Too Late for Tears (AKA “Killer Bait”)
Directed by Byron Haskin
Written by Roy Huggins
1949/USA
Hunt Stromberg Productions/Streamline Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Instant Video
[box] Danny Fuller: Don’t ever change, Tiger. I don’t think I’d like you with a heart.[/box]
Lizabeth Scott is cast against type as the deadliest of femme fatales. She’s even too much for Dan Duryea’s villain.
Jane Palmer (Scott) is tired of being a member of the “poor” middle class. She wants to outdo the Joneses. She is married to conventional hardworking Alan (Arthur Kennedy), however. One day, Jane sees her opportunity when a valise containing $60,000 in old bills is thrown in the back of their convertible. Howard wants to turn the money in to the police but Jane convinces him to put it in a safe place for a week so they can think about it some more. The couple leave the bag at the stored luggage department of a railway station and Alan takes the claim check.
Soon enough, the blackmailer Danny Fuller (Duryea) shows up and starts threatening all kinds of mayhem if Jane does not return his money. He gives her until the next day to come through. She hides the visit from Alan. Alan plans a romantic evening to compensate for turning the money into the cops. But Jane has a gun and nothing and nobody is going to come between her and her dream. Meanwhile, a mysterious visitor (Don DeFore) befriends Alan’s sister and helps her to get to the bottom of Alan’s disappearance.
This is an OK “money isn’t everything” noir. I think the role of the truly evil Jane did not suit the more girlish charms of Lizabeth Scott in the least. One can only imagine someone like Barbara Stanwyck in the part. As usual my beloved Duryea acquits himself well. He has a bit of a conscience, too, for a change.
I watched this on Amazon Instant Video because I feared the print on the Alpha DVD Netflix rental would be really bad and the movie has recently been restored. I needn’t have bothered. The print was quite fuzzy. The 35-mm restoration is showing on the festival circuit so maybe there is a better DVD coming in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6avldLNY5mY
Clip – cinematography by William C. Mellor
