The Good Die Young (1954) User Reviews (48)

American noir veterans, English up-and-comers unite for downbeat crime drama

[bmacv · 7/10 · 21 September 2003]

The Good Die Young is not an evocative but generic title like The Damned Don't Cry but as quite a literal summation of the story, if an incomplete one, for the bad die young, too. This English crime drama is more kitchen-sink than country manor, and a strong showing of Yanks in the cast helps cut into the order and reserve that often keeps such British efforts plucky but tepid. What results is an involving, many-layered movie, if a decidedly downbeat one.

Four unhappy plot lines converge into one very unhappy ending: Prizefighter Stanley Baker boxes with a broken hand that ends up gangrenous and amputated. Since his wife (Rene Ray) has given their meager life savings to her wastrel brother, he doesn't know where his next farthing is coming from.

Richard Basehart quits his job in New York to return to London and fetch his English wife (Joan Collins), who is being held hostage by her manipulative, malingering old monster of a mother (Freda Jackson).

G.I. John Ireland, on 48-hour furlough, goes AWOL when he can't find a minute to spend with his self-absorbed starlet wife Gloria Grahame, making time with the hot young star on her picture (Lee Patterson).

Lawrence Harvey, a sadistic sweet-talker, gambles and carouses on the money of his rich wife (Margaret Leighton), who's fast getting fed up with his feckless ways; he dines out on being a decorated war hero, but the father who disowns him (Robert Morley) believes he exterminated a nest of Germans who were unarmed and unconscious.

During a chance meeting in a pub, Harvey, desperate to make good on a bad check he wrote, wheedles the at-first-reluctant others into a scheme for robbing a postal truck of recycled Bank of England currency. He claims to be doing it only to help them out of their jams, but his sole interest lies in helping himself....

Lewis Gilbert (later to direct Alfie and three installments of the 007 franchise) opens just as the robbery is about to take place. Then he quickly flashes back to tell how the four perpetrators got there. He intercuts their stories (rather deftly), returning to the scene of the crime and its grisly aftermath only at the end. So the strength of the movie lies in its individual vignettes and the actors who bring them to life. These are variable.

Top-billed Harvey overplays his hand as the scheming psycho, as does Grahame as the round-heeled twitch. Ireland and Basehart cope well with loosely textured roles. The breakthrough performance is Baker's, who brings to mind all those deluded pugilists in American ropes-and-canvas epics, dying for illusory glory. The wives are mostly afterthoughts, though Ray and Leighton bring some poignancy to their plights. Morley and Jackson deserve mention for the incisiveness of their peripheral roles. More a drama of converging fates than a film noir (even a Britnoir), The Good Die Young holds attention owing to its large and seasoned cast and its slow but determined pace.

Four Men, Four Women, Four Guns.

[hitchcockthelegend · 8/10 · 1 December 2009]

The Good Die Young is a cracking British Noir picture directed by Lewis Gilbert and featuring a strong cast of British and American actors. Laurence Harvey, Stanley Baker, Richard Basehart, John Ireland, Gloria Grahame, Margaret Leighton, Joan Collins and Rene Ray are the principals. While support comes from Robert Morley and Freda Jackson.

Adapted from the novel written by Richard MacAuley, the story starts with four men pulling up in a car, guns are passed around them and it's soon evident they are about to commit a serious crime. We are then taken through the sequences for each man, how they came to be at that point in time, what brought them together and their common interest; that of women trouble and financial strife. It's excellently structured by Gilbert, four separate stories, yet all of them are on the same track and heading towards the grim and potently "noirish" final quarter. Such is the way that we as viewers have been fully informed about our characters, the impact when things get violent is doubly strong. It takes you by surprise at first because the makers have given us a smooth set-up, and then there is the shock factor because these were not criminal men at the outset. But then..

A real pleasant surprise to this particular viewer was The Good Die Young, it's got fully formed characters within a tight and interesting story. The cast do fine work, yes one could probably complain a touch that the ladies are under written, but they each get in and flesh out the downward spiral of the male protagonists. Rene Ray is particularly impressive as the fraught wife of Stanley Baker's injured boxer, Mike, while Gloria Grahame (walking like a panther) is memorable as a bitch-a-like babe driving her husband Eddie (Ireland) to distraction. Basehart is his usual value for money self, but it's Baker and Harvey who own the picture. Baker does a great line in raw emotion, a big man, big heart and a big conscious; his journey is the films emotional axis, while Harvey is positively weasel like as playboy sponger Miles Ravenscourt; someone who is guaranteed to have you hissing at the screen with his stiffness perfectly befitting the character.

Top stuff. 8/10

A memorable line

[abletonyallen · 6/10 · 18 January 2005]

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.

