No Down Payment

I caught this movie at a film festival at UCLA this week-end. It was excellent. Great screen play and acting. I almost didn't recognize Tony Randall as his nose is suspiciously larger than it seems in later films. Unlike the reviewer who felt this was essentially a "Soap Opera" that was well acted, I think that this film had an obvious dark side. It wasn't just the telling of the business of others, it was the unveiling of the dark underbelly of suburban life. Not for the sake of entertainment, but for the sake of exposure. This movie reminded me a lot of a William Inge play. An expose more-so than a side show. I loved it much more than I expected to.

This is not the sort of movie, I usually like. It's basically a soap opera about of the lives of 4 young married couples in a new community in California. What makes it stand out is the truly amazing performances of the actors - Oscar material, certainly. It's well worth the rental, if you can find it. Occasionally shown at 2am on access cable, this is a hidden gem.

This 20th Century Fox expose of "the good life" in the suburbs wasn't seen by anybody much in 1957, and it's easy to see why: It probes convincingly deep into the less pleasant aspects of this clean, all-white subculture, and suburban moviegoers probably didn't want to see their worst aspects on screen, and urban audiences didn't care. Early Martin Ritt, and typically thorough of him, it explores prejudice, sexism, alcoholism, war veterans with what would now be diagnosed as PTSD, and capitalism's way of trapping young families in debt. The wide-screen black-and-white cinematography is clean and alluring, and all eight principals do well--Sheree North, groomed by 20th to be a threat to Monroe, proves once again that they didn't really give her enough chances to show what she could do. The shiny surfaces and flattering clothes and powerful cars all illustrate that "good life," and show what's wrong with it. And in comprehensively exploring the roots and hypocrisies and effects of racism at the time, it's a good deal braver than many contemporary films.

I'm so glad I bought this movie. The acting is superb, and as someone before said, it's definately Oscar-worthy. Although Joanne Woodward won an Oscar for another movie ('The Three Faces Of Eve') the same year, she should have been nominated for this one as well. This movie is SO well-acted I can't even believe it. I expected a riveting, stand-out performance from Joanne Woodward, because you can always count on her for that. But I didn't expect the rest of the cast to give wonderful performances as well. The one thing that got me is I never knew which characters to like. They all had their good points and their bad.

If for nothing else, see the movie for Joanne Woodward. If you're ever feeling doubtful about the acting ability of some of today's actors, go watch a Joanne Woodward movie. She'll renew you. I'm so amazed by that girl's talent.

I grew up in a post ww11 housing development, and all the characters of No Down Payment were our neighbors and family. Right down to the racial discriminating, only Mexicans were the people our neighborhood discriminated against. A pity. The buying of new cars,and ex-servicemen unable to find their niche, still living their war glory days. And young women who weren't really ready for married life,like the character portrayed by Joanne Woodward. The actors playing the characters were so believable, Pat Hingle even looked the part of the put upon successful man, Tony Randle played a depressed alcoholic,Jeffrey Hunter was an excellent college educated young man. I knew all these characters while growing up in a post ww11 housing development. Now I want to buy a copy of this excellent film.