Saturday 18 August 2018

Too Late For Tears (1949 Byron Haskin)

Lizabeth Scott is one of those archetypal noir dames - she's greedy, manipulative, slutty, lies, kills and is wholly irredeemable - fabulous! She bumps off husband Arthur Kennedy and then embroils petty blackmailer Dan Duryea (whose money it is) in her scheme. Meanwhile this Don DeFore character turns up, claiming to be an old airforce buddy of Kennedy's, and sister Kristine Miller also thinks something's afoot...

Very economically made, and utterly engrossing right up to the Mexican finale (where - well, she couldn't get away with it, in those days - but.. it somehow would have been the right ending if she had..)

I guess we know Kennedy best for A Summer Place and Peyton Place.

Shot by William Mellor, music by R. Dale Butts, written by Roy Huggins and based on his own Saturday Evening Post serial. Scott's a great noir creation, like a cute but poisonous dog...


No comments:

Post a Comment