Too melodramatic for the majority but has a good start and a strong final quarter

[bob the moo · 20 January 2005]

Four men are in a car. They are all from different walks of life and a short time ago none of them were nothing more than drinking buddies – now they are on their way somewhere with a box full of guns. A washed up boxer, a man trying to win his wife back from a controlling mother, an RAF officer with a cheating wife and a "gentleman" with no means of his own. Only a few weeks ago, "gentleman" Miles finds himself out of luck with his women and his money pit in-laws and, needing money so, when he meets the other three men, he sees a chance to take advance of their various needs.

For a while back in the fifties, British cinema seemed to have enough grit and clout to it to almost be able to compete with the American market in regards crime thrillers (if not quite noirs); The Good Die Young is one of those that has a good try and is a pretty enjoyable piece even if it lacks the grit and tension of similar American products. The film opens with an intriguing set up but then jumps back to establish the story and characters and it is here where it becomes weak. The back stories are rather melodramatic and it doesn't fit well with what was meant to be a bit tougher and gripping; they are interesting enough to do the job but I must admit to feeling that they were a bit dragged out and unnecessarily long. However, if you make it through this main body of the film you'll get to an ending that is just what the film should have been throughout. I won't spoil it but it is enjoyably brutal, downbeat and gripping – "about time" was my thought when I realised that the film had gotten going.

The cast do their best with the melodrama but the material isn't there for them and they are mixed. Harvey and Baker stand out with strong performances; Basehart is good but Ireland feels like he is just making up the numbers. Naturally Collins stands out today, and she is quite good but the melodrama is made better by Grahame, Ray and, to a lesser extent, Leighton. Of course the men are all much better in the proper crime side of the film and this is partly due to better and more atmospheric direction from writer/director Gilbert, who also injects the pace when it is required.

Overall this is an average film mainly because the back story takes up far too much of the film, is too melodramatic and doesn't sit well with the tough tension promised in the first scene and delivered at the end. With the main trunk being rather plodding, the ending does feel a lot better mainly because you're grateful that the film has gotten going. Could have been great but is merely reasonably good; worth seeing for genre and period fans but will not impress a wider audience.

Surprisingly robust British thriller

[MOscarbradley · 7/10 · 18 December 2008]

An attempt by the British to make a noirish thriller in the American style and it almost pays off. It's strong on atmosphere, with some superb nighttime photography, and it has an outstanding cast even if some of them are not at their best. It's both an heist movie and a character study that delves into the lives and backgrounds of the criminals on the job, by way of flashbacks.

They are Laurence Harvey, Stanley Baker, (both very good), Richard Basehart and John Ireland, (less so), and their women include a young and highly inadequate Joan Collins, Gloria Grahame, (winging it), and a marvelous Margaret Leighton who plays the woman who is married to Harvey and who keeps him and who was also married to him in real life.

The serviceable Lewis Gilbert directs with real flair. Gilbert never made the front ranks yet many of his films were surprisingly entertaining and well-made. This is one of them.

crime takes place & tension take's over the gang.

[rogerjillings · 7/10 · 6 April 2005]

A well crafted heist thriller of the old school with the message of crime doesn't pay about a quartet of ne'er-do-wells who's stories are told in flashbacks then culminates in the daring crime which in turns leads to divisions amongst them.The leader is Miles(Rave)Ravenscourt(Laurence Harvey)who's at his gleefully sneering best with a host of well known faces(Baker,Basehart&John Ireland,there's also a young Joan Collins as Basehart's wife along with Gloria Grahame who's wonderful as a spoilt married woman to one of the gang.Full of action towards the end especially the underground scenes,the cast includes Margaret Leighton who was Harvey's real life wife.

Intriguing heist film, which takes time to substantially explore the characters therein and their reasons for turning to crime.

[johnnyboyz · 7/10 · 16 January 2011]

The Good Die Young comes at you from the very beginning; a honking, blaring opening consisting of the front of a car filling the screen. We appear to be on the back of the vehicle in front, that sensation of being chased through the dimly lit public streets in the dead of night most certainly prominent. British director Lewis Gilbert begins his 1954 heist film in a stark and unmitigated fashion, that sense of having something you don't want right on your tail or looming over you as you attempt to get away; his film going on to document a handful of characters as disparate as they are desperate with a foreboding sense of the inevitable looming over each of their heads as they ponder a heist set against each of their respective financial situations. But where the opening is frank in its immediacy, The Good Die Young goes on to morph into a rather intimate character study about a handful of men brought together through the same reason to take part in the same task.

