August
13, 1949, release date
Directed
by Byron Haskin
Screenplay
by Roy Huggins
Based on
a serial for Saturday Evening Post by
Roy Huggins
Music by
R. Dale Butts
Edited by
Harry Keller
Cinematography
by William C. Mellor
Lizabeth Scott as Jane Palmer
Don DeFore as Don Blake
Dan Duryea as Danny Fuller
Arthur Kennedy as Alan Palmer
Kristine Miller as Kathy Palmer
Barry Kelley as Lt. Breach
Distributed by United Artists, Peter
Rodgers Organization
Too
Late for Tears is one of my
favorite films noir, one of my favorite films. I am so, so sure that I watched
this on television one afternoon after school, years ago, instead of doing my
homework. This memory may be completely inaccurate, but it still holds a lot of
nostalgic appeal for me. Watching Too
Late for Tears today gives me that old familiar feeling. And this film noir,
like so many others, explains pretty clearly what not to do to stay out of trouble!
Too Late for Tears is in the public domain, and you can
watch it online at the Internet Archive by clicking here. You can even
watch it with Portuguese subtitles at the same website by clicking here.
The
opening music and credits over the nighttime scene, with the long shot of city
lights in the distance, and the dark lonely road along the foreground, let
viewers know immediately trouble is on its way. As soon as the credits are
finished, car headlights appear on the road, at its farthest point. When the
film cuts to Jane and Alan Palmer in the front seat of their car, Jane Palmer
demonstrates what kind of woman she is by grabbing at the car keys while her
husband Alan is driving. He says that he has never seen her this way before.
Alan Palmer may not see the clues, but viewers know that changes are coming
and, with the foreboding portrayed by the opening shots behind the credits, viewers
also know that those changes won’t be good.
Alan and
Jane Palmer are on their way to a party. Someone drives past them and throws a
bag into the back of their car. Alan stops the car and opens the bag. When Jane
see that it is full of money and that someone else is driving toward them,
switching the headlights on and off as if in signal, she grabs the wheel of the
car, orders her husband to get back in, and drives fast enough to elude what
has now become the pursuer in the other car. Jane Palmer is a strong female
lead: She takes control and never lets go, and she’s in it for herself. Danny Fuller,
the driver of the other car, wants his money, however, and he gives Jane Palmer
a chance to show how far she can go.
(This blog post about Too Late for Tears contains spoilers.)
Lizabeth
Scott plays the strong female lead, and she is the quintessential femme fatale
in this film, but Dan Duryea as Danny Fuller has all the best lines. Here are
some examples:
• Danny Fuller [to Jane Palmer]: “If you get that dough
and dust with it [the money]. . . .”
• Danny Fuller [to Jane Palmer]: “That’s better. Don’t
ever change, Tiger. I don’t think I’d like you with a heart.”
• Danny Fuller: “Where’s my dough?”
• Jane Palmer: “Then, you’re not a policeman?”
• Danny Fuller: “Only on my mother’s side, honey.”
• Danny Fuller [to Jane Palmer after she shows up at
his place with the money]: “Go away. Creep back out.”
Too Late for Tears has some twists and turns to keep viewers guessing.
Who is Don Blake? Is he a blackmailer? Kathy Palmer, Alan’s sister, meets this
self-identified friend of Alan about halfway through the movie, but nobody,
including other characters in the film, is really sure of his identity. The
claim check for the bag of money disappears and reappears, so does Alan’s gun,
the only memento that he saved from his army days.
What an
ending! Jane goes over a hotel railing in Mexico, holding on to some of the
money that she ran away with. Too Late
for Tears is noir from beginning to end, except for the fact that Don Blanchard and
Kathy Palmer get together at the end. But that didn’t bother me because they
had to wonder if they could trust one another from the start, and they took the
whole film to figure it out. Seeing them get over that mistrust was satisfying,
even if it wasn’t terribly noir.
Too Late for Tears was released just a little over sixty-nine years ago.
It was also released with the title Killer
Bait and, in France, it was released with the title La tigresse (The Tiger).
I think the French got the title right: Not only is The Tiger a fitting name for this film (“Tiger” is the nickname
Danny Fuller gives to Jane Palmer), it’s also a fitting description of Jane
Palmer. She is a wild force to be reckoned with, and no one, not even Danny
Fuller, can stop her. She proves to be too much for him to handle. And I think
the French title La tigresse would
have worked in the United States.
The film
was restored, rescued from near-oblivion, by the Film Noir Foundation, and I am
grateful to that foundation for the film’s availability. The print quality of
the remaining copies of Too Late for
Tears was deteriorating when the copies were restored, which explains why my
borrowed DVD copy was “jumpy”: The sound and picture do not always match, the
picture jumps as if some frames are missing, some of the shots are almost too
dark to see, and small bits of dialogue are missing. The poor quality, especially
at the beginning of the film, is disappointing because Too Late for Tears is a riveting story. But don’t let the quality
of the recording stop you from seeing it. I have seen the film several times,
and the story holds up after repeat viewings.
Although Too Late for Tears is in the public
domain and you can watch it online, it’s worth obtaining a copy of the DVD with
the following two features included: “Dan Duryea: Lady Killer” and “Lizabeth
Scott: Femme Fatale.” Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation hosts both
features, and he provides a lot of great background information about each
star, both of whom were mainstays of the film noir genre. Here are a few
tidbits:
Dan
Duryea
◊
In contrast to his screen
image (he almost always slapped his costar), Duryea married his high school
sweetheart, Helen. She died in 1967, and he died a year later.
◊
Duryea was one of the
biggest stars of the 1940s and 1950s. He rarely played a leading man, but he
was still a fan favorite.
◊
Duryea never signed any
long-term contracts with any major studios. He found he could make more money
and take more control of his career as an independent.
Lizabeth
Scott
◊ Lizabeth Scott’s real name was Emma Matzo.
◊
Scott was nicknamed “The
Threat”: She looked a lot like Lauren Bacall and had a similar, smoky voice;
thus, she was seen as Bacall’s competition.
◊
Scott is remembered as a
femme fatale, but she often played vulnerable characters, which helped keep her
audiences guessing.
