Product: Too Late for Tears (1949)
Rating: 3.0
Don't try to take Jane Palmer's deposit slip or you might find yourself crushed like an old cigarette butt
"We were white-collar poor," explains Jane Palmer to her husband, Alan. "Middle class poor. The kind of people who can't quite keep up with the Joneses and die a little every day because they can't." What she's explaining is her desire to keep the $80,000 someone tossed into their convertible by mistake. It was supposed to go to a blackmailer. Alan, an honest guy who loves his wife, wants to go to the police. She doesn't. (Please note: Plot points are discussed.)Jane Palmer (Lizabeth Scott) is a toxic combination of sex, greed and phony love. In other words, a great noir femme fatale. If only Too Late for Tears were a great noir. Jane convinces her husband (Arthur Kennedy) to keep postponing turning over the money to the cops. Then she starts spending it. And Alan keeps underestimating her needs. "What is it, Jane?" Alan asks her. "I just don't understand you! I've tried to give you everything you wanted, everything I could." "Yes," she says, "you've given me a dozen down payments and installments for the rest of our lives."When the blackmailer, Danny Fuller (Dan Duryea), tracks her down and wants his money, she convinces him she'll do a deal. "You haven't anything to hide, have you?" Danny asks, while looking her over as she sits and crosses her legs. "No, I can see you haven't." Jane soon sizes Danny up as a weak crook who can be led around by his undershorts.After Alan disappears, permanently, Jane misleads her brother's sister and convinces the police she's done nothing wrong. Then Danny gets his with a belt of poison in his scotch. The sister's suspicions are met with an understanding smile. When a mysterious stranger, Don Blake (Don DeFore), shows up, however, Jane quickly sees that Blake is not the kind of guy who would be sympathetic to Jane's tales of growing up. Jane's legs don't seem to do much for him, either. It's not long before Blake is prodding, poking and hooking up with the sister to ask questions. Then it's a crack on the head for Blake and a swift car ride down to Mexico, cash in hand, for Jane. Will Jane ever meet a man she can't kill? Will she ever experience justice that can't be sidetracked with a sexy come hither? Will we learn the reason for Blake's persistent suspicions?While Jane Palmer qualifies as one of noirdom's dangerous dames who can walk away from a corpse as easily as walking away from a crushed cigarette butt, Too Late for Tears, while fun for a while, is firmly planted in the second rate. (The ending is almost eye-poppingly melodramatic). This is largely due, I think, to the quality of the acting (with a couple of exceptions) and to the ambiguous attraction of Lizabeth Scott. For me, Scott simply doesn't strike any sparks. Her heavy eyebrows, low voice, overbite, Bryn Mawr accent and overly sincere acting style leave me unmoved. I can't see her as a sex object for randy males and I can't see her as capable of putting one over on reasonably smart males. Scott and the character she plays are the whole point of Too Late for Tears. Jane Palmer's fatal effect on men is great fun, but it's like reading about a black widow spider's mating habits without the fascinating revulsion of actually watching one at work.Arthur Kennedy, one of the great actors Hollywood never knew what to do with, is completely believable and sympathetic as Alan Palmer. Dan Duryea does a nice job as the cheap, weak hood. Duryea is always a pleasure, but this time it's nothing Duryea hasn't done before and will do again.Maybe I'm being too hard on Scott. I can't help but think that if a better actress or a more intriguing one had played Jane Palmer, the movie would have been as memorable as it is pleasantly and melodramatically nasty.This public domain movie is in poor shape. Buyer beware regardless of the company releasing it.