The Defiant Ones

Ben Mankiewicz introduces The Defiant Ones, 1958.

Ben Mankiewicz introduces The Defiant Ones, 1958.

Ben Mankiewicz introduces The Defiant Ones, 1958.

TCM's Saturday afternoon host Tiffany Vazquez introduces The Defiant Ones, 1958.

Ben Mankiewicz introduces The Defiant Ones, 1958.

Producer-director Stanley Kramer begins what is perhaps his first altogether topical social-issue film with Sidney Poitier singing a W.C. Handy song, handcuffed to Tony Curtis, events leading to Sheriff Muller (Theodore Bikel) on the radio, in The Defiant Ones, 1958.

Caught trying to steal food at a Southern work camp, handcuffed escaped cons Cullen (Sidney Poitier) and Joker (Tony Curtis) look like they'll be lynched at the whim of crew boss Mac (Claude Akins), until Big Sam (Lon Chaney Jr.) intervenes, in Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones, 1958.

First shot of handcuffed prisoners Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier after the truck crash, no time for chat, while back at the site the dog trainer, sheriff and state police captain (King Donovan, Theodore Bikel, Charles McGraw) prepare to pursue, in Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones, 1958.

Escaped, handcuffed and incompatible convicts Joker (Tony Curtis) and Cullen (Sidney Poitier) finally reach the work camp where the latter was once incarcerated, slowly warming to each other on their first night in flight, in Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones, 1958.

Two convicts, a white racist and an angry black man, escape while chained to each other. Starring Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis.