The Defiant Ones

“One of the great ones!”

John "Joker" Jackson (Tony Curtis) is a white convict who despises the man he is chained to, Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier), a black convict who despises him right back. When their prison transport crashes, the two run, still shackled at the wrist, with Sheriff Max Muller (Theodore Bikel) and a posse behind them. Stanley Kramer keeps the pair in the open country, where each one needs the other to stay alive.