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The Defiant Ones

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The Defiant Ones

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Summary

Crime drama starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier as two prisoners - one a bigoted white man, the other an angry Black southerner - who escape from a chain gang while bound at the wrist. As they flee, they struggle to come to terms with their hatred of one another.

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Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Tony Sloman

This still powerful drama was, in its day, a superb cinematic strike for racial equality. Two convicts, one Black, one white, find themselves shackled together in their escape from a chain gang in the Deep South. Tony Curtis finally shed his "pretty boy" image playing bigoted "Joker" Jackson and Sidney Poitier leapt to stardom as the angry southerner, Noah Cullen. This is one of underrated producer/director Stanley Kramer's finest humanitarian movies (he made Inherit the Wind two years later and would reunite with Poitier on Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in 1967). The Oscar-winning story and screenplay were co-written by blacklisted actor Nedrick Young, writing under the pseudonym Nathan E Douglas.

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7.5/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameJohn "Joker" JacksonTony CurtisNoah CullenSidney PoitierSheriff Max MullerTheodore BikelCaptain Frank GibbonsCharles McGrawBig SamLon Chaney JrSollyKing DonovanMacClaude AkinsThe womanCara WilliamsEditorLawrence DobkinLou GansWhit BissellAngusCarl "Alfalfa" Switzer

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Crew

rolenameDirectorStanley Kramer

Details

Released on

1958-10-12

Languages

English

Available on

video, DVD and Blu-ray

Formats

Black and white

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