Product: Too Late for Tears (1949)
Rating: 5.0
Good Noir....Great Femme Fatale
"Too Late for Tears" opens quickly. A couple parked by the side of a highway, rear lights blinking, have a bag containing $50G tossed into their car. Hubby Arthur Kennedy smells trouble and wants to hand over the loot to the cops. Wifey Lizabeth Scott is fiercely determined to keep it. The viewer would expect someone to come calling about the $$. Sure enough, crooked PI Dan Duryea is hot on the trail. DD was in on an insurance scam and the $50G was his cut. The blinking car lights were a signal for him! Scott has to contend with AK who wants no part of the money and DD who wants "his" loot. LS' steely and increasingly bold gambits to placate AK and DD -while keeping the $$-are the force behind TLT. No man is going to stop this brazen female! LS often plays the good girl/bad girl but not in TLT. She is all bad here, no holds barred. This reviewer is an LS fan; he was rooting for her against the guys! Fine plot twists are added by a suspicious neighbor (Kristine Miller) and AKs ubiquitous old Army buddy (Dom De Fiore). Those two make a nice pair as their doubts about LS grow, especially after Kennedy disappears! What happens? Good reviews don't give away endings, so viewers will just have to watch. Those who do will not be disappointed. This observer has never understood those who complain about DVD transfers-until now. My DVD had sound problems plus a few nighttime scenes were too dark-even for a noir release. TLT is still recommended to serious noir fans-plus it has Lizabeth Scott in her prime! TLT does a noticeably good job of tying up loose plot ends, a point many crime films ignore. What's not to like? Even though the opening and the fadeout are somewhat forced, noir fans have a safe choice with "Too Late for Tears".