No Down Payment

A friend had a copy of this film, and I recently saw it again, after a period of several years. Seen now, 50 years after its release, it has a more nostalgic feel for the 1950's - still in the "post-war/Cold War period," before the turbulent 60's - and it presents a superb snapshot of young marrieds of this era. As others have pointed-out, one aspect is the excellent performance of Tony Randall, with a character in contrast with his frequent second-banana/best friend/never-gets-the-girl/lighthearted and light-weight persona in many of his other flicks. Most of the actors are gone or retired; the two we saw most in the 90's were Sheree North and Pat Hingle - both forty years older and forty pounds heavier than here. All-in-all an excellent film, now as originally, and more so for the historic/nostalgic feel it provides today.

"No Down Payment" is a movie about a suburban community--sort of a microcosm of middle class America in the 1950s. However, through the course of the film, you see that this idyllic location is actually a hotbed of vice--with hypocritical folks pretending to be decent, God- fearing folks when through the course of the film you see that all but one of the eight people featured in the movie is decent...the rest are jerks. Alcoholism, cowardice, greed, bigotry and rape....this film is a regular soap opera. And therein lies the problem with the movie. It features four couples who become friends and nearly all of them are awful people. Because of this, the film seems much more like a caricature of America than anything else. Enjoyable in a salacious way but far from art! Decent acting and a script that lacked subtlety or substance.

This movie offers nothing new in the plot department, but it is well acted. Admittedly, there are four plots – not just one or two – to keep our attention focused. All four, of course, are cliché ridden and, as might be expected, their resolution is banal and pat. Two are resolved by the death of one of the characters, one by the character "coming down to earth", and the other is simply presented as a fait accompli without any of the promised details telling us how the community came to accept this change. All the same, what the movie lacks in the writing department, it more than makes up for in the skill of its players. Presumably, acting is what director Martin Ritt focused on. He sure didn't worry about innovation, pacing or presentation, let alone building up interest and suspense.

I caught this movie at a film festival at UCLA this week-end. It was excellent. Great screen play and acting. I almost didn't recognize Tony Randall as his nose is suspiciously larger than it seems in later films. Unlike the reviewer who felt this was essentially a "Soap Opera" that was well acted, I think that this film had an obvious dark side. It wasn't just the telling of the business of others, it was the unveiling of the dark underbelly of suburban life. Not for the sake of entertainment, but for the sake of exposure. This movie reminded me a lot of a William Inge play. An expose more-so than a side show. I loved it much more than I expected to.

I grew up in a post ww11 housing development, and all the characters of No Down Payment were our neighbors and family. Right down to the racial discriminating, only Mexicans were the people our neighborhood discriminated against. A pity. The buying of new cars,and ex-servicemen unable to find their niche, still living their war glory days. And young women who weren't really ready for married life,like the character portrayed by Joanne Woodward. The actors playing the characters were so believable, Pat Hingle even looked the part of the put upon successful man, Tony Randle played a depressed alcoholic,Jeffrey Hunter was an excellent college educated young man. I knew all these characters while growing up in a post ww11 housing development. Now I want to buy a copy of this excellent film.

It may not be Peyton Place but this tight-knit Californian community is still plagued by maritial infidelity, heavy drinking, domestic abuse, rape and, of course, racial prejudice. Martin Ritt's "No Down Payment" benefits from being well-written, (Philip Yordan), nicely photographed in black-and-white Cinemascope, (Joseph LaShelle), and it features a good cast of up-and-coming Fox stars headed by Joanne Woodward, (very good), though it's Tony Randall and Pat Hingle who walk off with the picture. Considered very daring and adult in its day, it now seems pretty tame but it did pave the way for a number of 'grown-up' American movies in the late fifties and early sixties and is actually a very good example of its kind. Worth rediscovering.

I'm so glad I bought this movie. The acting is superb, and as someone before said, it's definately Oscar-worthy. Although Joanne Woodward won an Oscar for another movie ('The Three Faces Of Eve') the same year, she should have been nominated for this one as well. This movie is SO well-acted I can't even believe it. I expected a riveting, stand-out performance from Joanne Woodward, because you can always count on her for that. But I didn't expect the rest of the cast to give wonderful performances as well. The one thing that got me is I never knew which characters to like. They all had their good points and their bad. If for nothing else, see the movie for Joanne Woodward. If you're ever feeling doubtful about the acting ability of some of today's actors, go watch a Joanne Woodward movie. She'll renew you. I'm so amazed by that girl's talent.

This is not the sort of movie, I usually like. It's basically a soap opera about of the lives of 4 young married couples in a new community in California. What makes it stand out is the truly amazing performances of the actors - Oscar material, certainly. It's well worth the rental, if you can find it. Occasionally shown at 2am on access cable, this is a hidden gem.