NO DOWN PAYMENT
(20th Century Fox-CinemaScope) R: 16 and over only IKE The Bachelor Party, this Jerry Wald production (directed by Martin Ritt) finds its drama in the sub-surface tensions of American urban life. Socially, the stratum is one or two layers higher than that of the Chayefsky piece; the milieu is the pretentious (all-Caucasian) garden suburb of a small town; the protagonists young marrieds who have made some headway in the rat race and hope to make more. Tony Randall, taking time off from comedy, gives a chilling performance as a salesman who dreams of a big killing on the second-hand car-market and tries to keep the dream alive with closely-spaced shots of alcohol; Pat Hingle, established, decent, not too conforming, is the relatively still centre about which events turn; Cameron Mitchell (each household is inspected ir turn in a sort of homogenised Milk
Wood treatment) is an ex-Marine and crypto-sadist whose frustrations finally explode violently and fatally. No Down Payment, by the conjunction of screenings, invites-and suffers from-comparison with The Bachelor Party, but it is well acted and if, in the end, it trades drama for a cheaper sensationalism (and rather pointedly dodges one or two vital issues) it has its moments of uncompromising directness, and was well worth making.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19580801.2.24.1.3
Bibliographic details
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 39, Issue 989, 1 August 1958, Page 16
Word count
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212NO DOWN PAYMENT New Zealand Listener, Volume 39, Issue 989, 1 August 1958, Page 16
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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