Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

Star Harry Belafonte produced this gritty, New York-set noir, which doubles as both a tense heist thriller and an X-ray of 1950s racial tensions. In need of quick money, fallen former cop David Burke (Ed Begley) recruits hard-bitten ex-con Earl Slater (Robert Ryan and debt-ridden nightclub singer Johnny Ingram (Belafonte) to pull off a bank job. But as the animosity between Johnny and the racist Slater boils over, the entire plan threatens to implode. Written by blacklisted filmmaker nm068979 (FORCE OF EVIL) and featuring a moody jazz score by John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW was selected by no less than French crime master Jean-Pierre Melville as one of his all-time favorite films.