The film is ultimately about the allure of crime than anything else; those expecting a gangster film will be rather sorely disappointed, with Gilbert's film coming to resemble more a class drama than a crime genre piece. It's bookended by the men clustered together with tensions running high and a sorely undesired predicament looming, a clerk named Joe Halsey (Basehart) narrating to us how it was he and three others got to be occupying a rich playboy's car sizing up an object and wielding pistols; the finale a quite gripping trawl through the murky, cobbled streets of 1950s Britain as police officers; stray freight trains and unfaithful partners in crime each pose their own threats. It's here Gilbert proves he's just as apt at dealing with dramatic action set-pieces as he is engaging us with character: specifically, who's involved; what's at stake; who's going where, and why; the internal 'checkpoints' the characters must reach as well as the sorts of action that must be undertaken, the man having his characters in The Good Die Young pay special attention to both the methodical planning and dealing with each obstacle within an action set piece which needs separately dealing with during the final getaway.

Gilbert executed similarly effective craft later on in his career, namely when he was granted the helming of three separate films within the James Bond cannon. 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me saw an extended scene on board a tanker ship nearer said film's climax and required its lead to first get aboard; find some trapped hostages; recover them only to discover a wall of seemingly impregnable steel; find something which might destroy that; obtain it, and then follow through once again with the next course of action. The attention to such things were initially used to a lesser degree of success in 1967's You Only Live Twice. But in The Good Die Young, a similarly effective craft is evident behind not only the finale but the getting to this point; the film coming to resemble one long flashback told to us by the aforementioned Joe involving a whole group of people brought together through problems with money.

The film does its best to intrinsically link each man, each one being of a respective background in class and career; one of whom is a boxer named Mike Morgan (Baker), a man at the end of his stretch as a fighter - the ring-set howls and wails as another fatal blow is landed upon a poor opponent much to the glee of the crowd echoing down below into the locked room as Mike sits there knowing one of his hands is on the brink of being seriously damaged as it is. Meanwhile, American pilot Eddie Blain (Ireland) refuses orders to ship out to West Germany with the American air force to instead zero in on his wife and her infidelities; whereas narrator Joe maintains a rocky relationship with the mother of his own wife, something he gets involved in so much so that flying back to England from his American-based clerical job to get involved sees him fired.

So each man is rather attuned to their wives, Mike's relationship seeing him admit to lending his hard-earned cash to his own wife's brother if she'd told him to; his ultimate goal to take his large earnings and escape to his beloved. Furthermore, each man's respective situation in each of their jobs sees them hit a proverbial wall bringing about unemployment or redundancy; each of the three men additionally appearing to have served in a respective war and two of them have experiences with near-death or great harm of some kind in that Joe's mother in law attempts suicide and Mike must come to have some serious work done on his hand.

The men are eventually thrust together by the seemingly indomitable Miles Ravenscourt (Harvey), a young man, whom might be richer than he actually is, but whom occupies a plush and far richer locale; a self indulgent man whose home is rife with portraits of himself and whose wife Eve (Leighton) must suffer his begging for more money despite both parties' knowledge of his trouble with gambling debts; a man so estranged from his father, that he hopes to outlive him so that Miles may never see any of his inheritance, such is is ill-minded way with money as the film will go on to document. As previously mentioned, the film is more about the allure of crime or the idea behind a criminal act that'll greatly benefit oneself arriving with a sense of enticement, than most others things. The duality in each of the four men may appear looser than desired, but Gilbert crafts rather-a taut and tight heist film about desperate people doing desperate things at desperate times.

And then there were...

[Lejink · 7/10 · 11 November 2007]

Better than it has a right to be this film starts somewhat uncomfortably in very British stiff-upper-lip fashion, stagily introducing four very different couples all with problems which under the self-serving guidance of ringleader Laurence Harvey moves unexpectedly to an excellent almost UK take on film noir. Basically a cautionary tale of when thieves fall out the film meanders fairly lightly to the trigger point in the film where Harvey ups the ante on their post office heist by inexplicably shooting a nosey policeman right in the face. From there on it's all darkness and shade with some fine cinematography effectively conveying the mean streets which will eventually claim them all as victims. Of course some of the language is dated and some of the performances mannered but the four male leads are contrastingly good, particularly Harvey as the suave psychopath who clearly has no plans to share any of the hard won loot with his erstwhile colleagues. The female players, starry as they are, are less effective, conveying less realism than their male partners. Director Lewis Gilbert, later to helm a number of James Bond outings, prefigures this work here by demonstrating his greater grasp of action set pieces than character study. Certainly worth watching, especially the suspenseful second half, which lifts the film to a different level altogether.

Thieves fall out,,thus saving the hangman a job.

