The Defiant Ones
Tags: suspenseful, realism

Plot synopsis:
The film starts with a truck driving at night. It swerves to miss another truck and crashes through a barrier. The rescuers clear up the debris and cover the people killed... mainly prisoners in the back. It is revealed that two are missing: a black man shackled to a white man, because "the warden had a sense of humor." They are told not to look too hard as "they will probably kill each other in the first five miles." Nevertheless, a large posse and many bloodhounds are dispatched the next morning to find them.
The setting is in the American South, the men are the black Noah Cullen (Poitier) and the white John "Joker" Jackson (Curtis). Despite their mutual loathing, they are forced to cooperate, as they are chained together. At first their cooperation is motivated by self-preservation but gradually, they begin to respect and like each other.
Cullen and Joker flee through difficult terrain and weather, with a brief stop at a turpentine camp where they attempt to break into a general store, in hopes of obtaining food and tools to break the chain that holds them together. Instead, however, they are captured by the inhabitants, who form a lynch mob; they are saved only by the interference of "Big" Sam (Chaney), a man who is appalled by his neighbors' blood-thirst. Sam persuades the onlookers to lock the convicts up and turn them in the next morning, but that night, he secretly releases them, after revealing to them that he is also a former chain-gang prisoner.
Finally, they run into a young boy named Billy. They make him take them to his home and his mother (Williams), whose husband has abandoned his family. The escapees are finally able to break their chains. When they spend the night there, the lonely woman is attracted to Joker and wants to run off with him. She advises Cullen to go through the swamp to reach the railroad tracks, while she and Joker drive off in her car. The men agree to split up. However, after Cullen leaves, the woman reveals that she had lied—she sent Cullen into the dangerous swamp to die to eliminate any chance he would be captured and perhaps reveal where Joker had gone. Furious, Joker runs after his friend; as he leaves, Billy shoots him.
Wounded, Joker catches up to Cullen and warns him about the swamp. As the posse led by humane Sheriff Max Muller (Bikel) gets close, the escapees can hear the dogs hot on their trail. But they also hear a train whistle and run towards the sound. Cullen hops the train and tries to lift Joker on as well, but is unable to drag him aboard. Both men tumble to the ground. Too exhausted to run anymore, they realize all they can do is wait for their pursuers. The sheriff finds Cullen singing defiantly and Joker lying in his arms.

Review: Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier are white and black inmates who, while chained together at the wrist, escape their captors when their prison truck hits the ditch.
Poitier proves that critics aren't just being kind when they cite him as one of the great black actors of his or any other era (though as we see here, he is definitely no singer!).THE DEFIANT ONES moves just a touch slow at times, particularly when the focus is placed on Curtis.
Still joined at the hip as they are, they do need each other and find eventually there's more that unites than divides them.Besides Theodore Bikel in a strange role for him as a laconic southern sheriff, look for good performances from Lon Chaney, Jr. who runs a turpentine work camp who saves Curtis and Poitier from a lynching and Cara Williams as a trampy white trash farm lady whose needs haven't been met for a while.Tony Curtis in an incredible act of generosity insisted on equal billing for Sidney Poitier since due to the nature of the film, they are on screen together for most of it.
An act that rankles Tony Curtis to this day because at the drop of a hat he will insist Niven got 'his' Oscar.Despite the sour grapes, The Defiant Ones though dated is still a good bit of cinema..
Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier turn in stellar performances as two convicts who get an unexpected shot at escape but are held together by a length of chain.
I found this film very entertaining, thanks in part from great performances by both Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis, and due to great directing by Stanley Kramer.
Sidney Poitier is good as always and Tony Curtis gives what is probably his best performance ever in drama, matched only by his acting in The Boston Strangler later in 1967.
A totally absorbing film showing great acting talents of Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier as escapees from a chain gang.
Possibly Stanley Kramer's most famous directorial entry, THE DEFIANT ONES is the story of "Joker" Jackson (Tony Curtis) and Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier), two tough-as-nails convicts who are accidentally freed when the truck that transports them overturns.
