Jane (Lizabeth Scott) and her husband Alan (Arthur Kennedy) seem like an ordinary couple. . .for about the first one minute of this crazy tale of greed. Then, in Satan Ex Machina fashion, a bag containing $60000 is thrown into their car. The bag of dollars is explained later, and, like most of the plot, if thought about long enough, seems pretty goofy, but you gotta go with it, because it allows Lizabeth Scott to convincingly play the coldest, most hard-hearted money lover ever on film.
Anyway, Alan insists on turning the money over to the authorities, but Jane becomes obsessed with keeping it, seeing it as her ticket to a life of luxury she has long craved (hence Satan Ex Machina). As she tells her husband, even though she has never been poor, but has been comfortably *middle class* her entire life, she has always been envious of people who have more. She wants the good things in life, without them, life is just a great big boring bummer. Jane's money lust leads her down an increasingly sinister and sloppily planned path, entangling her with the greasy Danny (Dan Duryea), an alcoholic small-timer with claims to the money. Dumb Danny badly underestimates his ability to control the laser-focused Jane.
Like I said, the plot is certainly not air-tight, and like a lot of film noir, the bodies start to pile up (along with the unnecessary sub-plots).
But the film holds your attention because of Lizabeth Scott's performance. Her Jane's morals are as bankrupt as her pocketbook, and her monstrous greed and determination to have the fine things in life make her one of the most appalling of all femme fatales.
Scott was a staple in 1940s and 1950s film noir, but she was never one of my favorites. She's one of those actresses who is more *handsome* than beautiful. And with her *husky* voice, I always found her too masculine (which may have benefited her in her personal life, as she was involved in a notorious lesbian scandal in the 1950s).
In any event, Scott plays Jane with a cool, calculating demeanor that gradually unravels as her greed consumes her. Scott’s Jane is not just a manipulator of men but an entirely self-serving heartless bitch willing to eliminate anyone standing in the way of her bag of money.
The only other cast member worth noting is Dan Duryea. Well-known for playing sleazy criminals, his Danny is one of his more memorable. Initially appearing as the film’s villain, Danny is no match for the ruthless Jane. Weak, alcoholic, and with a shred of his conscience still left, he ultimately becomes a pawn in Jane’s ruthless scheme. In one of their early scenes together, Danny manipulates Jane into implied-but-not-shown sex. If the film were being remade today, by the conclusion we would have the weak Danny nude and crawling to lick the dominant Jane's high heels.
Too Late For Tears, driven by Lizabeth Scott's portrayal of an amoral money-hungry monster, is an almost top-tier film noir, and is now showing in a very grainy print on Tubi.
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