Prime Time: Too Late For Tears (1949)

Another slightly lighter film noir, but not any worse for it, Too Late For Tears is a very enjoyable film that I have since discovered already has a decent fanbase already. I am, once again, late to the party, but I would argue that this remains a lesser-known title, partially due to the lack of many immediately recognizable names attached to it.

Lizabeth Scott plays Jane Palmer, a woman who sees a great opportunity to become temporarily wealthy when a bag full of money ends up in the car being driven by her husband, Alan (Arthur Kennedy). It’s the kind of monetary amount that must be needed by someone though, and those people will want to get it back. Danny Fuller (Dan Duryea) thinks he can handle the situation, seeking to intimidate Jane before realising that she may be tougher than she looks, and there’s also a man named Don Blake (Don DeFore) asking questions. Jane has to fend off these men, as well as questions from her sister-in-law, Kathy (Kristine Miller), and she soon shows that she’ll do whatever it takes to keep that money for herself.

While he does have a couple of great movies in his filmography, director Byron Haskin isn’t someone too familiar to me. The same can be said of writer Roy Huggins (despite me enjoying Pushover, also written by him, last week, and noticing that he helped to create a couple of iconic TV properties). Regardless of my own familiarity with their names, both me work together well to serve up an entertaining noir that keeps us in close proximity to an enjoyably devious central character who keeps getting cornered in ways that make them increasingly dangerous to those doing the cornering. While the runtime is just a bit longer than the average you’d expect for this type of thing, it never feels slow or plodding.

Scott is a formidable presence onscreen, her head turned so quickly by the money that you just know she had already spent a long time looking to pounce on any slight chance to change her life. She’s convincingly manipulative and tough, becoming bolder with each success. Duryea is a typical tough guy, but less typically worried when he realises exactly who he is dealing with, and his menacing turn becomes a bit more nuanced as the plot continues to twist and unfold. DeFore is a bit more pleasant, and gets to share a number of scenes with Miller, a ray of light in the murky noir haze, that show both of them hoping to find out exactly what has gone on between Jane and Alan (who is AWOL for most of the movie, leaving Kennedy only required for a few scenes in the opening act).

Making great use of the tropes, with a particularly memorable femme fatale at the heart of everything, Too Late For Tears is a gripping thriller that manages to sustain an impressive amount of tension for most of the runtime. Absolutely recommended to fans of noir.

8/10 

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Treasure Island (1950)

If you don't know the story of Treasure Island - of Jim Hawkins, Long John Silver, The Hispaniola, mutiny and treachery and more - then you have missed out on some classic adventure goodness. The original story was written many years ago by Robert Louis Stevenson but I assure you that it holds up as a cracking yarn to this day, mainly because it throws in every pirate-related detail you have ever heard of and doesn't once apologise for it (of course, the cliches may not have seemed quite so cliched when the story was first published, considering how it pretty much created most of the established pirate traits).

This live action Disney take on the material isn't bad but the material deserves much better. It's such a great tale that I'd feel fairly assured in suggesting that it's almost impossible to make a mess of (though I'm sure that many have tried). The House Of Mouse have actually made a number of trips to this well with Muppet Treasure Island, Pirates Of The Caribbean (the ride and, of course, the popular movies deriving from the essence of Treasure Island) and Treasure Planet, to name but a few. This first attempt is probably the weakest of the ones I have seen but it still makes for passable entertainment.

Bobby Driscoll (known to Disney fans for his appearance in Song Of The South and his voicing of one Peter Pan) plays young Jim Hawkins, the lad who ends up with a pirate treasure map. He's also, along with everyone else in the tale, oblivious to the fact that Long John Silver (Robert Newton) is a scheming pirate. Which allows Long John Silver to help gather the crew that the few non-pirates need to acquire for their treasure hunt. Nobody seems suspicious despite the fact that Long John Silver has a parrot (one named after a pirate and that likes to squawk "pieces of eight", no less). Nobody seems to wonder just why Long John Silver says "aarrrrrr" so much. Surely these things are clues. Oh, and the fact that his name is Long John bloody Silver should have tipped people off.

Joking aside, the film suffers most from the same major problem that the source material had. Everything seems just a bit too over the top and obvious to take anyone by surprise. Those swarthy, coarse men are pirates?? They're all greedy enough to want the treasure for themselves?? Long John Silver has a cunning plan despite the fact that from the very beginning he looked like someone with a cunning plan?? Because the book left more to your imagination this wasn't really such a big problem. If things seemed too over the top and obvious then you could convince yourself that your imagination was at fault. The movie leaves you with no such excuse.

Byron Haskin directs competently enough and the script by Lawrence Edward Watkin translates the story quite faithfully. As the movie shared the big flaw of the book, so it shares the big plus point - the shifting moral compass of Long John Silver and the relationship that develops between him and Jim Hawkins. Everyone, and everything, is present and correct, from Billy Bones to Blind Pugh to the "black spot" to whatever else you can recall from the source material. Sadly, nothing really special is added to it all.

6/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Treasure-Island-DVD-Bobby-Driscoll/dp/B00004CZAC