Crime Street presents
Too Late for Tears (1949)

Director - Byron Haskin
 

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Plot
Commentary
Cast and Production Credits

The Plot

Jane and her husband Alan are driving along a moonlit highway when a car approaching from the opposite direction tosses a valise into their car. Obviously a case of mistaken auto identity, the valise turns out to be a filled with cash. Jane convinces Alan not to go to the police and they return to their apartment. The following day they check the valise at the Union Railroad station while they consider their options. Jane goes on a buying spree. Alan wants to take the money to the police.

Small time thug Danny, the intended recipient of the money, tracks them down and confronts Jane. She makes one of those film noir choices that of course takes her further and further and faster and faster down the rabbit hole of ate. A gender switched "An American Tragedy" and poisoning later, as in so many of these post-war tales, the whole deal goes south, literally, to Mexico for a final curtain.

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Film Notes

The Los Angeles hills are alive with the sights and sounds of greed, betrayal and sex, as once again, the post-WW II years have a dark light shown on its myth of the beginning of boom time joy for all.

Jane (Lizabeth Scott) says, "We were the worst kind of poor. White collar poor." Yes there were some folks getting rich, but it wasn't the middle class, but they could see it and almost taste it, and most certainly wanted it. For Jane, the idea of turning in a fortune to the police was, "When I think of it, I get sick inside."

Of course it all occurs when the nights are shiny dark with silver glows of lights and stars. And the ocean is always moonlit and crashing on the shores of this far end of American dreams, where daylight is too bright, and a drink in an unlit bar, or a seedy motel room, is the preferred alternative.

The Usual Suspects

Too Late for Tears has a virtual cavalcade of B and C list film noir players.

Lizabeth Scott was the poor woman's Lauren Bacall. Ms. Scott, though, had a more twisted edge to her, and if she never quite made it to the top ranks of actresses, she could be quite interesting in films like Dead Reckoning with Humphrey Bogart, and even in Loving You, one of Elvis Presley's better efforts.

Dan Duryea is a familiar film noir face, and you might remember him from another of our Crime Street series - Scarlet Street. And as in that film, he's still slapping women around, but yet they can't seem get enough of him.

Don Defore also enters the mix in this feature. He enters the plot suddenly, as if Robert Mitchum's somewhat dimwitted brother knocked at the door for a goofy plot turn. Though he appeared in many crime and war films, his greatest success came in two TV series - Ozzie in Harriet and Hazel.

Dark of the Streets to Dark of the Moon

Byron Haskin's career straddled the silent era through mid-60s television. Though he directed the first rate noir I Walk Alone, also starring Ms Scott, plus Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, his main claims to fame were in the science fiction genre.

A cinematographer and special effects coordinator for the first third of his long career, he put his skill to good use by producing and directing many sci-fi films, such as War of the Worlds and From Earth to the Moon. In television he directed many episodes of the original Star Trek series.

Trivial Pursuits

Look for Billy Halop, the leader of the original Dead End Kids, as the Boat Attendant. Denver Pyle plays the Youth in the Plaid Jacket. Mr Pyle studied acting under master Russian drama teachers Michael Checkov and Maria Ouspenskaya, but is most well known for The Dukes of Hazard.

-- Ed Schneider - Alameda TV

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Cast

Production Credits

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For more on...

Lizabeth Scott
An American Tragedy
Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir

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