Don’t ever change, Tiger. I don’t think I’d like you with a heart.
Continuing our #Noirvember celebration, today on Classic Movie Review, we are taking on Film Noir Too Late for Tears (1949). This film also is known by the name Killer Bait (1955) for a later rerelease.
This film has a pretty solid 7.3[1] on iMDB.com. On rottentomatoes.com, the film has a 100 percent on the Tomatometer, based on only five reviews, and a 64 percent audience score[2]. The 64 percent seems like a fair rating for this film.
New York Times film critic A. H. Weiler said on August 15, 1949:
“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.”[3]
Lizabeth Scott is good as usual as the Femme Fatale, although the dialogue they give her could use a good rewrite. Arthur Kennedy is solid and dependable. Dan Duryea is great as the stinker. The combination of Duryea and Scott makes this film a must-watch Film Noir.
Actors – Too Late for Tears (1949)
Returning
Lizabeth Scott plays greedy and homicidal Femme Fatale Jane Palmer. Scott was first covered in the great Film Noir The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946).
Eminent Film Noir star Dan Duryea played a small-time tough guy who was in over his head from the very start, Danny Fuller. Duryea was first covered in the excellent World War II-era film Sahara (1943).
Denver Pyle, Grandpa Jessie, had a small uncredited role as a youth in Union Station. Pyle was first mentioned in The Alamo (1960).
New
Kristine Miller played the role of Kathy Palmer, sister to Alan and sister-in-law to Jane. Miller was born in Argentina in 1925. Her father was an oil executive, and her mother was a singer from California. The family moved to California and then to Denmark before World War II caused them to relocate to San Francisco.
Following her mother’s influence, Miller began acting in high school. One way or another, she ended up at Paramount. Miller started out with uncredited roles in Club Havana (1945), Suspense(1946), and The Trouble with Women (1947) before getting credited in Desert Fury (1947) and I Walk Alone (1947).
She continued to work in films including Jungle Patrol (1948), Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), Too Late for Tears (1949), High Lonesome (1950), Shadow on the Wall (1950), The Steel Fist (1952), Tropical Heat Wave (1952), Flight Nurse (1953), just a bit in From Here to Eternity (1953), Geraldine (1953), Hell’s Outpost (1954), The Persuader (1957), and her final film The Heart Is a Rebel (1958).
Miller worked in television roles and, with her husband, founded many local television channels. She died in 2015.
The consistently solid Arthur Kennedy played doomed husband, Alan Palmer. Kennedy was born in Massachusetts in 1914. Kennedy was a drama student at Carnegie Institute of Technology before joining local and touring theater companies. He made his Broadway debut in 1937. Kennedy moved to Los Angeles in 1938 and had his first movie role in 1940.
Kennedy had a few more roles before being called to service in World War II. These roles include the Film Noir High Sierra (1941), They Died with Their Boots On (1941), and Air Force (1943). Kennedy served in the United States Army Air Forces working in films and production.
Following his war service, Kennedy hit the ground running with three Film Noirs Boomerang! (1947), Chicago Deadline (1949), and Too Late for Tears (1949). He was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for Champion (1949). This was followed by The Glass Menagerie (1950) and was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for Bright Victory (1951). He continued with Rancho Notorious (1952) and The Lusty Men (1952). This latter film was an incredible rodeo film with Robert Mitchum and Susan Hayward. It provided me with one of my guiding philosophies of life. Kennedy acted in some more Film Noirs, Impulse (1954), Crashout (1955), and The Desperate Hours (1955). He was nominated for best supporting actor for Trial (1955), for Peyton Place (1957), and for Some Came Running (1958).
Kennedy continued to act in some of the greatest movies of the 1960s, including Elmer Gantry (1960), Barabbas (1961), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Cheyenne Autumn (1964), and Fantastic Voyage (1966). Kennedy worked extensively on television and on the Broadway stage. He continued to make low-quality films through the late-1980s. Kennedy died in 1990.
Don DeFore played the mysterious Don Blake. DeFore was born in Iowa in 1913. After high school, DeFore began studying at the University of Iowa. He later joined a local theater group. He attended the Pasadena Playhouse for three years. This eventually led to him debuting on Broadway in 1938.
DeFore made his film debut in 1941. He was medically ineligible to serve in World War II and, as a result, was in many of the era’s war films, such as Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) and You Came Along (1945). Other movies he is known for include The Male Animal (1942), It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), Romance on the High Seas (1948), My Friend Irma (1949), and Too Late for Tears (1949).
