by Daniel White
Jimmy Cagney's final film gangster (unless you count "Moe the Gimp" Snyder in the musical biopic Love Me or Leave Me) is Ralph Cotter in Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950). It's just as well the celebrated actor removed the bullets from his gat and shelved it after this flick - he's a little too old to be playing hot headed thugs.
Directed by Gordon Douglas, the film opens in a courtroom where Cotter's cohorts are being tried. Their sociopath of a ringleader is suspiciously absent - the victim of a dissatisfied colleague as the flick will eventually reveal. The trial scenes (there are several of them throughout the movie) do nothing to enhance the story. In fact, except for an exciting prison camp break, staged several minutes into the movie, the tale is less than memorable. A verbose, under-charged crime drama that promises to be the equal of White Heat - and fails.
It's too bad, because Cagney and his supporting players are working overtime to energize this flabby film. But the script is just so-so and the action mostly yawn-producing. I kept waiting for his chatty Cotter to transform into the grippingly psychotic Cody Jarrett. But he just keeps yapping like a caffeine addled lap dog until someone mercifully puts a couple of slugs in him.
The self-destructive Barbara Payton has a few good moments as Cagney's mercurial gun moll, Holiday, but she's no Virginia Mayo. Ward Bond, Luther Adler and Steve Brodie also turn in solid work. But the windy, at times illogical screenplay (why aren't the authorities looking for Cotter after that sensational shootout at the penal farm?) defeats them.
I had high hopes for this film. Excellent production values, a roster of some of Hollywood's hyper-talented character actors and an energetic, legendary leading man. The ingredients are all here, but the end result was decidedly disappointing. With William Frawley as a sarcastic prison guard and Helena Carter (with an inexplicable British accent) as Cagney's thrill seeking OTHER love interest, Warner Brothers' Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye is available on YouTube.
No comments:
Post a Comment