[ianlouisiana · 7/10 · 21 August 2006]

There I was proceeding along my beat in a westerly direction when I sees a motor vehicle parked in a dangerous position.I goes over to have a word with the driver and he does no more than bleedin' shoot me. Dead I was,before I hit the ground.I 'ope they 'ang the bastard......... Well,they almost certainly would have done of course,just to press home the message that crime doesn't pay,but in the end the job was done for them by his mates. In the 50s only amateurs carried guns,ex-servicemen or upper-class black sheep(can you still say that?)like Lawrence Harvey,perhaps the odd yank who still thought he was in Chicago....no proper villain fancied risking getting his neck stretched . An ill-sorted quartet rob a post office with minimal planning and fall out over the proceeds,knocking each other off,and then there were none. Mainly of interest for a wildly over the top performance from the aforesaid Mr Harvey,"The good die young" is nevertheless hugely enjoyable in a left-handed kind of way.None of it can be taken the least bit seriously.Watching it rather reminds me of putting on a well-worn and comfortable pair of slippers,you're in the company of an old and trusted friend who isn't going to suddenly pinch your toe or trip you up,you know where you are with this movie.You've got the great Robert Morley playing Harvey paterfamilias,Gloria Grahame,the goodtime girl's goodtime girl,Stanley Baker as a disabled former practitioner of the noble art and two reliable Hollywood second strings amiably playing along with it all. Lawrence Harvey seldom gave a good performance (with the honourable exception of the masterly "Expresso Bongo")but you didn't often sleep while he was on.Lovers of overacting and the ever-so-slightly camp will be in ecstasies over "The good die young",I don't think I could be real friends with anyone who didn't like it just a little bit.

An amazing movie considering its simplicity and lack of big stars.

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 11 July 2007]

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.

Entertaining, but Unlikely Film - The Good Die Young

[arthur_tafero · 6/10 · 27 December 2021]

One of the earliest films of Lawrence Harvey and Joan Collins makes a big impact on the screen. Add good performance by Richard Basehart, Gloria Grahame, Stanley Baker, and John Ireland, and you have a star-studded cast in a rather ordinary crime caper. But it is not the crime that is the highlight of the film, it is the delirious over the top performance by Harvey that marks him as an actor to be watched in the future after 1954. The story of three men down on their luck taking direction from a rich, spoiled aristocrat (are there any other kind?) is a relatively unlikely scenario, but one that the audience might find very convenient for a good story. And this one is a good story.

Excellent British crime drama

[chris_gaskin123 · 8/10 · 7 February 2005]

Channel 4 recently screened The Good Die Young one afternoon so I set the video and was pleased I did.

Four men, a boxer who has had one of his arms amputated, a rich man and two Americans are fed up of being short of money. The rich man suggests the four of them rob a post office which is having a delivery of £90,000 later that evening. After all agreeing, they head there but things start going wrong when a copper comes over to their car to tell them are illegally parked. He is shot dead and the gang the raid the van and take the money and escape into a nearby church yard. The rich man shoots the boxer first after he decides to give himself up, then as they are crossing the railway lines which are electrified, he pushes one of the Americans onto the live rails and is electrocuted. The two survivors manage to escape further from the police on an Underground train but the American decides he has had enough and goes back to his wife and they head to the airport to go catch a flight back to America. After making a last minute phone call to police telling them where the hidden money is, the rich man sees him in the phone booth but he is shot by the American. Thinking he is dead, he heads for the plane but is shot and then collapses into his wife's arms and dies. A sad ending.

The movie has excellent location photography around London and one of the best parts is the railway sequence.

This movie is worth having in a collection just for the cast: the gang leader is played by Laurence Harvey, the boxer is played by Stanley Baker (Zulu), the Americans are Richard Basehart (Voyage to the Bottom Of the Sea) and John Ireland. The rest of the cast includes a young Joan Collins (Empire of the Ants, Dynasty), Robert Morley (who only appears too briefly), Margaret Leighton, Freda Jackson (The Valley Of Gwangi), Rene Ray and Susan Shaw.

Watching this is an ideal way of spending 100 minutes one afternoon. Excellent.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

I debate about only the good dying young.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 4 May 2020]

This story British film noir is a surprise to find, a dark caper film along the lines of Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing". There's Laurence Harvey, Richard Basehart, John Ireland and Stanley Baker, for men in younique indifferent stations in life, joined together for a crime that the audience knows will take them down. Their women are Gloria grahame, Joan Collins, Renee Ray and Margaret Leighton, and of the four women, only Collins and Ray are decent while the other two are either self-centered or deadly. Collins is faced with an aging, suicidal mother (Freda Jackson) who keeps spoiling her attempts to be with the man she loves, while Grahame is a self centered film star stepping out on her man. When he captures her, it's a hysterical seeing that literally will leave her in cold water.

For the first hour of this film, we are led to believe through flashbacks that's something dangerous is about to happen, but other than the opening segment of the four men gathered together and showing their weapons are we aware that they are up to no good. These revelations are important to move the story along, and the film is not boring at all in telling these pre crime happenings. The last half-hour is where the film really hits a top-notch speed, and it is a race to the finish line for all of them as they are able to get the crime done but their own greed is destined to do them in. one ironic moment has a final grin of one of the men as he takes care of another one, and it is quite ironic.