I had never seen THE DEFIANT ONES and I sat down to watch it a couple of days ago in eager anticipation since this was regarded as a classic American movie from the 1950s , I mean we're talking about the movie with " the white convict and the black convict handcuffed and on the run " .
You might have thought they might have been more surprised that considering the spectacular crash the two escapees manged to run away without a scratch between them The action cuts to the two felons on the run John " Joker " Jackson and Noah Cullen and just in case there's any blind people in the audience who haven't realised that Tony Curtis is white and Sidney Poitier is black they call each other all sorts of racist names .
At this early point I knew instantly where the story was going so all the name calling seemed superfluous in the end and to be blunt I was never convinced that these characters would exist in reality , in fact I couldn't believe they were characters at all , just a couple of actors playing roles And as the story went on I realised I was getting battered over the head with the message " Racism is wrong and we should look beyond the colour of a persons skin in order to survive " .
Most of the prisoners live but two escape--John Jackson (Tony Curtis) and Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier).
At the time it must have been brave and a point that needed making (it probably still is an important point) but now it just feels like the film has been chained to a heavy partner that slows it down.Part of me felt that maybe the director wanted to labour his message so that everyone got it, another part of me felt that he should have trusted his audience and not rammed it down our throats at nearly every step.Tony Curtis is pretty good.
The writing of the movie is very much in the shadow of Steinbeck and Tennessee Williams, against the background of the burgeoning Civil Rights movement in America at the time, but for me, it buckles under the weight of its own over-earnest good intentions, despite the considerable efforts of both cast and crew.I was surprised to learn that the screenplay wasn't adapted originally from a play, given the amount of static movement in the film coupled with a lot of speechifying.
I also just couldn't get my head round the premise of two racially different felons just happening to be chained together and finding themselves on the run together in the Southern States, all the film's gritty realism scuppered for the sake of allegory.There's still a lot to savour, the cinematography is excellent in its near-documentary realism, while the two leads throw themselves unstintingly into very exacting physical parts.
However as stated above the idea that these two, the racially prejudiced Curtis and the proud Negro Poitier could get along for more than five minutes, never mind pour out their collective hearts along the way as they get all philosophical and universal on us, is too much to swallow.In support, Cara Williams is fine as the abandoned country wife, desperate for love and a future with Curtis (there's an excellent dissolve shot as their relationship is consummated) but what a difference it would have made to the dynamics of the film if she had fallen for Poitier instead - not, of course that such a storyline film could ever have been green-lighted at the time, while Theodore Bikel is excellent as the pursuing sheriff who retains his humanity, refusing to bow to the pressure of his posse to bring the wanted duo back more dead than alive.
No matter, it is a pretty good movie, and Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier do an intense job as John "Joker" Jackson and Noah Cullen, respectively.
Pushing 45 years old, the movie is an often pedestrian manhunt thriller where some occasionally ropey extras lead a hunt, giving Curtis and Poitier chance to sit around and spark racial ethics off one another.It's this heavy-handed approach that often jars nowadays, or maybe history has blurred and we are thankfully blind to a time when Sidney would be mistrusted merely due to his colour.
Both Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier are very good as escaped racist convicts--chained together by one wrist--attempting to allude Southern police and their bloodhounds not far behind.
Considering that this movie was made in the late 1950's, it's a fairly courageous exploration of race relations seen through the eyes of two escaped convicts (Tony Curtis & Sidney Poitier)who, being chained, have to overcome their mutual animosity.It's interesting to watch their relationship progress from mutual hostility to co-operation, genuine affection and even loyalty to each other.
The decision to introduce a "love angle" to the story, as Jackson (Curtis) and Cullen (Poitier) take refuge with a single mother (Cara Williams) was questionable in my view, although it served to further our understanding of how close Jackson and Cullen had become.The exploration of relationships was continued in the subplot about the relationship between the local sheriff's office and the State Police as they try to track down the escaped convicts.
