One by one we meet four troubled men.(1) Richard Basehart is a clerk in New York who gives up his job and spends all his money flying to England to fetch his wife, Joan Collins, back home. Collins loves Basehart but is in thrall to her wicked Mum who hates Basehart and constantly comes down with phony, hypochondriacal illnesses to keep Collins with her. Basehart can't pry her away and, in any case, is now nearly broke.(2) Stanley Baker, a boxer who has had his brains beaten out for twelve years but has finally managed to save twelve hundred pounds, enough for him to quit the ring and buy a tobacconist's shop. His decision is made final when he must have his hand amputated. Alas, his stake disappears when it's used as bail for his no-good brother-in-law who promptly skips town and forfeits the bail.(3) John Ireland, a sergeant in the US Air Force, who is about to be transferred from England to Germany. His problem is that his wife, Gloria Grahame, is a narcissistic film star who is always followed around by a gaggle of horny groupies. He becomes a deserter in his efforts to renew their love.(4) Lawrence Harvey: Smooth, insincere husband to a rich woman who finally refuses to pay for any more of his indulgences, such as women and gambling. Like the others, he's a combat veteran. But his decorations in North Africa were unjustly won because he simply murdered a handful of German prisoners. This was especially déclassé because North Africa was a gentleman's war. Now his rich old wife is cutting him off.What to do, what to do? The answer is to organize a group of robbers -- himself and the other three, whom he has met adventitiously in a pub -- and steal ninety thousand pounds in old bank notes from a post office across the street from the pub. They will all have guns but if they do what they're supposed to, the guns will not be needed.I don't want to give too much away, but the four men pull the robbery off, but the duplicitous Harvey not only begins shooting police officers but Baker as well. During their getaway, Harvey sees to it that Ireland "accidentally" falls on the third rail of the underground railway. Basehart has seen none of this but suspects betrayal since, after all, he may be a mere unemployed clerk but is not a jackass. Nobody gets away. This is 1954. No miscreant ever got away clean in 1954. But the final scene, a confrontation between Harvey and Basehart, is not badly done. A lot of tension nicely captured. Other than that, the direction is routine.I had a problem with Harvey's hair. He doesn't have nice hair. It's long, thin, and stringy and if not properly maintained it tends to fall in greasy strands across his forehead. Here, makeup has created a coiffure that resembles some kind of 1950s pompadour or something. It juts up and out over his face. When he runs, this lump of hair bounces up and down as if held together by Crazy Glue. Other than that, he's an admirable rat, what with his sleek features and posh accent. Joan Collins hasn't that much screen time but she's gorgeous. She should leave her cheek bones, those flaring malars, to the British Museum. She's worth robbing a Post Office for. Gloria Grahame was a popular noir figure and for good reason. She has a tiny sexy mouth and a girlish whine. She always sounds dumb and wily at the same time. But her attempt at an English accent is a successful failure.

The Good Die Young is a cracking British Noir picture directed by Lewis Gilbert and featuring a strong cast of British and American actors. Laurence Harvey, Stanley Baker, Richard Basehart, John Ireland, Gloria Grahame, Margaret Leighton, Joan Collins and Rene Ray are the principals. While support comes from Robert Morley and Freda Jackson.Adapted from the novel written by Richard MacAuley, the story starts with four men pulling up in a car, guns are passed around them and it's soon evident they are about to commit a serious crime. We are then taken through the sequences for each man, how they came to be at that point in time, what brought them together and their common interest; that of women trouble and financial strife. It's excellently structured by Gilbert, four separate stories, yet all of them are on the same track and heading towards the grim and potently "noirish" final quarter. Such is the way that we as viewers have been fully informed about our characters, the impact when things get violent is doubly strong. It takes you by surprise at first because the makers have given us a smooth set-up, and then there is the shock factor because these were not criminal men at the outset. But then..A real pleasant surprise to this particular viewer was The Good Die Young, it's got fully formed characters within a tight and interesting story. The cast do fine work, yes one could probably complain a touch that the ladies are under written, but they each get in and flesh out the downward spiral of the male protagonists. Rene Ray is particularly impressive as the fraught wife of Stanley Baker's injured boxer, Mike, while Gloria Grahame (walking like a panther) is memorable as a bitch-a-like babe driving her husband Eddie (Ireland) to distraction. Basehart is his usual value for money self, but it's Baker and Harvey who own the picture. Baker does a great line in raw emotion, a big man, big heart and a big conscious; his journey is the films emotional axis, while Harvey is positively weasel like as playboy sponger Miles Ravenscourt; someone who is guaranteed to have you hissing at the screen with his stiffness perfectly befitting the character. Top stuff. 8/10

There I was proceeding along my beat in a westerly direction when I sees a motor vehicle parked in a dangerous position.I goes over to have a word with the driver and he does no more than bleedin' shoot me. Dead I was,before I hit the ground.I 'ope they 'ang the bastard......... Well,they almost certainly would have done of course,just to press home the message that crime doesn't pay,but in the end the job was done for them by his mates. In the 50s only amateurs carried guns,ex-servicemen or upper-class black sheep(can you still say that?)like Lawrence Harvey,perhaps the odd yank who still thought he was in Chicago....no proper villain fancied risking getting his neck stretched . An ill-sorted quartet rob a post office with minimal planning and fall out over the proceeds,knocking each other off,and then there were none. Mainly of interest for a wildly over the top performance from the aforesaid Mr Harvey,"The good die young" is nevertheless hugely enjoyable in a left-handed kind of way.None of it can be taken the least bit seriously.Watching it rather reminds me of putting on a well-worn and comfortable pair of slippers,you're in the company of an old and trusted friend who isn't going to suddenly pinch your toe or trip you up,you know where you are with this movie.You've got the great Robert Morley playing Harvey paterfamilias,Gloria Grahame,the goodtime girl's goodtime girl,Stanley Baker as a disabled former practitioner of the noble art and two reliable Hollywood second strings amiably playing along with it all. Lawrence Harvey seldom gave a good performance (with the honourable exception of the masterly "Expresso Bongo")but you didn't often sleep while he was on.Lovers of overacting and the ever-so-slightly camp will be in ecstasies over "The good die young",I don't think I could be real friends with anyone who didn't like it just a little bit.

A well crafted heist thriller of the old school with the message of crime doesn't pay about a quartet of ne'er-do-wells who's stories are told in flashbacks then culminates in the daring crime which in turns leads to divisions amongst them.The leader is Miles(Rave)Ravenscourt(Laurence Harvey)who's at his gleefully sneering best with a host of well known faces(Baker,Basehart&John Ireland,there's also a young Joan Collins as Basehart's wife along with Gloria Grahame who's wonderful as a spoilt married woman to one of the gang.Full of action towards the end especially the underground scenes,the cast includes Margaret Leighton who was Harvey's real life wife.