DeFore is known primarily as a television actor for the beloved series he was part of, including “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” 1952-1957 and “Hazel” 1961-1965. Following these series, DeFore worked extensively on television until 1987. He died in 1993.
Story – Too Late for Tears (1949)
The movie begins on a dark California road. A car pulls to the side of the road at mile marker 3.5. The man (Robert Neff) checks the time and finds it is 8:30. A car driver by Alan Palmer (Arthur Kennedy) is coming in the direction of the parked car. Also in the car is Alan’s wife, Jane Palmer (Lizabeth Scott), and she is in a mood.
They are driving to a party at Alan’s bosses home. Jane wants nothing to do with the bosses wife. She asks Alan to turn around, but he refuses. In a fit, Jane reaches across and tries to turn the ignition off, which is something that you could do until the invention of locking steering wheels. During the struggle, she turns off the headlights by accident. Alan swerves but gets the car back under control and turns the lights back on.
The man in the waiting car pulls onto the highway and tosses a black bag into the back of Alan and Jane’s car. The couple stops the car and opens the bag. It is stuffed with money. They see another car coming down the road flash its lights off and on.
Jane recognizes that this is the pickup signal for the money. She demands Alan jump in the car as she drives away. The second car chases the couple. Jane drives like she has been a wheelman for the mob all her life. Jane loses the following car in an intersection.
Alan takes over the driving as they get back into the city. Jane is hyped about the money, but Alan realizes it is trouble. A motorcycle cop turns on his siren. Jane urges Alan to flee, but he stops for the cop. When the cop approaches the car, Jane opens the glove box and puts her hand on a large flashlight. Jane tells the cop that they are eloping. The cop gives him a ticket for not signaling. When the cop leaves, Alan asks Jane what she had planned to do with the flashlight. She says she doesn’t know.
Jane asks Alan why he didn’t give up the money when he had the chance. He says he doesn’t know. Alan says he wants to look at the money in their apartment.
In the garage, they run into garage attendant Pete (Smoki Whitfield). Pete sees the bag of money and thinks it’s an overnight bag. Alan asks if his sister Kathy Palmer (Kristine Miller) has come home yet. Pete said Kathy had not come home yet.
Jane locks the door and turns out most of the lights before dumping the money on the bed. Jane is flying high, and Alan is still scared. He thinks there is $100,000 in the bag. Alan says keeping the money is a felony, but I am not so sure. Jane wants to hide the money and wait until it is safe.
Someone knocks on the door, and Alan hides the money. It is Alan’s sister, Kathy. She lets herself inside. Kathy lives across the hall in apartment 515. Kathy knows something is wrong with the couple, so she decides to leave.
Jane and Alan go back to talking about the money. Alan thinks the man that chased them may have their license number. Jane says she just wants to hide the money and not touch it. Alan agrees to keep the money for a week.
Jane and Alan go to Union Station and check the bag of money at the parcel check. Alan drops the claim ticket into the pocket of his overcoat. Jane asks for the ticket, and Alan finds that it has fallen into the coat’s lining through a hole in the pocket. Jane asks Alan what he said to the counterman. He at first denies saying anything before stating that he said he was going to the hospital and it would be a while before he came back.
Sometime later, Jane is shown going into her apartment with boxes of clothes she has purchased. She hides today’s box with others she has under the cabinet.
There is a knock on the door, and Jane opens it to find Danny (Dan Duryea) standing there. He introduces himself as a Fuller Detective agent. Danny says he is doing a routine check based on a license number. He lets himself inside and asks to check the apartment. Danny bluffs that he could get a warrant to search. He refuses to tell Jane why he is searching. Danny finds the clothing boxes, and one of them is a mink.
Danny changes tone and raises his voice that she is already spending the money and wants his money. He says if she was innocent, she would not have let him search the apartment. Jane realizes that Danny is not a detective. She says the packages belong to her sister-in-law, and she let him in because housewives get awfully bored.
Danny starts slapping her. Jane says they gave the money to the cops. Danny says if the money was turned in, it will be in the paper. He says if it is not, he will be back, and he will be peeved.
Alan comes homes early and finds Jane repacking the mink. The bank has called him to let him know that his wife is on a spending spree. Alan says he is going to send the money to the District Attorney. Jane refuses. Alan throws her first husband up to her about not being happy. She says she has always felt this way about money because she was brought up poor. Jane convinces Alan to wait the week as they originally planned.
