The Defiant Ones (1958)
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, (more)
- Director(s):
- Stanley Kramer
- Category:
- Drama
Member Rating
My RatingTheatrical Release Information | See Details About All Versions
Convicts Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier escape from a chain gang. Curtis' character, John "Joker" Jackson, hates blacks, while Poitier's character, Noah Cullen, hates whites. However, the men are manacled together, forced to rely on each other to survive. Captured at one point by a lynch-happy mob, the convicts are rescued by Big Sam (Lon Chaney Jr.), himself a former convict. The men are later sheltered by a lonely, love-hungry widow played by Cara Williams, who offers to turn in Cullen if Joker will stay with her. By the time the two men are within hailing distance of a train that might take them to freedom, they have become friends. The script for The Defiant Ones is credited to Harold Jacob Smith and Nathan E. Douglas. The latter was really Nedrick Young, a blacklisted writer, whom producer Stanley Kramer hired knowing full well that Young was using an alias (when "Douglas"' credit appears onscreen, it is superimposed over a close-up of a truck driver -- played by Nedrick Young). Both the script and the photography by Sam Leavitt won Academy Awards. If you look closely, you'll notice that the actor playing Angus is former Little Rascal Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, making his last screen appearance. The Defiant Ones was remade for TV in 1986, with Robert Urich and Carl Weathers in the leads. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Theatrical Feature Running Time:
- 96 mins
Complete Cast:
- Tony Curtis - John "Joker" Jackson
- Theodore Bikel - Sheriff Man Muller
- Lon Chaney, Jr. - Big Sam
- King Donovan - Solly
- Lawrence Dobkin - Editor
- Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer - Angus
- Sidney Poitier - Noah Cullen
- Charles McGraw - Captain Frank Gibbons
- Cara Williams - The Woman
- Claude Akins - Mac
- Whit Bissell - Lou Gans
- Kevin Coughlin - Billy
- Director(s):
- Stanley Kramer
- Writer(s):
- Ned Young, Nathan E. Douglas, Harold Jacob Smith
- Producer(s):
- Stanley Kramer
- Categories:
- Drama
- Closed Captioning:
- Check All Versions
- Subtitles:
- Check All Versions
- 1958 - The Defiant Ones - Berlin International Film Festival - Silver Bear for Best Actor
- 1958 - The Defiant Ones - British Academy of Film and Television Arts - Best Foreign Actor
- 1958 - The Defiant Ones - British Academy of Film and Television Arts - United Nations Award
- 1958 - The Defiant Ones - Golden Globe - Best Picture - Drama
- 1958 - The Defiant Ones - Hollywood Foreign Press Association - Best Picture - Drama
- 1958 - The Defiant Ones - New York Film Critics Circle - Best Director
- 1958 - The Defiant Ones - New York Film Critics Circle - Best Screenplay
- 1958 - The Defiant Ones - New York Film Critics Circle - Best Picture
- 1958 - The Defiant Ones - New York Film Critics Circle - Best Screenplay
