Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950)

This is a late model James Cagney crime film that is very surprising in that it is up to his usual high standard of entertainment but not well known for some reason.  Let me say at the outset, anybody who likes crime movies or Jimmy Cagney will want to see Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye and they will wonder why it took them so long to get to it. It's that good.

One reason it is not better known like White Heat or Public Enemy is because it seems to have fallen into the limbo between studios.  The original Warner Bros shield is displayed during the credits but this original credit is preceded by pasted on Artisan and Republic Pictures logos. So the movie has been released on DVD and is comes under the Artisan logo now. I would guess it might have been public domain before they resurrected it although I don't know for sure. 

The movie was made by Jimmy Cagney's own production company working with Warner Bros with William Cagney as producer.  The director was Gordon Douglas, who did one of the best westerns I can think of, Only the Valiant starring Gregory Peck. That is another superior movie that has fallen into disuse but anybody who gets a chance to see it will surely become a fan.   

The story concerns a gang leader with a lot of charisma. He can talk anybody into anything and does throughout the movie.  The gang leader is played by James Cagney and with his gifts he is able to make it a thrilling, believable performance.  The story opens with a courtroom scene with seven defendants being tried for murder - it's a little stilted and it is used as a framing device for the main action with a similar bookend at the conclusion.

Once the movie gets into the main action we see Cagney, who is now dead according to the courtroom scene, working on a Southern chain gang.  He escapes from prison with fellow inmate Neville Brand who gets wounded by the guards. Cagney coldly shoots Brand in the head to make sure he doesn't talk and runs around the nearby bush and finds a woman (Barbara Payton) who shoots the guard who comes hot footing it up on his horse.  They escape in a waiting car and Cagney learns it is Brand's sister who was helping him escape.  She has everything planned out but the arrangements were for Brand, not Cagney, but he walks right in like he owns the place and she soon caves in.

There are a couple crooked detectives, played by screen fixtures Ward Bond and Barton MacLane who try to get Cagney to pay them protection but he gets them working for him with his superior smarts.  Among the other familiar faces of the strong supporting cast is Luther Adler, who plays a shyster lawyer working for Cagney. It turns out that these supporting players including Payton and a couple others, become the defendants when Cagney gets murdered - he deserved it - and they are indicted.

There are lots of developments that happen before that though as Cagney treats the town as his personal oyster and romances the daughter (Helena Carter) of a big business leader who also has mob connections. This at the same time he is romancing Payton's character which can lead to no good as you can probably imagine.

Cagney is at the top of his game here and is so watchable; yet he is a total bastard and the sudden violence he erupts in is a little startling from a movie from 1950.  The rest of the supporting cast really makes a good setting for Cagney to work his magic and without the lame courtroom framing device this film would be just perfect.

The DVD is from Artisan and there are no extra features but the film is well preserved and in nicely photographed black and white in 1.33:1 theatrical format.

Recommended for all Cagney fans or crime story fans and of course film noir fans.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV