This film has a tremendous cast, Richard Basehart, Laurence Harvey among the men and Margaret Leighton and Gloria Grahame among the women. The list could go on, but it does not make it a better film for all the cast attraction. It has too many actors that you want to see more of but due to the scrappy script and the long boring scenes before the real action starts the cast are given relatively little screen time. Robert Morley makes the most of the little he has and so does Leighton. But essentially this is a drab looking film with a few sociological facts of the time thrown in but despite all efforts to make it really good it fails. Harvey's smooth performance is without colour and his delivery of lines drearily delivered. But the director, Lewis Gilbert who made better films seems to let some of his actors walk through parts when they should act. It is a sad film that can make Gloria Grahame give a performance under par and there are only flashes of the great actor she was in ' The Cobweb ', ' In a Lonely Place ' ( possibly her best role, ) and ' Human Desire ' and ' The Big Heat ' both directed by Fritz Lang. At the time of its release they would have flocked for the actors, all too familiar to UK audiences in 1954. As for the content too much talk and cliche dialogue ruins the ending where the film suddenly comes to brutal life. The title is good and was enticing, but seen in the 21st C. it is dated, unlike many other less popular or not so popular films of the 1950's. The cinematography is pale and not at all inventive which does not help either the dialogue or the actors.
Review of The Good Die Young
