his wife but can't figure a way out of crippling poverty.Finally, we have Laurence Harvey. He is very unlike the other three in that you never like him and he was not intended to be likable. In many ways, he's like an upper class version of the cad he played in ROOM AT THE TOP but in this case his rich wife has had enough of his gambling, cheating on her and broken promises. She's leaving for Kenya and it looks like it might be alone. He is the most exciting of the three to watch in action, though as I said, he's NOT the nicest guy you'll see in film!So as you can see, all four men need money and otherwise they never would have considered a life of crime. Most interesting, though, is how over time it becomes apparent just how different Harvey is from the rest--leading to a bang-up conclusion to the film that seems very much like a typical Noir thriller. The final scenes are great, though some pointless and moralistic narration at the end does blunt the film's impact just a bit.So often overlooked but a terrific film throughout. See this film!By the way, if you wonder why Hollywood actors Basehart, Ireland and Grahame appeared in the film, it was relatively common in the 1950s for foreign production companies to recruit a few Americans (or in Ireland's case, Canadians) for their films. This added star power was thought to increase marketability in America and made financing easier. Oddly, this practice while common in Britain, was also very common in Italy where non-Italian speakers starred in films--such as Basehart in Fellini's LA STRADA.Also, listen closely to Grahame. Her British accent appears and disappears throughout the film and so this isn't one of her better roles.

abletonyallen To understand the impact one particular quote from this movie had on me, you need to know that I first saw it at an 'Astra' cinema in the 1950s, while serving in the RAF.In a scene early on in the film, John Ireland, a sergeant in the USAF, is accusing his wife, played by Gloria Grahame, of infidelity. She turns to him with self-righteous indignation and says (as only she can) :"Eddie, your time in the Air Force has coarsened your mind." It shouldn't be difficult to imagine how, in front of an audience comprising a couple of hundred airmen, that one line brought the house down! That apart, this is quite a decent crime caper movie, with some similarities to The League of Gentlemen (1959), but without the humorous touches.The only blemish is the usual wooden performance from Laurence Harvey. (How on earth did that man get so many leading roles in both British and American productions?) Harvey apart, the acting is of a high standard. Stanley Baker is particularly impressive as the broken down prizefighter and Richard Basehart and John Ireland (the two token Yanks in British minor movies of the fifties) give excellent support as the other two conspirators. The young Joan Collins is ravishing as the wife any man would rob a dozen banks for and Freda Jackson is outstanding as her manipulating witch of a mother. Gloria Grahame is (of course) brilliant as the femme fatale and there is a delightful cameo from Robert Morley as the villain's father.