No Down Payment

A newly built suburban development in California: four young families living side by side in houses bought on instalments. From outside, everyone is rising. Inside there is debt, drink, a promotion that never comes and an expectation of the future with nothing behind it. The film is not interested in the slum. It is interested in the shop window of the middle class: it takes direct aim at the American dream of the fifties and says it was sold with no down payment. One neighbour's racism and another's violence are drawn as ordinary parts of the arrangement. The form is ensemble drama: four houses, intersecting scenes, and a calendar marked by weekend barbecues. Martin Ritt directed. He had been blacklisted, and films that look at the faults of the American system were his continuing territory. Joanne Woodward, Sheree North, Tony Randall and Cameron Mitchell star. Who it is for: viewers who like the social drama of the fifties and criticism of suburbia. Who it is not for: anyone wanting restraint. The film lists its subjects openly and some characters remain the representative of a single problem.