Meanwhile, the State Police plus the local Sheriff and a ragtag bunch of deputies, assisted by tracker dogs, are hot on their trail.With enough thrilling action to keep it enjoyable today, this is an important film that provided Poitier with a breakthrough role and helped Curtis to escape the simplistic hero mode in which his talents had too often been wasted.
Chain gang convicts Tony Curtis (as John Jackson) and Sidney Poitier (as Noah Cullen) make an escape, after their transporting truck overturns on a rainy road.
In convincing small roles, watch for Lon Chaney Jr. lending a helping hand, Claude Akins talking tough, young Kevin Coughlin playing a racist kid, and rascally Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer appearing for the last time.******* The Defiant Ones (7/58) Stanley Kramer ~ Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Cara Williams, Theodore Bikel.
"The Defiant Ones" is a truly great film starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier, both of whom earned their money and deserved their Oscar nominations in this exciting and moving film, beautifully directed by Stanley Kramer.Marlon Brando was to star in the movie but when it didn't happen due to Kramer having to wait for Poitier to finish a film, Curtis, complete with nose putty (which he often relied on to make himself less handsome) took over and showed what he could really do with a good role.
Sidney Poitier was another stand out cast member of this film with a believable character who is an African American who is trying to live happy but is constantly getting beaten and abused by the whites such a powerful message about equality.
Prisoners John Jackson (Tony Curtis) and Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier) are chained together and escape.
Stanley Kramer directed this racial drama that stars Tony Curtis as John 'Joker' Jackson and Sidney Poiter as Noah Cullen, two convicts on a chain gang chained together who escape after the truck carrying them has an accident.
John 'Joker' Jackson (Tony Curtis, but looks like Joan Crawford) and Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier) escape from a chain gang.
Arguably director Stanley Krammer's only true moment of cinematic greatness, THE DEFIANT ONES is a film that takes a standard plot (two convicts, who hate each other, escape but are chained together and must learn to depend upon one another) and manages to pack an extremely powerful punch.
The 31 year old Sidney Poitier finally got his break by acting alongside Tony Curtis in this rather dated film about brotherly fellowship, 'The Defiant Ones'.
If you've seen Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis chained together and running from bloodhounds, an angry mob, or alongside a train, those famous images are from Stanley Kramer's Oscar-winning drama.The plot is simple but intense.
Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis give terrific performances, as do Theodore Bikel, as the humanistic sheriff tracking them down, and Cara Williams, as a single woman who gives the men shelter and emerges as perhaps the most vile representative of a kind of white racism rampant then and still rampant now.
Two convicts escape - Johnny (Tony Curtis), a white man, and Cullen (Sydney Poitier), a black man.
Two convicts escape - Johnny (Tony Curtis), a white man, and Cullen (Sydney Poitier), a black man.
John "Joker" Jackson (Tony Curtis), and Noah Cullen (excellent portrayal by Sidney Poitier), have escaped from prison and are shackled together.
The story, well directed by message film director Stanley Kramer (see also the excellent "Ship of Fools", as well as his masterpiece "On The Beach" with Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner).At any rate, the film has some good scenes, they are in the brush and swamps of Georgia, trying to escape a pack of bloodhounds, and the Sheriff well portrayed by Theodore Bikel The fact that the way Poitier is treated , simply because he is black, is a time warp as when a woman offers the refugees food, but first asks Curtis if she "should give the other guy some as well".
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.
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.
The Defiant One. The time of extreme racism has long gone, but this chained-together white and black convicts' escaping adventure simply hasn't waned much for its in-your-face impact of genuine thrill and sympathy, director Stanley Kramer's (from SHIP OF FOOLS 1965, 6/10) third feature, gathering Curtis and Poitier as the "impossible pair", the film would successfully pave the way for Poitier and Kramer's prospective Oscar-winner echelon and afford Curtis a splendid career-turn with his only Oscar nomination.
This movie also earned Sidney Poitier his first Oscar nomination by the way and the movie got nominated for a lot more, including best picture but it eventually won only two, for its writing and black & white cinematography.it's an heavy movie with its subject but luckily the movie overall remains quite entertaining to watch as well.