The cleverness of the script makes this very intriguing, and the fast pacing even in the non-criminal flashback scenes will keep you engrossed. There's a cameo by Robert Morley as well. By mixing an American and British cast, this has historical value as well, and the lovely Collins certainly will turn your head.

A crime thriller wannabe that doesn't quite make it.

[manxman-1 · 4/10 · 29 October 2002]

A cast of very good actors giving less than stellar performances in a "terribly English" crime drama about four losers banding together to rob a post office van. Contrived situations and sledgehammer dialogue doom this movie to sub-B status. What this project really needed was a scriptwriter with a sense of pace and an ear for dialogue and a strong director - neither of which it has, even though director Lewis Gilbert would indeed go on to better things. One wonders how American director Jules Dassin, who was active in this period and excelled at this kind of movie, would have handled the material - much faster, slicker and entertaining, no doubt. Joan Collins in one of her early roles - her breasts thrusting into the spotlight at every opportunity. Thank God she subsequently got her act together and took herself less seriously. A dreadful performance by the great Gloria Grahame, who played similar roles in other movies to much greater effect. Competent performances by John Ireland and Richard Basehart, despite their klunky dialogue. A showy, slimy performance by matinée idol Laurence Harvey that is waaaay too English to be convincing or believable. The one knockout performance comes from forgotten Welsh actor Stanley Baker as a washed up boxer. Vibrant, passionate, quietly effective when needed. A major talent cut short in his prime. A quality act. Overall the movie suffers from an artificial style of acting that disappeared from the British cinema in the early 60's with the emergence of the working class actors like Finney, Courtenay, O'Toole and Harris - and not a moment too soon. An interesting curiosity of a movie but could have been much better.

Great Cast, Great Story

[bux · 29 October 2002]

What a cast! Basehart, Harvey, Baker, and Ireland turn out stunning performances in this British film noir entry. The story is of three decent men, on hard times that are enticed to robbery by the one bad seed amongst them (Harvey). Also interesting to view Joan Collins in an early role, man she was REALLY hot when she was young. The tale is told in flashback, and younger viewers, more inclined to slash and bang, might find it a bit slow, but the ending is both subtle and surprising. A good one.

O Men, O Women!

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 27 April 2015]

One by one we meet four troubled men.

(1) Richard Basehart is a clerk in New York who gives up his job and spends all his money flying to England to fetch his wife, Joan Collins, back home. Collins loves Basehart but is in thrall to her wicked Mum who hates Basehart and constantly comes down with phony, hypochondriacal illnesses to keep Collins with her. Basehart can't pry her away and, in any case, is now nearly broke.

(2) Stanley Baker, a boxer who has had his brains beaten out for twelve years but has finally managed to save twelve hundred pounds, enough for him to quit the ring and buy a tobacconist's shop. His decision is made final when he must have his hand amputated. Alas, his stake disappears when it's used as bail for his no-good brother-in-law who promptly skips town and forfeits the bail.

(3) John Ireland, a sergeant in the US Air Force, who is about to be transferred from England to Germany. His problem is that his wife, Gloria Grahame, is a narcissistic film star who is always followed around by a gaggle of horny groupies. He becomes a deserter in his efforts to renew their love.

(4) Lawrence Harvey: Smooth, insincere husband to a rich woman who finally refuses to pay for any more of his indulgences, such as women and gambling. Like the others, he's a combat veteran. But his decorations in North Africa were unjustly won because he simply murdered a handful of German prisoners. This was especially déclassé because North Africa was a gentleman's war. Now his rich old wife is cutting him off.

What to do, what to do? The answer is to organize a group of robbers -- himself and the other three, whom he has met adventitiously in a pub -- and steal ninety thousand pounds in old bank notes from a post office across the street from the pub. They will all have guns but if they do what they're supposed to, the guns will not be needed.

I don't want to give too much away, but the four men pull the robbery off, but the duplicitous Harvey not only begins shooting police officers but Baker as well. During their getaway, Harvey sees to it that Ireland "accidentally" falls on the third rail of the underground railway. Basehart has seen none of this but suspects betrayal since, after all, he may be a mere unemployed clerk but is not a jackass. Nobody gets away. This is 1954. No miscreant ever got away clean in 1954. But the final scene, a confrontation between Harvey and Basehart, is not badly done. A lot of tension nicely captured. Other than that, the direction is routine.

I had a problem with Harvey's hair. He doesn't have nice hair. It's long, thin, and stringy and if not properly maintained it tends to fall in greasy strands across his forehead. Here, makeup has created a coiffure that resembles some kind of 1950s pompadour or something. It juts up and out over his face. When he runs, this lump of hair bounces up and down as if held together by Crazy Glue. Other than that, he's an admirable rat, what with his sleek features and posh accent. Joan Collins hasn't that much screen time but she's gorgeous. She should leave her cheek bones, those flaring malars, to the British Museum. She's worth robbing a Post Office for. Gloria Grahame was a popular noir figure and for good reason. She has a tiny sexy mouth and a girlish whine. She always sounds dumb and wily at the same time. But her attempt at an English accent is a successful failure.