Alan proposes that the next night they go on a date and take a boat ride. The scheme forms in Jane’s eyes. It may be implied that she knocked off her first husband.
The following day, Danny uses some passkeys to let himself into the apartment. Jane is undaunted. In fact, she is lying in wait like a tiger ready to pounce. Danny thinks he is in control, but Jane already has the upper hand. Jane offers Danny a drink. She tells that her husband plans on turning the money over to the cops. Jane says she is not going to let that happen. After a kiss, Danny decides to go 50/50 with Jane. Danny leaves a number where he can be contacted. Danny gives her a chin twist before he leaves to show his toughness.
Jane makes a visit to the lake where her date is scheduled. She calls Danny and tells him to be waiting on the west end of the lake by a large palm tree at 9:00P.M. Jane is concerned about getting a fair deal from Danny, but he assures her he will. She returns home and takes her husband’s automatic out of the drawer.
Jane loads the gun in her purse and heads out for her date with Alan. Jane makes Alan take out a four-person boat. Alan tips the boat attendant. The couple cruises to the middle of the lake. Jane is deep in her own thoughts. Alan is oblivious. Jane has second thoughts and wants to go back to shore. She says she wants to put the claim check in the mail.
Alan reaches for her purse to get a cigarette, and the gun falls out. Jane and Alan begin to struggle over the gun. It fires, killing Alan. First off, how big is this lake that tons of other people won’t hear a gunshot? (One guy thought he heard it, and Danny thought it was a backfire) Secondly, why not just jump in the water and swim away. If they shoot you while you’re swimming, they will have some “splaining to do.”
Jane takes the boat with Alan’s body and signals Danny, who is waiting by the palm tree. Danny gets in the boat and sees the dead body. Jane pulls the gun on him. Danny doesn’t want to go along with the killing. She forces him to help. Jane has an anchor ready to weigh down the body when they drop it in the lake.
When they get back to the dock, Danny keeps his head down and pretends to be Alan. Jane tips the attendant again, so they will be remembered.
Danny wants to money now, but Jane says she will meet him near midnight. Jane and Danny drive into the apartment garage. Jane asks Pete for a carwash, and Danny pulls away in the car before he can be discovered. Jane yells for cigarettes as if Alan was going to the store.
Jane knocks on Kathy’s door and says Alan has gone to get a bottle. She invites Kathy over for a drink. Jane starts calling around, looking for Alan to establish her alibi. Kathy goes to make drinks. Jane calls the police, but they can’t help with a missing person after 5:00 P.M. Kathy busts Jane for having a bunch of liquor in the house. Jane tells her sister-in-law that Alan no longer loves her. Kathy leaves to go home.
Jane goes to her scheduled meeting with Danny. She doesn’t see Danny around the corner as she gets into her car. Jane adjusts the gun to a place where she can easily access it. Danny gets in the car. Jane says she left the gun at home. Danny checks her purse and is sure Jane doesn’t have a gun. He keeps calling her tiger, not knowing she is the lioness hunting him.
Jane drives wildly out towards Laurel Canyon, as that is where she told him the money was hidden. Jane questions Danny about the source of the money, but he won’t tell her. She adjusts the gun under her leg. Jane almost hits another car, and Danny uses it as a chance to escape because he realizes he is on a one-way trip. He yells that he will deal with her when there are a million people around. Jane is freaking out because Danny has Alan’s overcoat, and she thinks the ticket is still in the pocket.
Jane abandons the car at the beach. She throws something in the water that is presumed to be the gun, but she has the gun later. Sometime later, two men find and steal the car.
Jane makes it back home, and Kathy calls, thinking Alan has arrived in the elevator.
Later, Jane goes to the apartment where Danny is staying. He takes his gun out of the drawer before letting her inside. He takes Alan’s gun from her purse. Jane starts asking about the coat. Danny knows there is something about the coat. Danny gives her the hat and coat. Danny pulls out a fake claim ticket from the coat. Jane faints. Apparently, Alan had made the fake fearing Jane would steal the money.
Being suspicious of Jane’s story, Kathy uses her key to enter and search Jane and Alan’s apartment. She eventually makes it to the dresser and discovers that the gun is missing. Underneath the oily gun rag, she finds the claim ticket. The phone rings, but Kathy decides to exit the apartment.
