"Life was a mess in Peyton Place, but the town looked neat, as did the geometrical segments of a California housing estate in No Down Payment: a topical indictment of the new suburbia, constructed with every technological asset, spatially economic, making a bid for gracious neighborly living by juxtaposing four backyards that were conducive to alfresco barbecue parties-and also to house-to-house darting by any husband who happened to covet his neighbor's wife. Four married couples ran the soap-opera gambit.... The genre, in respect of characters and incidents, was common; but the setting gave a special edge to No Down Payment. Development estates, where conformity was purchased on the installment plan, were represented as a threat to peaceable co-existence. The families were too close together. Individuality was not taken into account. Anyone who did not conform was automatically a misfit" (Gordon Gow, Hollywood in the Fifties). Joanne Woodward in an early starring role, takes the film away from a veteran cast as a young wife covering up in childish loyalty for the wounds of a lost baby and a brutal husband. The amiable Tony Randall shows his other side (his best) as a car salesman suffering from soul rot.