Too Late for Tears Movie Review

The next time you get in a fight with your spouse and drive your convertible off the road, whatever you do, DON'T BLINK THE LIGHTS. Not only is your marriage probably doomed anyway, but some guys in another car might think it's a signal and throw $60 grand (the root of all evil) in your car. This is the lesson NOT learned by Jane and Alan Palmer (Lizabeth Scott and Arthur Kennedy). Jane wants to keep it, but Alan wants to turn it in, so Jane keeps it. Then, Danny Fuller (Dan Duryea) shows up at Jane's door, saying it's HIS money, but it's okay with him if she wants to share it. (Did I forget to mention that Jane is beautiful?) Jane temporizes, then puts an idea of her own in motion. (Did I forget to mention that Jane is greedy?) Lizabeth Scott was one of the great femme fatales of the silver screen between 1946 and 1951, starting with The Strange Love of Mar tha Ivers opposite Van Heflin, moving up in the world to Dead Reckoning opposite Humphrey Bogart, then Pitfall with Dick Powell AND Raymond Burr, and then I Walk Alone with Burt Lancaster AND Kirk Douglas. Too Late for Tears was followed by Two of a Kind, in which she crushed Edmond O'Brien's finger in a car door, and The Racket, in which she is a nightclub singer and a police informer, with Robert Mitchum as a police captain. But in none of these bad girl roles was she as vicious as Jane Palmer. Scott's really something to see as she sweet-talks and murders her way to the bottom. Too Late for Tears was among Dan Duryea's many noir films. He specialized in playing tough guys (good, bad, and in-between) with mushy centers. For such a low-budget indie, the location sequences are impressive. AKA: Killer Bait.

1949 99m/B Lizabeth Scott, Don DeFore, Dan Duryea, Arthur Kennedy, Kristine Miller, Barry Kelley, Denver Pyle, Jimmy Ames, Billy Halop, Jimmie Dodd; D: Byron Haskin; W: Roy Huggins; C: William Mellor; M: Dale Butts. VHS