Seemingly interminable setup but great finish

[grantss · 6/10 · 9 October 2022]

Four law-abiding men, war heroes no less, are drawn by circumstance into committing an armed robbery. There's Mike, the boxer who just fought his last fight. Joe, desperately trying to move his English wife to the US and away from the clutches of her clinging mother. Eddie, the US Air Force Sergeant with a wandering wife. Last but certainly not least there's Rave, the "gentleman" who squanders any money he gets and has been cut off by his father.

Interesting enough but looked set to fizzle out to nothingness at one stage. It started well enough, introducing the four main characters and their reasons for taking this drastic course of action. Problem is, the background/setup stage is overdone: it ends up taking up about 75% of the film! Some details and developments could easily have been left out without starving the audience of information or reducing the quality of the film.

The final Act - the robbery - is great though and makes a profound, poignant point too. You just have to get through some tedium to get to it though.

more crime time

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 26 July 2021]

Four men with four guns are in a car in London ready to do a crime. The movie goes back to reveal how they got there. Joe Halsey (Richard Basehart) has returned from the war but he's fearful that his wife Mary (Joan Collins) has left him to go back to London. He quits his job and rushes over. He's overjoyed when she tells him that she's pregnant and ready to leave her mother behind. Mike Morgan (Stanley Baker) is a struggling boxer on his last legs. Eddie Blaine (John Ireland) is frustrated with his actress wife. Miles 'Rave' Ravenscourt (Laurence Harvey) is a kept man with a rich wife and growing gambling debts. Neither his wife nor his rich father (Robert Morley) is willing to help. All four men need quick money.

It takes a bit too long to introduce all four men. It's better to condense all the stories before the men get into the car with guns. Add the time to recruit the men, it leaves little space in the movie for the caper. It's an interesting idea but I would just flip the time spent around. Less time on the setup and more time with the crime.

true title

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 2 December 2012]

"The Good Die Young" is a 1954 British film with an impressive cast consisting of Laurence Harvey, Stanley Baker, John Ireland, Richard Basehart, Joan Collins, Margaret Leighton, and Gloria Grahame.

The four men band together to commit a robbery, though they're not experienced criminals - just three men down in their luck and desperate, and one snake (that would be Harvey). Richard Basehart plays Joe, whose wife Mary left for England to visit her sick mother and hasn't returned. Her mother is the type that has attacks whenever Mary says she's going home. Meanwhile, she's pregnant and he has to get her back to America, but since he's quit his job, he needs money.

John Ireland is Eddie, who is married to an actress (Grahame). She is so busy on the set (and with her costar) that he goes AWOL to have time with her. By the time he realizes she's not worth it, it's too late.

Stanley Baker is Mike Morgan, who loses his gangrenous hand after a boxing match, and needs money to live on.

Laurence Harvey is a worm married to a wealthy woman (Leighton) who refuses to pay his gambling debt and wants him to move to Africa with her. He comes up with the idea of the robbery and convinces the others.

This has the look and feel of a British B picture from the era and there really isn't anything exceptional about it. It's not as suspenseful as it could have been, though it isn't bad. It's worth seeing for these young actors, and indeed, Harvey, Baker,Leighton, and Graham did die young, sadly. The only one today still with us is the indomitable Joan Collins, now 79.

Worth a look.

British crime noir with exemplary cast and characterisation

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 11 March 2017]

THE GOOD DIE YOUNG is a fine British crime film noir of the 1950s with an impressive British/American cast and an intriguing storyline. The narrative is carefully structured, beginning with an exciting interlude before telling four separate character stories in flashback. Eventually the viewer catches up with the present for a gripping climax.

The first thing you notice about this film is the exemplary cast. Laurence Harvey is perfectly cast as the despicable cad who gathers together a team of desperate men to pull of a post office robbery. Richard Basehart is the imported American player struggling to wrest control of his youthful wife Joan Collins from his sinister mother-in-law (Freda Jackson, who with this and THE BRIDES OF Dracula had a fine role in domineering older women). John Ireland and Gloria Grahame have a convincingly volatile relationship.

Best of the bunch is a thoroughly sympathetic Stanley Baker playing a down-on-his-luck boxer going through some very tough times. The underrated Baker is a delight in the part and steals his scenes, even from Harvey. The likes of Robert Morley and Lee Patterson provide solid support. The lengthy flashback scenes are engaging pieces of character work, true to life and authentic, and they serve as a good set-up for the electrifying climax where things don't go according to plan. The last twenty minutes of this film are impressively downbeat and nail-biting to boot. Great stuff.

