Too Late for Tears

 Too Late for Tears, a 1948 film noir is more interesting on paper than as executed.  The movie drags a little and its low budget and, rather, perfunctory direction by Byron Haskins (later best known for upscale science fiction -- for instance, The War of the Worlds) undercuts the appeal of its clever, intricate plot.  Most critics reckon the film important primarily for the performance of Lizabeth Scott as a the lethal femme fatale -- her co-conspirator and, sometimes, inamorata, a thug called Danny refers to her as "Tiger," that is, when he's not roughing her up.  Scott has a deep voice somewhat redolent of Marlene Dietrich and she performs in a curiously effective, if impassive style of noir acting sometimes called "dreamwalking". (Jerome Charyn coined this term.) Her face is immobile, like a mask, and she seems to glide through her scenes as if her feet are scarcely tethered to the earth -- it's an eerie, stylized way of performing:  if you saw someone acting like this in real life, you would run away in terror.  

The movie begins with a gripping scene, filmed in murky day-for-night.  A bickering couple, Allan and Jane Palmer are on their way to a party in the Hollywood hills.  When they turn around on a backroad, a sedan zooms past them and a satchel is thrown into their open convertible.  The satchel, of course, turns out to be full of money -- a king's ransom in 1948:  $60,000.  Allan, a straight arrow, wants to turn in the money.  Jane immediately demands that they keep their ill-gotten gains.  Of course, the owner of the money, an extortionist named Danny (Dan Duryea) comes knocking.  After Danny slaps her around a bit, Jane seduces him and they make a compact to split the money with Jane deciding on her own to bump off poor Allan (Arthur Kennedy).  She kills him when they are paddling around a lake in what seems to be MacArthur Park.  However, she wants the money for herself and so schemes to murder Danny.  Along the way, Allan's sister, Kathy, becomes suspicious -- her brother (Allan) has just vanished.  Danny is enlisted to acquire poison with which to murder Kathy.  By this point, the ostensible tough-guy, Danny has been reduced to helpless whining alcoholic stupor by the vicious Jane,  He ends up drinking the poison himself.  

During the last half of the picture, Kathy consorts with an enigmatic figure, Don Blake.  Blake purports to be an old army buddy of the missing Allan (who is rotting at the bottom of the lake).  But Blake is, in fact, the brother of a previous husband to Jane who ended up dead as well.  He's on a quest to revenge his brother, who either was murdered or committed suicide under Jane's tender ministrations.  There's some intricate byplay involving the 60,000 dollars, including a missing claim ticket, an exchange in LA's Union Terminal and, then, an encounter with a cop and a lecherous cowboy in the middle of the desert.  Jane escapes to Mexico and checks into a luxury hotel --her sex appeal is such that she picks up a Mexican playboy about 15 minutes after her arrival.  Don Blake and Kathy, however, hunt her down and, as the noose tightens around her, Jane hurls herself (or falls) off a hotel balcony.  We see her lying dead on the cobblestones in her sultry lingerie, greenbacks that she was clutching when she fell swirling around her.

The movie was lovingly restored in 2014, but visually it's not memorable.  There's is a lot unconvincing rear projection and inexpressive, rather clinical, camerawork.  Lizabeth Scott is excellent and convincing as the murderess.  No one else makes much of an impression and her villainess' nemesis, Don Blake, is stiff and unconvincing.  There's some tough, impressively hard-boiled dialogue:  Danny asks her if she's "lookin' for something."  Jane replies:  "My lipstick."  Danny's riposte is "Colt or Smith & Wesson?"  The film exemplifies critical and aesthetic problems that arise with respect to considering works that are conventional, mildly entertaining, and, ultimately, of significance only to film historians and genre specialists.  Some of the people who study film noir make high claims for this movie -- but, in fact, it's not very good.  The script is fine, but contrived -- for instance, Danny is given a girlfriend to mourn his death so that some plot information can be conveyed to the audience and police.  The girlfriend appears for about 45 seconds on screen and is never seen again -- she's purely a vehicle to dispense narrative points to the audience (and the pursuing police).  A few scenes have a nasty edge:  the sex scenes between Jane and Danny involve him alternative beating her up and kissing her.  The transfer of money in the satchel in the railroad station is cleverly managed and the opening sequence on the winding mountain road with Jane driving wildly as Allan cowers is an interesting sex-role reversal presaging larger themes in the movie.  The movie is interesting chiefly in context -- without the context, there's not much here.