Posted: Thu., Dec. 31, 1953, 11:00pm PT

The Good Die Young

(UK)

By Variety Staff

Romulus. Director Lewis Gilbert; Producer Jack Clayton (assoc.); Screenplay Vernon Harris, Lewis Gilbert; Camera Jack Asher; Editor Ralph Kemplen; Music Georges Auric; Art Director Bernard Robinson

Laurence Harvey Gloria Grahame Richard Basehart Joan Collins John Ireland Stanley Baker

There is a major lineup of talent in this independently-made British pic, but fulfillment does not quite come up to expectations. Although there is basically a tense dramatic theme, the scrappy treatment, necessitated by the omnibus type of story, robs the film of some of its suspense and values.

The yarn takes four characters, brought together by force of circumstances, who participate in an armed holdup and come to a sticky end, clearly to satisfy a censor's insistence that crime mustn't pay.

First of the four central figures is Richard Basehart, playing an ex-GI and Korean war vet whose English wife had returned home to visit an ailing mother. The second is Stanley Baker, a professional boxer who has decided to abandon the ring with some money saved up, but an injured hand makes him virtually unemployable.

Then there is John Ireland, an American airman stationed in Britain who, while on a 48-hour pass, finds his wife (Gloria Grahame) knocking around with a British film actor. Finally, there is Laurence Harvey, an aristocratic English gent who has never done a day's work in his life and who conceives the holdup and talks the others into participating.

The main strength of the film rests in the quality of the acting. All principal roles are expertly played.

(B&W) Extract of a review from 1954. Running time: 98 MIN.