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The Good Die Young
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Wikipedia article
'The Good Die Young' is a 1954 British crime film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Laurence Harvey, Gloria Grahame, Joan Collins, Stanley Baker, Richard Basehart and John Ireland. It was made by Remus Films from a screenplay based on the novel of the same name by Richard Macaulay. It tells the story of four men in London with no criminal past whose marriages and finances are collapsing and, meeting in a pub, are tempted to redeem their situations by a robbery.
Plot
Mike is an injured ex-boxer unable to find a job and penniless after his wife Angela, who he loves, gives their life savings to her criminal brother. Joe has quit his clerical job in the USA to reclaim Mary, his pregnant English wife, who is unable to escape her clinging and unstable mother. Eddie deserts the US Air Force in an effort to regain Denise, his unfaithful actress wife. The fourth man is Rave, decorated in the war but now a womaniser and gambler sponging off his rich wife Eve, who wants to take him away to Kenya.
Rave has started an affair with a girl who works in a post office that handles consignments of used banknotes. He cajoles the other three into a night raid, supplying revolvers for show. In fact, to the horror of the others, he opens fire on approaching police and, when Mike tries to surrender, shoots him down as well. The three survivors make off with 100,000 pounds, sharing some and hiding the rest in a tomb beside a church. When Joe is not looking, Rave then kills Eddie but Joe outwits him and escapes.
Collecting his wife Mary, he rushes to the airport for a flight to the USA. Also there, waiting for Rave, is his wife Eve who has booked them a flight to Nairobi. Joe sees Rave arrive and shoots him, but as he falls he shoots Joe. All four men have died, leaving nobody who knows where the money is hidden.
Cast
* Laurence Harvey as Miles 'Rave' Ravenscourt
* Margaret Leighton as Eve Ravenscourt
* Stanley Baker as Mike Morgan
* Rene Ray as Angela Morgan
* John Ireland as Eddie Blaine
* Gloria Grahame as Denise Blaine
* Richard Basehart as Joe Halsey
* Joan Collins as Mary Halsey
* Robert Morley as Sir Francis Ravenscourt, Rave's father
* Freda Jackson as Mrs Freeman, Denise's mother
* 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
* Marianne Stone as Molly, the Barmaid
* Edward Judd as Ron Simpson
* MacDonald Parke as Mr. Carruthers
* Patricia Owens as Winnie
Production
The film was presented by Romulus, the company of the Woolf Brothers, who made British films targeted at international audiences. This meant they used American stars. Filming started 28 September 1953.KAYE AND CROSBY TEAMED IN MOVIE: Comedian Signs at Paramount to Replace O'Connor, III -- Script Will Be Changed
By THOMAS M. PRYORSpecial to THE NEW YORK TIMES.19 Aug 1953: 24. Jack Clayton was credited as the associate producer of this Remus production. The film was shot on location in London and at Shepperton Studios, with other scenes of Pan Am Boeing Stratocruiser aircraft at Heathrow Airport and the District Line around Barbican. The sets were designed by the art director Bernard Robinson.
The film's screenwriters changed the setting of Richard Macauley's original novel from Beverly Hills to 1950s London.Times staff (January 29, 1950). [https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=84760019 "Studios Show Interest in 'Good Die Young'"] 'The Los Angeles Times'. Pt. IV, pg. 2. Retrieved September 5, 2021. The British bank financing the film also required that the novel's bank robbery be switched to a post office in the film version.'Lewis Gilbert Interview' 'Cinema Retro' Vol. 7 Issue 19 Laurence Harvey subsequently married Margaret Leighton, who played his wife in the film. Kirk Douglas visited Gloria Grahame and John Ireland on the set and appeared in the film as an extra as a joke.
Release
The film opened in the United Kingdom on 2 March 1954, with general release following on 5 April.F Maurice Speed, 'Film Review 1954-55' Macdonald & Co 1954 The following year it was released in America by United Artists and France by Cindis.
Notes
Further reading
* Variety staff (February 1, 1950). [https://www.mediafire.com/view/977eifsg6dl8h1o "Literati: Chatter"]. 'Variety'. p. 53
* Reporter staff (August 18, 1953). [https://www.mediafire.com/view/0yj0h29xqa580pb "U.S. Coin Set for Romulus' 'Good'"]. 'The Hollywood Reporter'. pp. 1, 5
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