This must have seemed like a bold movie at the time, but one that probably did its part in helping educate people and challenge their thinking.Poitier is excellent here, although his singing kind of needed work! Curtis is great too, together they make a great on screen duo. There's some great action sequences filmed in beautiful black and white, and plenty of character conflict. We have all seen variations of this story, the Fishburne/Baldwin movie, Fled, being the most obvious. But sometimes the original is best, maybe because the stakes were even greater for a black convict on the run in the south in 1958. The tension was real.And, if that doesn't make you want to watch it, it also costars Alfalfa from The Little Rascals and The Wolf Man himself, Lon Chaney Jr.

Before anything else I wish to stipulate here, that this writing is non-partisan one and has nothing to do with any form of racism, communism or whatsoever deviant behavior - cf., "Defiant Ones" (1958) and also less prominent remake with Carl Weathers and Robert Urich in 1986. If Stanley Kramer dared to produce this movie in 1958 and Tony Curtis (White Male Caucasian) participate in principal leading role, subsequently I don't see reason to swell 60 years later when about half of Hollywood actors are colored and Film Industry in the making depend on this people. The reason I took this small undertaking is to try (if possible) to dispel the myth of African American Culture, its boundaries and genesis, and its role in interpreting current history of USA and all English speaking people on this planet Earth. It's a fair coin, I think both Blacks and Whites should understand me."The Defiant Ones" (1958), gave Sidney Poitier his first Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. Five years later, he won the Oscar for "Lilies of the Field" (1963), the first African American to win for a leading role. His roles in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967) and "To Sir, with Love" (1967) were for their time landmarks in the breaking down of social barriers between African Americans and Whites.I took the paragraph above as citation from IMDb. Certainly its a good place here to mention some other Black American film stars that I have remembered vividly in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s - Harry Belafonte, Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Yaphet Kotto, James Earl Jones, Richard Pryor (died of dementia in 2005), Eddie Murphy, etc. Those were people that single-handedly could perform and produce a good Movie for the Big Audience. There are other names that I have missed maybe, but as a rule good Films in those times were the ones that were remembered. In the 1990s already African Americans in Hollywood Films became a cliché, there were so many nominations and deserved medleys that I am not in position right now to make an appreciation.I will go further a little bit. I am a self-conscious citizen and read all kind of literature (on equal opportunity). I have books in my library on Black Racism and White Racism, the way it started in the American Southwest from the years of 1860 and on. Mass Organizations such as Ku Klux Clan appeared as reaction on the loosing Confederate side. As counter reaction the free Black Americans left their cluster Southern States and migrated internally East and West all over USA. They started to study Culturally and Physically in High Schools and Universities. They interbreed freely in marriages with Whites and casted a singular alloy of racial unity - namely, Mulattos (if you can distinguish them physically) are as good as Blond or Brunette Whites. So what's the case here? Why are we still reading pieces of literature like "We Charge Genocide" (1951) by Civil Rights Congress on pages of Wikipaedia. It's high time for reconciliation ...

The Defiant Ones has a concept too simple to fail and its executed accordingly. What makes it special is the well written banter between the two anti-heroes supported through Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier's great performances as they bond and fight. The struggle between them is fascinating, particularly in how the physical obstacles in front of them are written. This paralleled with the subplot of the authorities in their pursuit with their inter conflict makes the cat-and-mouse plot entertaining to watch. The Oscar-winning cinematography also helps bring a cinematic spark to some scenes to lift it from the occasional John Ford-esque stage sets. While it starts to slow down in pace in the third act, its beautiful full circle seals the deal. Great classic.8/10

*Spoiler/plot- 1963, A pair of 'chained at the wrist' racist inmates from a Southern prison (one white and one black that hate each other) escape from a prison truck accident on the highway and attempt to escape to freedom from a prison search party.*Special Stars- Sidney Poitier, Tony Curtis, Claude Akins, Lon Chaney Jr. Director: Stanley Kramer *Theme- Racial hatred is made of ignorance and distrust.*Trivia/location/goofs- Shot on the Universal's hilly back-lot, roads and exterior sets.*Emotion- An enjoyable and rather interesting insight into race relations. A strong dramatic performance from Tony Curtis, getting away from his male cheesecake roles of his early Universal Studios career starting in his first role appearance in the late 50's with Universal's Jimmy Stewart film, Winchester '73.