Lewis Gilbert's London-set Noir Melodrama would have lost most of the Melodrama without the two Americans countering the two Englishmen, although Stanley Baker's working class boxer (who loses his hand) does get theatrical, but only outside the ring...
So basically what happens in THE GOOD DIE YOUNG after we see four men in a car, guns drawn, about to commit a robbery, are four backstories to each, with the wives equally important to their outcome...
Beginning with John Ireland, a whiny GI married to cheating movie star Gloria Grahame... a horribly unbelievable couple to begin with. And Richard Basehart with pregnant Joan Collins and a crazy mother-in-law, attempting suicide every time they attempt flying stateside...
So one American needs airfare while the other just... needs a divorce... making both weak candidates for crime, and saving the best for last... Actually the worst, as in, the one character without any of the title's GOOD...
And in that, the equally charming and weaselly Laurence Harvey, married to a glamorous painter and trying to squeeze inheritance out a very living father, makes a fantastically deceptive, unashamedly hedonistic, cruel and cutthroat manipulator, especially towards Baker's idealistic boxer, needing cash the most... So the two polar opposite Brits would have combined for a tighter, edgier tale...
But the highly anticipated postal truck heist leads to the kind of suspenseful, violent action the story was begging for. Making one forgive all the soap operatic fluff that's still pretty entertaining. As even soaps can often be.
So basically what happens in THE GOOD DIE YOUNG after we see four men in a car, guns drawn, about to commit a robbery, are four backstories to each, with the wives equally important to their outcome...
Beginning with John Ireland, a whiny GI married to cheating movie star Gloria Grahame... a horribly unbelievable couple to begin with. And Richard Basehart with pregnant Joan Collins and a crazy mother-in-law, attempting suicide every time they attempt flying stateside...
So one American needs airfare while the other just... needs a divorce... making both weak candidates for crime, and saving the best for last... Actually the worst, as in, the one character without any of the title's GOOD...
And in that, the equally charming and weaselly Laurence Harvey, married to a glamorous painter and trying to squeeze inheritance out a very living father, makes a fantastically deceptive, unashamedly hedonistic, cruel and cutthroat manipulator, especially towards Baker's idealistic boxer, needing cash the most... So the two polar opposite Brits would have combined for a tighter, edgier tale...
But the highly anticipated postal truck heist leads to the kind of suspenseful, violent action the story was begging for. Making one forgive all the soap operatic fluff that's still pretty entertaining. As even soaps can often be.