Too Late for Tears (1949)

Director:

Byron Haskin

Writers:

Roy Huggins (screenplay)
Roy Huggins (serial)

Release Date:

13 August 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery

Tagline:

That's just to remind you... you're in a tough racket now!

Plot:

Through a fluke circumstance a ruthless woman stumbles across a suitcase filled with $60,000, and she is determined to hold onto it even it if means murder.

Plot Keywords:

Fall From Balcony | Fate | Boat | War Buddy | Suspicion

Cast

Lizabeth Scott	...	Jane Palmer
Don DeFore	...	Don Blake
Dan Duryea	...	Danny Fuller
Arthur Kennedy	...	Alan Palmer
Kristine Miller	...	Kathy Palmer
Barry Kelley	...	Lt. Breach

Also Known As:

Killer Bait (USA) (reissue title)

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1952) | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #13539) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Hunt Stromberg Productions

Trivia:

Roy Huggins wrote the screenplay, which is based on his "Saturday Evening Post" serial.

Quotes:

Danny Fuller: If I help you it's the gas chamber.
Jane Palmer: Neither one of us will get the gas chamber. People saw me come onto this boat with my husband and they'll see me get off with him, you're going to put on his hat and coat.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Spartan (2004)

Well acted film noir.

Jane and Alan Palmer accidently receive a satchel containing sixty thousand dollars that was intended as a blackmail payoff. Alan wants to turn the money over to the police, but money loving Jane wants to keep it. Meanwhile the blackmailer confronts Jane about his absconded payment. Greedy Jane murders her husband and then pretends to make a deal with the blackmailer. However, a ghost from Janes past returns to be her undoing.

Considering that Byron (WAR OF THE WORLDS) Haskin was never a really good director of actors, this film is very well acted. The cast turns in first rate performances, so good in fact that the performers almost make the viewer not notice that this film has a very far fetched, convoluted plot.

I have seen a lot of these "film noirs" and of all of them, TOO LATE FOR TEARS is probably one of the most cynical. Few other films I have seen have this thick air fatalism hanging over it.

Kristine Miller who plays Alan's sister Kathy, is one of the most beautiful women to grace the screen. This the first time I noticed her, and it's a shame her film career was rather short, and rarely had large roles as she had here.

One note: If you pay close attention, you will see former "Dead End" Kid leader Billy Halop in small role as a boat attendant.