Poster from TMDB
OverviewAI-generated
The Defiant Ones is a 1958 buddy, drama, crime and thriller film directed by Stanley Kramer, who also produced it. Written by Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith, it stars Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Theodore Bikel and Cara Williams, with cinematography by Sam Leavitt, music by Ernest Gold and editing by Frederic Knudtson. Shot in black-and-white, the film runs 96 minutes and was distributed by United Artists and later Netflix. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama and the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Film Editing.
Synthesized by Vinony from 46 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, IMDb, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.1Two convicts—one white, one black—escape while chained to each other.
Cast
- Tony Curtis as John 'Joker' Jackson
- Sidney Poitier as Noah Cullen
- Theodore Bikel as Sheriff Max Muller
- Charles McGraw as Capt. Frank Gibbons
- Lon Chaney Jr. as Big Sam
- King Donovan as Solly
Themes
- escape
- mississippi river
- freedom
- hostility
- swamp
- bias
- racist
- escaped convict
- chain gang
- man hunt
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Ratings
IMDb
7.6/10
19,773 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
90%
Metacritic
69/100
- Year
- 1958
- Runtime
- 96 min
- Genres
- Crime, Drama
- Rated
- Approved
- Awards
- Won 2 Oscars. 16 wins & 21 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Stanley Kramer
- Written by
- Harold Jacob Smith , Nedrick Young
- Produced by
- Stanley Kramer
- Starring
- Tony Curtis , Sidney Poitier , Theodore Bikel , Charles McGraw , Lon Chaney , King Donovan , Kevin Coughlin, Cara Williams
- Cinematography
- Sam Leavitt
- Edited by
- Frederic Knudtson
- Music by
- Ernest Gold
- Production companies
- Stanley Kramer Productions Lomitas Productions Curtleigh Productions
- Distributed by
- United Artists
- Release dates
- June 29, 1958 ( 1958-06-29 ) ( Berlin ) September 27, 1958 ( 1958-09-27 ) (United States)
- Running time
- 96 minutes
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $778,000
- Box office
- $2.75 million (US and Canadian rentals)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- film
- Genre
- action film
- Country of origin
- United States
- Original language
- English language
- Screenwriter
- Harold Jacob Smith
- Cast member
- Carroll O'Connor
- Composer
- Ernest Gold
- Producer
- Stanley Kramer
- Cinematographer
- Sam Leavitt
- Duration
- 96
- FilmAffinity ID
- 999154
- Distribution format
- video on demand
- Image
- Tony Curtis-Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones trailer.jpg
Show 9 more facts
- Commons category
- The Defiant Ones
- publication date
- 1958-07-00
- nominated for
- Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay
- film editor
- Frederic Knudtson
- title
- The Defiant Ones
- color
- black-and-white
- distributed by
- Netflix
- assessment
- Bechdel test
- review score
- 7.7/10
Sources (12)
via Wikidata · CC0
~11 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Defiant Ones is a 1958 American drama film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer. The film was adapted by Harold Jacob Smith from the story by Nedrick Young, originally credited as Nathan E. Douglas. It stars Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier as two escaped prisoners, one white and one black, who are shackled together and who must co-operate in order to survive.
The Defiant Ones premiered on June 29, 1958, at the 8th Berlin International Film Festival, where Poitier won the Silver Bear for Best Actor. Upon its release in the U.S. on September 27, the film was highly regarded by film critics. It won Academy Awards for Cinematography (Black-and-White) and Original Screenplay and was nominated for seven others, including Best Picture and Best Actor for both Poitier and Curtis.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Defiant Ones” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.