Defiant Ones, The (1958): Stanley Kramer’s Best Film Starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier

In Stanley Kramer’s best film, “The Defiant One,” two escaped convicts, one white (Tony Curtis), the other black (Sidney Poitier), make an odyssey toward freedom in the Deep South. It’s a journey that’s both physical and literal and figurative.

Chained to each other, the relationship between the vastly diverse men gradually changes from initially deep hatred and suspicious animosity to trustable partnership to ultimately genuine camaraderie.

Their flight is replete with obstacles. In its course, the duo encounter a vicious lynching mob, but are saved by Big Sam (Lon Chaney), an upright and fearless man who stands up against the mob.

The film contrasts sheriff Max Muller (Theodore Bikel), a human sheriff with a streak of justice, and the brutish state policeman, who is motivated by vengeance and punishment; he wants to use his hunting dogs in the chase because to him the captives are like dogs themselves. Sheriff Muller has to remind the policeman that their job is to capture, not to execute, the convicts, and that they are there as representatives of the law.

Though Tony Curtis was not the first choice (Brando was) to play Joker, he gives a memorable performance that may be the best in his long career. Initially, Curtis was to get top billing, above the title, but after shooting began, Curtis asked producer-director Kramer to place Poitier’s name next to his above the title. While Curtis was more established at the time, this is the movie that made Poitier a bona fide star, entering into the most fruitful decade of his career.

Detailed Plot

A truck driving at night swerves to prevent an accident and crashes through a barrier. The rescuers cover the people killed–mostly prisoners. Two are missing: a black man shackled to a white man. At first, the feeling is that “they will probably kill each other in the first five miles,” but a large posse and bloodhounds are dispatched to find them. The black man is Noah Cullen (Poitier) and the white John “Joker” Jackson (Curtis). Despite mutual loathing, they are forced to cooperate–if they wish to survive–but gradually, they begin to respect each other.

Cullen and Joker flee through difficult terrain and weather, with a brief stop at a turpentine camp. They break into a general store for food and tools, but they are captured by the inhabitants who form a lynch mob. They are saved only by one man, “Big” Sam (Chaney), who’s appalled by his neighbors’ brutality. Sam promises to lock the convicts up and turn them in the morning, but he secretly releases them, after revealing that he too is a former chain-gang prisoner.

Spotted by a young boy, Billy, they make him take them to his home and his single mother (Williams); her husband had abandoned her. The escapees are finally able to break their chains. 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, but Cullen leaves, she reveals that she had lied. She had sent Cullen into the swamp to die so that, if captured, he won’t reveal where Joker had gone. Joker runs after his friend, but as he leaves, Billy shoots him.

Wounded, Joker catches up to Cullen and warns him about the swamp. The posse led by humane Sheriff Max Muller (Bikel) gets so close that they can hear the dogs on their trail. But they also hear a train whistle and run towards the sound. Cullen hops the train but he is unable to drag Joker aboard, and they tumble to the ground. Too exhausted to run, all they can do is sit and wait for their arrest. When the sheriff arrives, he finds Cullen singing while holding Joker in his arms.