Harry Belafonte Biographer Screens 1959 Hudson NY Noir "Odds Against Tomorrow," Tomorrow in Chatham

Saturday, October 3, 7pm | Chatham, NY

The Crandell Theatre screens Odds Against Tomorrow on October 3, with author Joshua Jelly-Schapiro introducing the film and signing copies of his new Harry Belafonte biography afterward.

Belafonte—singer, actor, civil rights activist, and a former Chatham resident—starred in the 1959 film, shot in nearby Hudson. An ex-cop gone bad, played by Ed Begley, brings together a bigoted ex-con (Robert Ryan) and a debt-ridden Black nightclub singer and gambler (Belafonte) to rob a bank.

The partnership falls apart, and the heist ends in chaos. Director Robert Wise's film is considered one of the more progressive American movies of its era in how it treats race, and critics have long praised its unflinching look at racial hatred outside the South, which had little precedent in mainstream 1950s cinema.

The film also provides a rare window into 1950s Hudson. The cityscape is familiar but dreamlike in black and white and the desolation of the late-industrial Hudson River Water Front serves as a striking background to the film's explosive conclusion.

Jelly-Schapiro is a geographer and writer whose earlier books include Island People: The Caribbean and the World and, with Rebecca Solnit, Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas. His new book, Daylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He Made, traces Belafonte's life against the history of colonialism and segregation. Jelly-Schapiro teaches journalism at NYU and is director of publishing at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, where he hosts the Author Talks series.

Crandell Theatre, 48 Main Street, Chatham, NY. Tickets at tickets.fandango.com.