The Good Die Young
The Good Die Young is a 1954 British film noir crime thriller film made by Remus Films, featuring a number of American characters. It was directed by Lewis Gilbert. The screenplay was based on the book of the same name written by Richard Macaulay.
| The Good Die Young | |
|---|---|
 US 1955 cinema poster | |
| Directed by | Lewis Gilbert |
| Produced by | John Woolf |
| Screenplay by | Vernon Harris Lewis Gilbert |
| Based on | The Good Die Young by Richard Macauley |
| Starring | Laurence Harvey Gloria Grahame Richard Basehart Joan Collins John Ireland Rene Ray Stanley Baker Margaret Leighton |
| Music by | Georges Auric |
| Cinematography | Jack Asher |
| Edited by | Ralph Kemplen |
Production company | Remus Films |
| Distributed by | IFD (UK) United Artists (US) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 94 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The cast includes Laurence Harvey, Gloria Grahame, Joan Collins, Stanley Baker and Richard Basehart.
Plot
The film opens with four men in a car, apparently about to commit a serious crime. How each of the previously law-abiding men came to be in this position is then explored.
Mike (Stanley Baker) is an ageing boxer, in love with his wife (Rene Ray) but injured and unable to find a job. Joe (Richard Basehart) is an out-of-work clerk who needs to fly to the United States with his young wife (Joan Collins) to escape her clinging and unstable mother (Freda Jackson). Eddie (John Ireland) is an AWOL American airman with an unfaithful actress wife (Gloria Grahame). The last man, 'Rave' Ravenscourt (Laurence Harvey), is a 'gentleman' sponger and a scoundrel with gambling debts and the unscrupulous leader who lures the other three. The film reaches a bloody climax at Heathrow Airport.
Principal cast
- Laurence Harvey as Miles 'Rave' Ravenscourt
- Gloria Grahame as Denise Blaine
- Richard Basehart as Joe Halsey
- Joan Collins as Mary Halsey
- John Ireland as Eddie Blaine
- Rene Ray as Angela Morgan
- Stanley Baker as Mike Morgan
- Margaret Leighton as Eve Ravenscourt
- Robert Morley as Sir Francis Ravenscourt
- Freda Jackson as Mrs Freeman
- James Kenney as Dave, Angela's brother
- Susan Shaw as Doris, girl in the pub
- Lee Patterson as Tod Maslin
- Sandra Dorne as pretty girl
- Leslie Dwyer as Stookey
- Patricia McCarron as Carole
- George Rose as Bunny
- Joan Heal as Woman
- Walter Hudd as Dr Reed
- Harold Siddons as Hospital Doctor (uncredited)
- Marianne Stone as Molly, the Barmaid (uncredited)
Production
The film was shot on location in London and at Shepperton Studios, with other scenes of BOAC Boeing Stratocruiser aircraft at Heathrow Airport and the District Line around Barbican. Laurence Harvey subsequently married Margaret Leighton, who played his wife in the film.
The film's screenwriters changed the setting of Richard Macauley's original novel from America to 1950s England. The British bank financing the film also required that the novel's bank robbery be switched to a post office in the film version.[1]
The film opened in the UK on 2 March 1954, with general release following on 5 April.[2]
Notes
- Lewis Gilbert Interview Cinema Retro Vol. 7 Issue 19
- F Maurice Speed, Film Review 1954-55 Macdonald & Co 1954
External links
- The Good Die Young at the British Film Institute
- The Good Die Young at the BFI's Screenonline
- The Good Die Young on IMDb