Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
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Odds Against Tomorrow is a 1959 film noir produced and directed by Robert Wise for HarBel Productions, a company founded by the film's star, Harry Belafonte. Belafonte selected Abraham Polonsky to write the script, which is based on a novel by William P. McGivern. As a blacklisted writer Polonsky used a front, John O. Killens, a black novelist and friend of Belafonte's. In 1996, the Writers Guild of America restored Polonsky's credit under his real name. Odds Against Tomorrow is the first noir with a black protagonist. It was the last time Wise shot black-and-white film in the standard aspect ratio, which "gave his films the gritty realism they were known for".