Four war veterans accidentally get together on a string of hope while one of them ruins it.

[clanciai · 9/10 · 7 June 2020]

This is nothing less than a tragedy of three good and honest men who happen to an awful mess of very bad luck, each one in his own way, one having his marriage ruined by his mother-in-law, one having his marriage wrecked by his wife's infidelity, a beautiful but flippant film star, and the third being ruined by his brother-in-law. But they all three run into one more piece of very bad luck, which finishes them off, as they encounter Laurence Harvey, a rich aristocrat without character, who gambles away his wife's money until she refuses to give him any more, wherefore he grows desperate and decides to use any means for his gambling debts. He is the rotten egg that brings all the other three down the drain, although they could have saved themselves and their lives and wives without him. It is a very dark noir, the fabric of the fates being woven is inevitable and growing constantly worse, and there are some final shocks to end the sordid business, with a very appropriate summary as an epitaph on the final tombstone of perfect failures. It is well made and well acted, also the ladies, like Joan Collins, Margaret Leighton and Gloria Grahame are perfect as they are, while Robert Morley only appears in one scene which summarizes the whole terrible case. Laurence Harvey was too good-looking for his own good, especially in a film like this.

The Devil and Good Intentions...

[higherall7 · 7/10 · 18 December 2023]

Perhaps it goes without saying that when people are financially challenged they will do the damnedest things. Here's a case in point for your inspection. One of the virtues of intelligence, (and I might also add sanity), is being able to put the right solution to right problem. You might be surprised how many reasonably intelligent people have difficulty with this when faced with adverse situations. This drama, centering as it does on the trials of four young couples struggling with troublesome relationships involving each other and the almighty cash, successfully riveted this viewer's attention.

I was nodding off when this came on television and suddenly found myself focused on the story from beginning to end. The idea of four relatively young men meeting at some kind of moral and ethical crossroads in a British pub communicated swiftly after the shock appeal of the opening sequence. The setup was so intriguing and the exposition so seeded with the scent of a hokey and melodramatic tragedy in the making, the viewer tends to feel committed to seeing this thing through to the end somehow. This is exactly what the four main characters are tasked with doing. What is so compelling here is that these men are not career criminals or inherently evil.

The cast is all A-list leading men and women. It's hard to imagine anything going awry with the likes of Lawrence Harvey, Gloria Grahame, Richard Basehart, the poor man's Elizabeth Taylor Joan Collins, John Ireland, newcomer Rene Ray, the right honorable Stanley Baker and Margaret Leighton involved, and quite frankly, it seems to me hardly anything does. Here and there, the four interlocking stories of characters challenged to exercise their moral imagination sometimes flirts and smacks right up against melodrama while skirting around the fringes of soap opera, but these relatively good guys going wrong under the malevolent influence of a philandering born killer as represented by Harvey, are always engaging and I found myself invested enough to want to find out what they would do next. The story itself seemed to me a great deal more comprehensible and definitely a bit easier to follow than the shenanigans of the career criminals in PULP FICTION (1994). At least it was more readily apparent to me and my taste for moral closure what this tale was all about.

Lawrence Harvey is Miles 'Rave' Ravenscourt, the man with the nefarious plan. At first, he is scoffed at by Stanley Baker as newly retired prize fighter Mike Morgan, a man without a hand, along with John Ireland as Eddie Blaine, who has deserted from military service to keep an eye on his unfaithful wife, Denise Blaine, played with crafty flirtatiousness by Gloria Grahame. We find Richard Basehart as Joe Halsey up against it, battling a possessive mother for the heart of his wife, Mary Halsey, as played by Joan Collins. In flashbacks, we glimpse at the moral dilemmas confronting this troubled quartet. We come to sympathize with them, when, despite their best intentions, at least three of these hapless fellows start to stray from their moral compass to consider the line of least ethical and moral resistance.

In the end, this cinematic offering comes across as an inversion of The Three Musketeers, with Harvey's Ravenscourt serving as a demented D'Artagnan. After helpfully taking them past the point of no return, Miles gleefully presides over the suspenseful proceedings as the whole caper he first proposed unravels before their very eyes. Next thing we know, director Lewis Gilbert is delivering up the poetic justice and closing out the resolution in a kind of moral geometry that is palpably satisfying and far more plausible than anything that has come before. The ending resounds with a dignity that goes beyond any ambiguity the exposition might have suggested or promised. These four men who conspired to get something for nothing, now are seen earning nothing for something far more important and non-negotiable.