Don Blake (Don DeFore) is outside the door, an old war buddy of Alan’s. He has never met Jane but decided to drop by because he was in town. Kathy yanks Don into her apartment as the elevator arrives. Don figures out that she is avoiding Jane. Kathy tells that Alan is missing. Don wants to help his old buddy. Don says that he believes there is something hinky with the death of Jane’s first husband.
Jane wakes up on Danny’s bed. Danny has figures that the money is in a claim check somewhere. Jane wants her gun back. Danny is a little indignant that Jane was going to kill him last night. He says he needs to know her better and tries to kiss her. She backs away, but he threatens her with violence and the cop. She decides to go along.
Jane goes back to her apartment and is scouring the joint for the ticket. Kathy comes over to ask if there is news of Alan. Kathy asks to look for Alan’s gun, a favorite war treasure, knowing it was missing when she looked. Jane opens the drawer, but she has replaced the gun.
Lt. Breach (Barry Kelley) from Homicide knocks on the door, and Jane lets him inside. He explains that missing persons are assigned to the homicide division. Breach asks if there is anything she would like to add to her report. Breach says they know about the other woman. Jane is shocked. The car that Jane and Danny almost hit reported Danny and Jane as Alan and another woman, using their physical description and license numbers.
Jane lands on her feet and makes up a story, including a description of the woman. Kathy can’t believe Jane had never told her about the other woman. Breach gets a call that the car was located near the Mexican border. The police will no longer be looking for Alan.
Kathy accuses Jane of lying about the other woman. Kathy storms into the hall and runs into Don. Kathy introduces Don to Jane, and she invites him inside. Jane asks Don questions about his time in England during the war. Finally, Don asks why she is interrogating him. Jane says Don is intriguing her. Don responds that they should wait to see if Alan comes back. She gets mad and throws him out. Don asks if he should get rid of the guy that is watching Jane’s apartment, which of course, is Danny.
When Don leaves, Jane calls an old war buddy of Alan’s, Jack Sharber (David Clarke), to check if he knows Don. Jack says he doesn’t recognize the name. Jane invites Jack over to meet Don the next night.
Danny lets himself into the apartment and warns Jane not to try and steal all of the money. Jane tells about Kathy noticing the booze and the missing gun. Danny wants to run, but Jane wants to kill Kathy with Danny’s help. Jane tells Danny to get poison to give Kathy. Jane thinks the police will think Kathy was despondent about her brother. Danny agrees to go along because he is caught, but he is not happy.
Don is watching the hall and sees Danny leave. He follows the criminal, recording the license number.
Later, Don goes to see Kathy and asks where Jane and Alan went on their date. He has her bring a picture of Jane and Alan. Don shows the picture to the boat attendant. When Don tips the attendant, he remembers that Jane paid. This was not typically done during this era. Don and Kathy are taking a shine to each other. Don maintains that he really is a friend of Alan’s. They kiss a little, and Don says he doesn’t trust Jane.
Danny shows up at Jane’s apartment, drunker than Cotter Brown. He gives the poison to Jane, and she tells him to leave. Danny tells that the poison seller said he didn’t look like a killer.
Kathy is about to drink a glass of milk, and the music says the milk is poisoned. Don knocks on the door, and she doesn’t finish the milk. He invites her out on a date. Don puts the milk back in the refrigerator. Kathy puts the claim ticket in her purse. She shows Don the ticket and says she wants to go to Union Station after diner. Don takes the ticket and says they will go before.
Jane comes to Kathy’s door and wants Don to come over and meet Sharber. Don and Kathy follow Jane into the apartment. Sharber says Don was not stationed with him and Alan in England. Kathy asks Don for the ticket back and asks him to leave. Jane tells Sharber he can leave.
Jane whips the gun out from under her couch cushion. While Jane is taking the ticket out of Don’s pocket, Kathy escapes. She calls the police from her apartment before returning to Jane’s apartment. Don is knocked out on the floor, and Jane is gone. Kathy calls a doctor for Don. She also calls the police and warns them that Jane will try to pick up the package.
Jane is cagey and thinks the police may be watching the claims area. She sees a guy (Denver Pyle) and offers him $5 to claim the bag for her. To spice it up a bit, she tells the guy he can spend the fin on her if he wants.
When the guy claims the bag, it has a note that says to call the police. The guy gives Jane the bag, takes his five-spot, and leaves. Jane reads the note, which says if the bag is claimed by a woman, the police should be called. Good old Alan.