He jokes with Cullen and tells him to call him names about the whiteness of his skin as a sign that racism doesn't exist between the two.Soon after Curtis made this movie he starred in his most famous film "Some Like It Hot." And Poitier was already known by his star performance in "Blackboard Jungle." Yet together they have chemistry.
Defiant Ones, The (1958) **** (out of 4) Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier, white and black, play escaped convicts, chained together, who are trying to make their escape without killing one another.
This great film follows two escaped convicts (Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier) as they try to out run the law.
Two prisoners, one black (Sidney Poitier) and one white (Tony Curtis), escape after they've been shackled together by the wrists.
When the truck that is transporting convicts has an accident on the road, the inmates John "Joker" Jackson (Tony Curtis) and Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier) that are chained to each other escape.
Stanley Kramer is responsible for two of the best anti-racism movies, "The Defiant Ones" and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", both with Sidney Poitier.
The movie is the story of two escaped convicts, African-American Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier) who hates white people, and bigot white man, John 'Joker' Jackson (Tony Curtis), whom hates blacks.
"The Defiant Ones" was retitled in French, "The Chain", as if the real issue was the relationship between John "Joker" Jackson and Noah Cullen, Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier as two fugitives from a chain gang, a white and a black man shackled together and forced to cooperate and trust each other in order to survive.
In the American south two prisoners escape from a chain gang.The other, Noah Cullen, is black, and John "Joker" Jackson, is white.They can't stand each other.But they are forced to cooperate, despite the racial issues.And eventually they start even liking each other.On the run, they meet a young boy named Billy.He leads them to his mother.At her home, they get rid of their chains.The lonely woman is attracted to John, and wants to run off with him.But friendship wins, in the end.Stanley Kramer is the director of this classic, The Defiant Ones (1958).Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier make such a powerful couple.Theodore Bikel makes a great sheriff, sheriff Max Muller.Charles McGraw is great as Captain Frank Gibbons.Lon Chaney Jr. is terrific as Big Sam, a former convict, who rescues them from the hanging.Kevin Coughlin plays Billy and Cara Williams is his mother.They're both great.Carl Switzer, Alfalfa from Our Gang movies, plays Angus in his final role.The movie offers lots of thrills and some great drama.The moments around the supply store, which they want to rob, are full of drama and tension.The people there want to hang them.And in the end, when they try to catch the train, but John can't make it, since young Billy has shot him.Noah hops off the train and goes to his friend, singing "Long Gone".Even though they're not wearing the chains anymore, in a way those two are still chained to each other..
The conditions were miserable and the situations Jackson (Curtis) and Cullen (Poitier) found themselves in were both physically and mentally demanding.Obviously, the subject of racism is at the center of the picture, as director Stanley Kramer made the bold decision to challenge the movie going public with a black and white, man to man relationship that was further compounded by their status as escaped convicts.
These two prisoners chained together are white John 'Joker' Jackson (Oscar and Golden Globe nominated Tony Curtis) and black Noah Cullen (BAFTA winning, and Oscar and Golden Globe nominated Sidney Poitier), both despise each other initially, but their hands are chained together as they run across the American South to find a way to break their chains, as well as food and a place to hide.
Curtis managed to shake of his "pretty boy" image playing his bigoted white prisoner, and Poitier became a big star playing the angry southern black man, together in chains for three quarters of the film they are a fantastic duo who hate each other at first but become close friends, this film at the time was definitely a great statement for the need of racial equality, the script is full of both punch and poignancy, and it works really well as an exciting chase movie, a highly entertaining crime drama.
Joker Jackson (Tony Curtis, a revelation) and Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier, fierce and fatalistic) are chained together and are in flight from a posse of local deputies led by Sheriff Max Muller (Theodore Bikel) and State Trooper Capt.
*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.
The movie ends with Jackson giving up a chance to escape in order to save Cullen's life.In the 1950s, major film roles for black actors were few and far between.