Too Late for Tears | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Byron Haskin |
Produced by | Hunt Stromberg |
Screenplay by | Roy Huggins |
Based on | April 1947 serial in Saturday Evening Post July 1947 novel by Roy Huggins |
Starring |
Lizabeth Scott Don DeFore Dan Duryea Arthur Kennedy |
Music by | R. Dale Butts |
Cinematography | William C. Mellor |
Edited by | Harry Keller |
Production
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Hunt Stromberg Productions
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Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Too Late for Tears is a 1949 film noir crime film directed by Byron Haskin and starring Lizabeth Scott, Don DeFore, Dan Duryea and Arthur Kennedy. It tells a story about a seductive woman and ruthless killer who steals a suitcase of $60,000. The screenplay was written by Roy Huggins, developed from a serial he wrote for the Saturday Evening Post.
The film was reissued as Killer Bait in 1955. Too Late for Tears has been in the public domain for many years and has since gained a cult following; there are several different edits of the film with different running times. On January 25, 2014, a restored 35mm print was premiered by the Film Noir Foundation at Noir City 12 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. The film was restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Film Noir Foundation, with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association providing some of the necessary funding. The restoration combined 35mm dupe negative elements from France with some material from surviving prints.
Jane and Alan Palmer (Scott and Kennedy) are driving to a party in the Hollywood Hills one evening when someone in another car throws a suitcase into the back seat of their convertible. They open it and discover packs of cash. They are chased by yet another car for a short time but get away. Back at their upper-middle-class Hollywood apartment, they examine the cash. Jane wants to keep the money, but Alan wants to take it to the police. Alan places the suitcase and cash in a locker at Union Station, hoping he can sway Jane into surrendering it to the police.
A few days later while Alan is at work, Danny (Duryea) shows up at the Palmers' apartment, tells Jane he is a detective and quickly learns she has begun spending the money. Her husband Alan likewise becomes upset when he finds she has been running up bills, clearly planning to spend the money they had agreed to store and leave untouched. Jane makes a deal with Danny to split the money. Planning to kill him, she drives Danny up into the hills on the pretense they will retrieve the cash where it's been buried. He suspects her intentions and flees.