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.

For similar titles, see Good Die Young.

The Good Die Young
US 1955 cinema poster
Directed byLewis Gilbert
Produced byJohn Woolf
Screenplay byVernon Harris
Lewis Gilbert
Based onThe Good Die Young
by Richard Macauley
StarringLaurence Harvey
Gloria Grahame
Richard Basehart
Joan Collins
John Ireland
Rene Ray
Stanley Baker
Margaret Leighton
Music byGeorges Auric
CinematographyJack Asher
Edited byRalph Kemplen
Production
company
Distributed byIFD (UK)
United Artists (US)
Release date
  • 2 March 1954 (1954-03-02) (UK)
  • 29 November 1955 (1955-11-29) (US)
Running time
94 min.
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

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

Production

The film was made by Romulus, the company of the Woolf Brothers, who made British films targeted at international audiences. This meant they used American stars.[1]

Filming started 28 September 1953.[2]

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.[3]

Kirk Douglas visited Gloria Grahame and John Ireland on the set and appeared in the film as an extra as a joke.[4]

The film opened in the UK on 2 March 1954, with general release following on 5 April.[5]

Notes
  1. "GLORIA TO MAKE A BRITISH FILM". The Daily Telegraph. XIV (44). New South Wales, Australia. 20 September 1953. p. 38. Retrieved 5 September 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. 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.
  3. Lewis Gilbert Interview Cinema Retro Vol. 7 Issue 19
  4. "HOLLYWOOD DIARY". The World's News (2733). New South Wales, Australia. 8 May 1954. p. 28. Retrieved 5 September 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. F Maurice Speed, Film Review 1954-55 Macdonald & Co 1954
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