NO DOWN PAYMENT

Patricia Owens and Jeffrey Hunter

NO DOWN PAYMENT (1957). Director: Martin Ritt. Colorized. 

David and Jean Martin (Jeffrey Hunter of Brainstorm and Patricia Owens of The Fly) move into a lovely post-war housing community called Sunrise Hill. Their neighbors include Jerry and Isabelle Flagg (Tony Randall and Sheree North); Troy and Leola Boone (Cameron Mitchell of Garden of Evil and Joanne Woodward); and Herman and Betty Kreitzer (Pat Hingle and Barbara Rush). The last couple seem to have the most stable and successful lives and marriage. Jerry cheats on Isabelle and puts on a bluff as a supposedly successful car salesman. Troy hopes to become the chief of police but is brutal to his wife when he is upset. Both men drink too  much. When Troy doesn't get the job he wants, he takes out his anger in horrible fashion on poor Jean Martin, who fears what her husband's retaliation might be ... 

Cameron Mitchell and Joanne Woodward

No Down Payment is an absorbing drama which looks at a variety of situations and marriages and does so with a degree of sensitivity and intelligence -- as well as some fine acting. Although she's playing in her over-familiar "poor dumb Southern waif" mode, Woodward gives one of the best performances, along with the always-underrated Mitchell. Tony Randall is a bit miscast as the sleazy lover boy and doesn't quite pull it off. Sheree North successfully subdues the "sex kitten" aspect of her persona. Robert H. Harris is given a couple of good scenes as Randall's boss. There's a very interesting sub-plot with Kreitzer's store employee, the Japanese-American Iko (Aki Aleong), hoping his boss will help him get a house in Sunrise Hill. At the time he appeared in this film, Hunter had been divorced from co-star Barbara Rush for two years. 

Verdict: Notable fifties drama with a fine cast. ***. 

THE OUTFIT

Tom Reese and Duvall with Karen Black in the background

THE OUTFIT (1973). Director: John Flynn.

Earl Macklin (Robert Duvall) gets out of prison to discover that his brother was murdered. It seems the two of them knocked off a bank that was owned by the crime cartel, the "Outfit." Macklin decides to pay back and wage war on the Outfit by carrying out heists -- with his pal, Jack (Joe Don Baker) -- that will hit the Outfit where they live. His main antagonist is Outfit bigwig Mailer (Robert Ryan), who lives in a big mansion with bodyguards and has a fairly disinterested wife (Joanna Cassidy). The Outfit is loosely based on the third "Parker" novel by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake), a series of books in which a career criminal is the protagonist. [Another Parker adaptation was The Split.] Frankly, the book is much more entertaining than this indifferently directed "thriller" in which only Robert Ryan gives an especially memorable performance. Baker isn't bad, Karen Black [Trilogy of Terror] has her moments as Macklin's girl, and Duvall is Duvall. Sheree North [Mardi Gras] also has some flavorful moments as the wife of an associate, but Jane Greer isn't very good as Macklin's sister-in-law. Richard Jaeckal, Marie Windsor, and Henry Jones aren't on screen long enough to register much but are all effective. John Flynn also directed The Sergeant.

Verdict: Indifferent adaptation of a gritty Parker novel. **.

MARDI GRAS

Cadets? -- Dick Sargent, Tommy Sands, and Pat Boone

MARDI GRAS (1958). Director: Edmund Goulding.

A bunch of twenty-something cadets raffle off a date with new French-Hollywood movie star Michelle Marton (Christine Carere). Everyone is dismayed when the winning ticket goes to the most studious and disinterested among them, Paul (Pat Boone). In New Orleans Paul actually spends a very pleasant day with Michelle, who has switched places with her studio helpmate Eadie (Sheree North); he has no idea the young lady is the movie star he is supposed to be squiring. This leads to mostly unamusing complications. Mardi Gras is the most undistinguished of musicals; it has one decent song, "I'll Remember Tonight," and the rest are atrocious. Boone [Journey to the Center of the Earth] isn't bad; Carere is, well, pretty and little else; Gary Crosby essentially plays the same character he plays in every movie he did; Tommy Sands over-sings everything; and Dick Sargent is another over-aged cadet. Sheree North and Fred Clark add little to the tedious proceedings, although there are a couple of funny lines, as well as forgettable  cameos by Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter. This movie in no way captures the excitement of Mardi Gras even though there is some grainy stock footage of it. Hard to believe this treacle was directed by Edmund Goulding.

Verdict: Watch Goulding's The Old Maid instead. *1/2.