No Down Payment

Martin Ritt - 1957 - USA

This falls in with a group of films from the mid-late 50s that assertively critiqued the new phenomenon of suburban living and corporate culture, along with titles like Bigger Than Life and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. The zeitgeist grown by the class of men still coping with trauma from their World War II service trying to find their place in the post-war world must have been tremendously potent in the 50s, judging by the volume of books, film and television on the subject. At times, No Down Payment feels like a post-modern movie made decades later but set in the 50s. The streets and subdivisions are so pristine, everything clean and new. Four young couples live in close quarters in one interconnected network of houses, seemingly built to promote neighborliness but feels near claustrophobic and makes privacy almost impossible. Behind the facades of neatness and politeness, (and within a compact 105 minutes), these men and women who live here are shown dealing with limits to upward mobility, alcoholism, infidelity, PTSD, racism, and an overwhelming sense of looming debt that promises to engulf their futures as they live in a rosy, indulgent present. This last issue is the one topic that is openly discussed; the palpable dread of being slowly engulfed by commitments to big companies and banks via the ever-present payment plan. The cast is superb; Jeffrey Hunter, Barbara Rush, Cameron Mitchell, Sheree North, Pat Hingle, Tony Randall and Patricia Owens. But one person rises above the rest so conspicuously that it’s almost surreal; Joanne Woodward. Fresh off her Oscar-winning performance in The Three Faces of Eve, she is already embracing the grittier acting style of the 60s and 70s, while everyone else is still stuck in 50s-brand melodrama. This is director Martin Ritt’s second film, following the excellent Edge of the City, and the film he made just before the one that earned him some real attention, The Long Hot Summer, (also starring Woodward). Ritt made a few great films and a lot of mediocre ones. In these early films, you can really tell that he was anxious to prove himself, but he soon became more of a dependable journeyman whose work was hit and miss.