No Down Payment begins peppy and optimistic as the two central characters, a couple, move to Sunrise Hills, a Southern California suburb. Things turn dark quickly. This is pure John Cheever and Raymond Carver and Mad Men all tossed together. No Down Payment is not a perfect movie, and the ending has a bit of a deus ex machina moment. The acting is spot-on. I’d never heard of Sheree North. In this movie, she is perfect in the part of the long-suffering, quiet wife of alcoholic dreamer Tony Randall. Pat Hingle is the closest to a moral compass that we get in this movie. Cameron Mitchell is the menacing or gentlemanly (which is it?) neighbor who threatens to turn their placid life upside-down. Good stuff.