A British Noir Masterpiece, One of My Favorite Films

[trolli-88179 · 10/10 · 19 February 2021]

Four men in a car on the streets of London about to undertake a wicked deed : three good men, one vicious, conniving man. But what persuaded the good to join the evil, and does evil ever seek to benefit its pawns? This is the opening to the British crime/drama "The Good Die Young", starring Laurence Harvey, Richard Basehart, Stanley Baker, and John Ireland as the four men in question. Alongside them appear Margaret Leighton, Joan Collins, Rene Ray, and Gloria Grahame as their wives, respectively. The film is seen in flashbacks following four paralleling storylines : a playboy, a desperate husband, a boxer, and an American GI. These men are brought together by a common need : money. Quick money. A hopeless situation with no realistic solution. But not so to one man, who thinks nothing of law and right.

"The Good Die Young" is a triumph of British cinema and a brutal, dark warning to those who stray from right and truth. Each player in the story is perfectly cast and committed to their roles, each delivering a compelling, excellent performance. The script is straight forward and full of meaning with no wasted words or unnecessary drivel. The message is clear, and it is one that all should see. I rate "The Good Die Young" 10/10.

Entertaining heist movie

[HotToastyRag · 7/10 · 27 October 2022]

Four men decide to rob a bank together, but how did they end up in such dire straits? The first half of The Good Die Young shows you all four characters' backstories through flashback, and the second half shows you the robbery and aftermath. It's not really that good of a movie, but I have seen it twice and found it entertaining both times.

Richard Basehart's story is a little tragic, but I don't see why he needs money that badly he needs to rob a bank. He's married to Joan Collins, and Joan is constantly manipulated by her mother to stay at her side and spend time away from her husband. Joan is pregnant, and Richard wants her to return to America with him once and for all. He needs money for a plane ticket - doesn't that seem to be stretching it a bit? John Ireland is married to English movie star Gloria Grahame. Let's dissect that for a minute: Gloria Grahame plays an English woman. It's quite laughable, as her Brooklyn shines through constantly, making you wonder if her character is actually an American pretending to be highbrow English and eventually the secret will be exposed. No such luck: she just never should have been cast in the role. I pity John Ireland for acting opposite her. His character is a cuckold, and he wants money to get a fresh start with life. Stanley Baker is a boxer with a bad hand, and just when he thinks he can retire on his life's savings, his wife throws it away on her no-good brother's bail money. And finally, the scoundrel of the bunch is Laurence Harvey (of course). He's married to an older, rich woman, Margaret Leighton, and he gets her to foot all his bills by occasional seductions. One morning she refuses, which is how he comes up with the bank robbery idea.

If you like heist movies or the cast appeals to you, go ahead and rent this movie for a rainy day matinee. It might not be an A-tier drama, but it's definitely entertaining and will keep you invested. Robert Morley's brief role is featured in my favorite scene. A desperate Harvey seeks money from his father when his wife refuses, and Morley gives a firm refusal. "You won't get one penny of my money ever, or your mother's, until I'm dead. I may tell you I have one ambition left in life: to outlive you." The rest of the movie isn't that clever, but I just love that one line.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. About 35 minutes in, there's a POV shot after Stanley Baker hurts his hand, and that will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

The slippery slope.

[brogmiller · 5/10 · 12 August 2021]

Four men, all suffering from anaemia of the exchequer, meet regularly in a public house called, rather appropriately, 'the four in hand'. Despite pleading poverty they spend the funds they don't have in drowning their sorrows.

Mike is a washed-up, one-armed boxer, Joe a penniless clerk, Eddie a deserter and Miles an all-round rotter. When Miles suggests that the only way to solve their financial worries is to commit a robbery, the other three initially show reluctance but as lack of money is the root of all evil............

Romulus films liked to use American stars, for obvious reasons, but in this, ironically, it is the Americans that come off worst in terms of their weakly written roles and especially wasted are the talents of both Richard Basehart and Gloria Grahame. The British contingent, on the whole, fares far better and is headed by Stanley Baker as the boxer. His performance displays an earthiness unusual for the time and reminds us that he was the original choice for the role of Frank in 'This Sporting Life'. Although Lithuanian by birth one always thinks of Laurence Harvey as being quintessentially English and here he excels as a nasty piece of work whilst the devoted wife off whom he sponges is played by the splendid Margaret Leighton. Their scenes together are infused with a distinct 'chemistry' and one is hardly surprised that they were eventually to marry.

In order to oblige the Bank that financed the film, the script requires the thieves to go downmarket and rob a Post Office van. Suffice to say it all goes predictably and horribly wrong. The robbery scene itself and the subsequent chase are atmospherically shot by Jack Asher whilst Georges Auric contributes a brittle score. Overall, alas, Lewis Gilbert's film lacks momentum.

The original novel by Richard Macauley is set in America and should really have stayed there. British Film Noirs are frustrating in that they lack both the grittiness of the American and the stylishness of the French. The glorious exception that proves the rule is 'Night and the City' of Jules Dassin.

The film ends with the voice of another American, Sam Wanamaker, who reminds us: "Four men. Four women. Four dead men." I leave you to draw your own conclusions!