Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950)

Did you people see the same film I saw?

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Blistering performances.

I have read the raving reviews of the other commenters. Perhaps I wasn't in the mood, or perhaps gangsters movies are just my thing but this one just didn't do it for me.I must admit I initially wanted to see it out of sheer curiosity for Ms Payton -who really held her own in this movie next to James Cagney. Aside from that, I can't put my finger on what exactly made it a tedious watch for me. Let's say that it seemed it overall lacked coherence or direction.

Big screen legend James Cagney had one more memorable lowlife role to play after Cody Jarrett in "White Heat". Here he's cast as a small time creep, Ralph Cotter. Ralph masterminds a prison break, after which he hooks up with one of the people who helped him, Holiday Carleton (Barbara Payton). Ralph quickly proves himself to be masterful at scheming and manipulating, ensnaring one hapless person after another in his plans. He even goes so far as to blackmail corrupt police detectives Weber (Ward Bond) and Reece (Barton MacLane). He seemingly has no fear, being willing to try anything.Gordon Douglas ("Them!") directs with great efficiency. The storytelling, pacing, and editing are top notch, resulting in a very compelling drama that commands your attention consistently. It has barely an honourable character for over an hour and 42 minutes; those who come closest are poor Holiday, and the appealing Margaret Dobson (Helena Carter), a rich young gal who catches Ralphs' eye. The cast is full of excellent performers - Bond, MacLane, Luther Adler as savvy attorney Keith "Cherokee" Mandon, Steve Brodie, Rhys Williams, John Litel, William Frawley, Kenneth Tobey, Frank Reicher, Neville Brand, King Donovan. Cagney's brother William produced the picture and also appears on screen. Despite the presence of all these heavy hitters, it's Cagney who your eyes return to again and again. He was clearly a natural at playing this kind of character, which he does with style, tenacity, and wit.Scripted by Harry Brown, based on the story by Horace McCoy.Eight out of 10.

The smash hit of "White Heat" (after years of mostly forgettable crime films) made Warner Brothers take James Cagney again, keep him brutal, throw in some high society hijinks, another floozy blonde (this time Barbara Payton), repeat the violent nature of his anti-hero and hope success will strike again. The result is mixed, a confusing narrative told through flashbacks from courtroom witnesses, of how Cagney basically got law makers to become law breakers. One classic scene (Payton tossing coffee at Cagney as he humorously keeps asking her for the extra ingredients) is a valentine to the famous grapefruit scene from "The Public Enemy". However, the remainder of the movie is poorly edited that makes the film flow awkwardly.This film attempts to soften the brutality of Cagney's epileptic character from "White Heat" with the introduction of a thrill-seeking socialite (Helena Carter) which leads into the slow-moving mid section that covers more of how Cagney bribed and blackmailed each of the participants involved in his robbery scheme, introduced in the opening scene where Cagney's whereabouts are in question by the audience.As for the replacement of Virginia Mayo (who moved on to light-hearted musical comedy's) with Payton, they've got a new vixen on their hands, one you watch go from innocent to vindictive, in spite of being the typical blonde floozy with extremely black roots. This makes her multi- dimensional character even more interesting than Mayo's especially when Cagney confronts her with a broken booze bottle. Her rising anger, expressed though rage in her eyes, makes her character unforgettable.

Gangster Cotter escapes prison and schemes his way into city underworld, leaving trail of broken bodies and broken hearts behind.Cagney's pushing 50, but you'd never know it from the energy level. Ever the human dynamo, he's dishing it out to both the competition and the dames. True, it's a stretch when old man Dobson calls Cotter (Cagney) "young man", but you hardly notice. This is the legend's final gangster film. It may not be the best, still it is fast, tough, and unsentimental. Once again, Cagney's the outlaw entrepreneur working his way up the money ladder with little more than guts, wits, and a .45 (automatic, please). Along the way, he corrals two crooked cops, a shady lawyer, a double-crossing garageman, and notorious Hollywood bad girl Barbara Payton. Looks like everybody's got an angle of some kind, just the types Cotter can subordinate to his relentless drive. The ending is really ironic when you think about it. This is a stone-cold movie. Hardly anyone's likable, least of all Cotter. His cocksure ambition fascinates even as it repels. Only a secure-in-his-skin actor like Cagney would risk a role as unsympathetic as this.I wish IMDb had more on screenwriter Harry Brown (not Harry Joe Brown of the Ranown cycle of Westerns). This Harry Brown did a number of high quality screenplays (A Place in the Sun; Ocean's Eleven et al.), including the one here. Director Douglas manages several nice touches, such as the true believer at the phony psychic session. Note, however, that the quarry killings are not shown, at least in the version I've seen. In fact, showing that may have pushed the producers over the censorship line.All in all, it's a worthy slice of thick ear for gangster Cagney to go out on, especially that last scene with it's great title line.