The Defiant Ones in 35mm
The Defiant Ones in 35mm
Stanley Kramer’s heavy drama The Defiant Ones follows two escaped prisoners—a white man named John “Joker” Jackson (Tony Curtis) and a Black man named Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier)—trying to avoid capture while chained together. Despite sharing equal screentime, Poitier’s credit initially came after the film’s title until Curtis asked to have Poitier’s name alongside his, making this the first above-the-title billing in Poitier’s career. The film’s nine Oscar nominations included Best Picture, Directing, and Best Actor for both stars—Poitier’s first nomination. It won for Sam Leavitt’s black-and-white cinematography and the original screenplay by Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith.
DIRECTED BY: Stanley Kramer. WRITTEN BY: Nedrick Young, Harold Jacob Smith. WITH: Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Theodore Bikel, Cara Williams. 1958. 96 min. USA. B&W. English. 35mm. Collection print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
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