NO DOWN PAYMENT: Blu-ray (2oth Century-Fox, 1957) Twilight Time

America’s postwar economic boom was also a badly needed boost to the national morale.  Only a few years prior, the age of the robbery baron had suffered its most thought-numbing hunger pang with the Great Depression, and then, those terrible years of conflict abroad from which far too many never returned. But in the afterglow of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, American ingenuity gave rise to a unique prosperity, effectively to eclipse any lingering concerns about a nuclear winter at home. What me worry became a national motto, since seemingly everyone could afford to build a bomb shelter in their own backyard. Better still, everyone could afford ‘the backyard’ as all across the fruited plain, baby boomers traded in the inner-city tenements of their youth for the suburbs. The ‘burbs’ inculcated a middle-class/ultra-conservative prudery that fast took root and prospered; the promise of home ownership becoming a concrete manifestation of that constitutional right to pursue ‘life, liberty and happiness’ on individual terms, presumably as outlined by the pursuer, and, in a neighborhood comprised solely of one’s peers and class. Something of a misnomer, then, to discover what was on the other side of that proverbial white picket fence was hardly as rosy in Martin Ritt’s No Down Payment (1957).

The screenplay, authored by blacklisted writer, Ben Maddow, with writer, Philip Yordan as his beard, and based on John McPartland’s novel, No Down Payment tells the tale of a pair of hopefuls, David (Jeffrey Hunter) and Jean Martin (Patricia Owens) who make the move as newlyweds to the burgeoning development of Sunrise Hills – promoted as an idyllic place to settle down and raise a family. Dave and Jean are the promise of tomorrow – bright, educated, white and affluent. He’s an electrical engineer with a great future ahead of him. She’s the Suzie Cream Cheese homemaker any crew-cut young buck would count himself fortunate to be coming home. Given all the roiling inner upheaval, alcoholism, sexual frustrations, rape and accidental death yet to follow, in hindsight, No Down Payment plays like a dry run for TV’s Knot’s Landing (1979-93), decades ahead of its time and tricked out in Cinemascope, though ironically, not DeLuxe color. Joseph LaShelle’s B&W cinematography quintessentially captures the antiseptic ‘burbs’ as big, shiny and new: in every cookie-cutter living room - a television; in every garage, this year’s sleek new Ford, GM or Chrysler.

The opening shots, depict our happy couple leaving the bustle and congestion of freeway traffic for the more even cadence of this seemingly cozy and close-knit community. Stepping into their pre-fab home, Jean and Dave are almost immediately invited to a barbeque by their curious neighbors, Herman (Pat Hingle) and Betty Krietzer (Barbara Rush).  Herman A. Blumenthal and Lyle R. Wheeler’s art direction emphasizes the close proximity between these houses. Indeed, the Martin’s have been shoe-horned on a lot barely big enough for the foundation of their home, and, into a hornet’s nest of ‘good neighbors’ – Herman and Betty, the most benign of the lot. To the left are the Flaggs, Isabelle (Sheree North) and Jerry (Tony Randall). She’s an enabler. He’s an alcoholic. Jerry sells cars but cannot sell himself. Isabelle tolerates his philandering because – yeah – she loves him. On the other side, and just as discontented, are Troy (Cameron Mitchell) and Leola Boone (Joanne Woodward). He’s an unskilled war vet, barely keeping afloat and hoping to land a job as police chief on their newly inaugurated part-time force. She’s a bumpkin who harbors deep rooted angst and blames Troy for giving up a baby for adoption. At the barbeque, an inebriated Jerry makes an obvious pass at Jean, holding her much too tight during an ‘innocent’ dance as the others look on. Dave sheepishly allows this to happen. But Troy chivalrously steps in to rescue Jean from the clinch. Alas, Troy’s intent is far from noble either. This, of course we do not know at the outset.

Troy has an impressive collection of Japanese paraphernalia displayed in his garage. But even he can see that his glory days are fast behind him. In civilian clothes, he doesn’t even rate the respect of the community at large. Days pass. The Martins settle into their new home. But all is not well here either. Dave is secretive about his niggling concern he may have bitten off more than he can chew financially. Meanwhile, Jean is oblivious to her husband’s anxiety. Instead, she goes shopping. Herman’s refusal to attend Sunday mass with his wife and two children – and worst of all, having the temerity to wash his car in plain view as the parishioners exit the church – lead his prepubescent son, Harmon (Donald Towers) and daughter, Sandra (Mimi Gibson) into a debate whether or not their dad is going to hell. Herman manages the local hardware and is blessed to have Iko (Aki Aleong) as his faithful window merchandiser. Iko would like to live in Sunrise Hills too. But for this he would require sponsorship, or at the very least, a boost in confidence from Herman to promote him as just as much of an American to the town council and his friends. This, Herman very reluctantly, refuses to do. After all, what will people say? What will they think?

