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Too Late for Tears is a 1949 film noir directed by Byron Haskin and starring Lizabeth Scott, Arthur Kennedy, Dan Duryea, and Don DeFore. It concerns a ruthless femme fatale's murderous attempt to hold on to a suitcase containing US$60,000 ($527,000 in 2020) that does not belong to her. The screenplay was written by Roy Huggins, developed from a serial he wrote for the Saturday Evening Post.

Too Late for Tears
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Byron Haskin
Screenplay by	Roy Huggins
Based on	April 1947 serial in Saturday Evening Post July 1947 novel by Roy Huggins[1]
Produced by	Hunt Stromberg
Starring	Lizabeth Scott Don DeFore Dan Duryea Arthur Kennedy Kristine Miller
Cinematography	William C. Mellor
Edited by	Harry Keller
Music by	R. Dale Butts
Production company	Hunt Stromberg Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	August 13, 1949 (1949-08-13) (United States)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The film was reissued as Killer Bait in 1955. Too Late for Tears has been in the public domain for many years; there are several different edits of the film with different running times.[2] On January 25, 2014, a restored 35mm print was premiered by the Film Noir Foundation at Noir City 12 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. The film was restored by UCLA Film and Television Archive and the Film Noir Foundation, with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association providing some of the necessary funding. The restoration combined 35mm dupe negative elements from France with some material from surviving 35mm and 16mm prints.[3]

Plot

Jane and Alan Palmer fortuitously come into possession of a bag filled with cash. They check the bag into Union Station while they determine whether to keep it or turn it over to the authorities. Danny Fuller appears at the Palmer apartment while Alan is at work, asks Jane about the money, and threatens her.

Jane agrees to split the money with Danny, kills Alan, and threatens to blackmail Danny unless he helps her cover up the murder. Soon, Jane faces not only her mistrust of Danny, but also inquiries from Alan's sister, Kathy, and a stranger named Don Blake who suddenly appears claiming to be Alan's old Army buddy. Don and Kathy become attracted to each other.

Jane eventually claims the money bag and locates Danny who tells her the money is a blackmail payoff for an insurance scam. Jane kills Danny and flees to Mexico with the money. Don finds Jane in a hotel room and reveals he is the brother of her first husband, Bob, and suspects her of his "suicide." The police rush into the room and Jane accidentally falls off the balcony to her death. Don finds Kathy in the hotel lobby and it is revealed they are now married and will shorten their honeymoon to return to the U.S.

Cast

• Lizabeth Scott as Jane Palmer
• Don DeFore as Don Blake/Blanchard
• Dan Duryea as Danny Fuller
• Arthur Kennedy as Alan Palmer
• Kristine Miller as Kathy Palmer
• Barry Kelley as Lieutenant Breach

Reception

Critical response

When the film was released The New York Times wrote:

If proof be needed at this point that money is the root of all evil—a theme, incidentally, which has been the root of more than one motion picture—then Too Late for Tears, which came to the Mayfair on Saturday, is proof positive. For producer Hunt Stromberg, director Byron Haskin and scenarist Roy Huggins, who adapted his own Saturday Evening Post serial, herein have fashioned an effective melodramatic elaboration of that theme. Despite an involved plot and an occasional overabundance of palaver, not all of which is bright, this yarn about a cash-hungry dame who doesn't let men or conscience stand in her way, is an adult and generally suspenseful adventure.[4]

Film critic Dennis Schwartz in 2005 wrote a favorable review:

Byron Haskin's low-budget film noir makes good use of its Los Angeles locale and its lady bluebeard is fun to watch as she does her nasty gun thing with her nice guy hubby and rotten poison thing with her boyfriend (she took care of her first hubby off camera, so we're not sure how he got it!)...Though a minor film noir, it relates to the ambitions the middle-class had during the postwar period to better their life materially and socially. Jane's drive for wealth was so extreme that she will not stop at murder to rise above her impoverished middle-class circumstances, and her warped character is used to show how money can't buy one happiness. The husky-voiced winsome smiling Lizabeth Scott turns in a finely tuned performance as the femme fatale; while Dan Duryea is in his element as the alcoholic weak-kneed cad, who shows he doesn't have as much stomach for his criminal mischief as does his lady accomplice.[5]

See also

• List of films in the public domain in the United States

References

External links

• Too Late For Tears at IMDb
• Too Late For Tears at AllMovie
• Too Late for Tears at the TCM Movie Database
• Too Late For Tears at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Too Late for Tears at Rotten Tomatoes
• Too Late for Tears is available for free download at the Internet Archive
• Too Late For Tears film on YouTube (complete)

На других языках

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- [en] Too Late for Tears

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[ru] Слишком поздно для слёз

«Слишком поздно для слёз» (англ. Too Late for Tears) — фильм нуар режиссёра Байрона Хэскина, вышедший на экраны в 1949 году. Сценарий фильма написан Роем Хаггисом на основе его серийного романа 1947 года, который публиковался в журнале «Сатэрдэй ивнинг пост».

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