The police are with Don and Kathy in Jane’s apartment. Kathy says that the police wouldn’t go to Union Station. Don tells Kathy that he really doesn’t know Alan. Don gets Danny’s address from the police using the license number he wrote down earlier.
Danny is sleeping it off when Jane shows up with the money. He doesn’t really want to deal with her, and he checks her for the gun. He doesn’t understand why she wants to share with him. She says she needs a man to travel with so she won’t draw attention to herself. Jane is obsessing about where the money came from. She wants to know if it is clean and they can spend it.
Danny tells that it was blackmail money and it was to be thrown in his car so the man he was blackmailing would not see his face. He finally says that it is an insurance man who was skimming premiums. Jane makes drinks for the two of them. I soon as he takes his drink, Danny realizes he has been poisoned. He falls dead. Jane is only slightly shocked and quickly turns back to the money.
With the information given by Don, the police go to Danny’s place and find his body and the poison. Don tells the police it was murder and the police should drag the lake.
The police grab a woman outside who knew Danny. She tells that Danny was working on a big deal of 50 or 60k. The lady says she was with Danny when he bought the poison. Don finds out it will cost $4,000 to drag the lake if the police don’t do the job.
Jane drives south towards Mexico into the desert. She stops and transfers the money out of the bag and into the truck well of the car. She tosses the bag into the desert. A man stops and asks to help. He finds a $100 bill on the bumper and becomes very curious. As the man asks if he can protect her, a highway patrolman arrives. Jane says she is fine and drives away.
She crosses the border into Mexico with no problem, eventually making it to Mexico City. That would have been a hell of a drive from LA to Mexico City. Jane checks in under her maiden name of Petrie
Later she is out on the town with her Mexican escort Carlos. She sends Carlos away and goes to her room alone. When someone knocks on the door, she thinks it is Carlos, but she opens it to find Don.
Don pushes into the room, and Jane maintains that she is not hiding and only used her maiden name because she is divorcing Alan. Don asks for half of the money. Don says that he found Alan’s body in the lake. She says the police know where she is. But Don says the police don’t know because he put the body back.
Jane picks up her purse, and Don thinks she may be going for a gun. Don says he will only be taking half of the money. When she brings out the money, Don only takes $4,000, the cost of having the lake dragged. Don says he is not a cop, and Jane offers him all of the money. Don calls down and has the police come up. At last, Don says he is the brother of Jane’s first husband, and he is going to see that she pays for one or two killings.
The Mexican police bust into the room. Jane pulls a gun and says the money is hers and Don has been lying. She runs onto the balcony and trips over a suitcase. This causes her to fall over the rail to her death. She hits the ground, and loose bills are scattered around her.
Kathy is waiting for Don in the lobby. They are already married and head home. Jane’s bloody hand and money are shown.
Conclusion – Too Late for Tears (1949)
Femme Fatale is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as an attractive and seductive woman, especially one who will ultimately bring disaster to a man who becomes involved with her. Great film critic Roger Ebert said it more succinctly, saying a, “Women who would just as soon kill you as love you, and vice versa.”[4] Lizabeth Scott gives a master class in how to be a Femme Fatale in today’s film. Arthur Kennedy, as Alan may have had a clue about his wife, in that he mentioned her unhappiness with her first husband, and he left the note on the money bag. Was he involved in the killing of the first husband? It seems like Dan Duryea as Danny is doomed from the moment he meets Scott as Jane. Danny thinks he is dealing with a simple housewife that he can control with his smarts and just enough brutality. Having prior experience in getting rid of at least one person already, Jane is three steps ahead of Danny at all times, even having him buy the poison that she uses to knock him off. I will be moving Lizabeth Scott up the ranking in my Great Femme Fatales of Film Noir list. Send me a note or add a comment on how you feel about the ranking.
This film was relatively recently restored by the UCLA Film Archive with funding from the FilmNoirFoundation.org. This is a good cause, and you can help with a donation to the foundation. You will also receive their great Film Noir magazine if you donate.
World-Famous Short Summary – Brother dies, and sister gets a new hubby
Beware the moors.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041968/
[2] Too Late for Tears – Rotten Tomatoes
[3] ‘Too Late for Tears,’ Adult and Suspenseful Adventure Film
[4] A Guide to Film Noir Genre | Roger Ebert
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