After a particularly rough day selling cars, Jerry hornswoggles Mr. (Jim Hayward) and Mrs. Burnett (Mary Carroll) into buying a new car they cannot afford, pocketing part of their deposit to pay for a new bicycle he promised his son, Michael (Charles Herbert). At first, no one is the wiser for his deception. But then, Jerry’s boss, Markham (Robert Harris) and Mr. Burnett arrive on the couple’s front porch, just as Jerry and Isabelle are planning to entertain their neighbors. Markham threatens to dismiss Jerry from his employment unless he pays back every cent. Isabelle, quietly humiliated and ashamed of her husband’s actions, offers Mr. Burnett thirty dollars from her own personal savings, vowing to pay the rest back the next afternoon.  Sometime later, Leola has a minor breakdown over the loss of her baby, which Troy admits to knowing he was not the father. She desperately wants Troy to sire an offspring. But Troy is too single-minded to take any invested interest in Leola’s happiness.  After everyone has gone home, Isabelle lowers the boom on Jerry. He is never going to be a millionaire. He has no great talent. He is not an entrepreneur, just a Joe Average whose aspirations are all ‘pie in the sky’. The best he can – or rather, should – aim for, is a steady nine-to-five to bring home a stable pay check so the family can at least begin to pull themselves out of debt, incurred for buying all their plush niceties on credit.

Dave is called away on business, leaving Jean home alone. Reluctantly, Herman agrees to give Jerry a job at his hardware store. He encourages Jerry to reconsider that with due diligence and hard work, as an imminent franchise expansion is about to occur, Jerry could wind up managing another store nearby and make even more money by being his own man. Alas, Jerry is uninterested in the long-term. He will settle for a bit now, just until he can ‘establish’ himself in a more promising career. Meanwhile, Iko is insulted his boss will not go to bat for his family to become a part of Sunrise Hills. Betty encourages her husband to tread lightly on his decision to sponsor Iko into their middle-class enclave. This leads to a personal rift in Herman and Iko’s working relationship. As night falls, Troy, having been overlooked for the police chief’s job, gets quietly drunk. He enters Jean and Dave’s house through the unlocked back door and rapes Jean.  Afterward, she frantically finds her way to the Kriezers patio door. Arriving home late, Leola is unaware of what has transpired, even as Herman turns up on her front lawn to inquire to Troy’s whereabouts. Instead, Leola discovers Troy, drunk and sprawled unconscious on their sofa in the living room.

The next morning, she probes the situation as Troy is attempting to fix his truck in the driveway. Just home from his business trip, Dave learns from his wife about the rape but stands by Jean. Indeed, he loves her. So, Dave tries to assault Troy in his driveway. Instead, the beefier Troy quickly dispatches with the lanky college-grad in a display of fisticuffs. Moments later, a humiliated Dave returns home and affirms for Jean that his love remains unabated. But Leola is discussed by her husband’s behavior. Accidentally, she causes the jack holding up the truck to fall on Troy’s chest. He is crushed and dies as Leola fearfully cries out for help; Herman and Dave, discovering the body. The next day, Leola packs her bags, leaving Sunrise Hills for good. As her taxi passes the church we find Herman exiting the front doors with Betty and their children – also, Iko, whom Herman has decided to back in a show of support for his subscription into their gated community. Leola cynically observes the huge billboard advertising Sunrise Hills as the perfect place to raise a family. Will she ever discover genuine happiness elsewhere, now that the bitterness and tragedy in town are fast becoming a distant memory in the rearview? Hmmmm.

No Down Payment is metaphorically ironic, as each of the couples aspiring to ‘normal’, ‘good lives’ herein pay rather dearly for the right to partake of this social experiment. It is also, regrettably, a film of its time, rather badly dated, exclusively populated by a potpourri of Fox contract players who otherwise fail to make much of a splash. This rather tepid and soapy melodrama was produced by Jerry Wald – no stranger to the gush and goo of telling watered down stories fraught with mere glimmers of more audacious human sexual foibles. We can forgive Wald his proclivity, since Hollywood’s censorship forbade anything more shocking on the screen.  Still, there is not much to recommend No Down Payment beyond its time capsule appeal. The performances are uniformly flat. I suppose, they complement the intertwining and dead-end plots. At any other time in the studio’s history, No Down Payment would have been a B-programmer to fill run time on the second half of a double bill. Alas, tricked out in Cinemascope, and given the A-list treatment visually, No Down Payment has the disadvantage of playing more like a big and bloated super-production with some valid social critique it never gets around to championing. In the end, the Yordon/Maddow screenplay merely runs in pace with the times, layering a lot of superficial gloss, but precious little else, on a fairly mediocre premise. This is not a very effective film; even, as fifties’ suburban super-kitsch.

No Down Payment gets a Blu-ray via Twilight Time’s distribution deal with Fox Home Video. The 1080p ‘scope’ transfer is adequate. Although, in spots, it can appear overly bright, with slightly blown out contrast and black levels that suffer from a milky grayness instead of being richly saturated. There is a decided disconnect between the location work and the interiors/exteriors transparently photographed on a soundstage. Close-ups are fairly impressive. But a lot of the medium and wide shots are uninspiringly lit with soft fringing around the edges and residual image softness creeping in to the left and right of dead center. We can chalk most of these shortcomings up to vintage Cinemascope, rather than any transgressions incurred by the digital transfer. No Down Payment was released theatrically with 4-track Westrex stereo; TT going for a new DTS 5.1 and also 2.0 alternate stereo track. Leigh Harline’s underscore sounds magnificent on TT’s isolated score. Apart from a nicely put together booklet by Julie Kirgo, there are no extras. Bottom line: not a great movie and not altogether successful as vintage camp either, No Down Payment is disposable entertainment at best. You can easily pass on this and be glad you did.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

2.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

3.5

EXTRAS

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