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Reviews:
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye - James Cagney
This one of my favorite Cagney films. He portrays a "dirty rat", but he is great in the part. Ward Bond is also one of my favorites. They just don't make them like this anymore.
Cags at his meanest!
When is this forgotten, brutal crime film going to be re-released? I have a nice vhs of it, but a dvd would be nicer. The current asking price for this disc is just too much for an old flick with no special features.
Cagney at his VERY best (and his MOST evil.)
This movie in some ways is more defintive of the Cagney gangstger personna than even "The Public Enemy." I think it comes in second only to "Angels with Dirty Faces."
What is initially surprising is that this movie is "A Cagney Production." Knowing how hard Cagney fought Warner Brothers to get roles other than gangsters, it's a testament to the man's complexity that, when the production company he shared with his brother, Bill, had a chance to make absolutely any type of movie he wanted, what did he choose? He plays the most mean-spirited gangster of his entire career!
Most of his gangsters had their soft sides. In "Angels" and in "The Roaring 20's," Bogey was the real bad guy. Cagney was a hoodlum, but he was a complex character with some redeeming values. Even in "The Public Enemy," he was at least good to his Mom.
But Ralph Cotter is rotten to the very core without a single redeeming quality. He gratuitously murders his crime partner; he cheats on his girlfriend (who doesn't know that he murdered her own brother), and he viciously beats both the owner of a store that he robs and a police informant.
And he seems to be flat out enjoying every minute of it. He's got a leer that won't quit. And there are some VERY memorable lines sprinkled throughout this film. But, in order to appreciate them, you have to either see, or at least visualize, Cagney uttering them with his trademark half smile/half sneer. Just two (of many) examples:
(1) After Barbara Payton helps him escape from a prison road gang and kills a guard in the process, she is distraught and cries, "I've been a good girl all my life. I've never done anything wrong before today."
Cagney sneers: "It only takes once, you know."
(2) After Payton has told Cagney that he's too much of a "small timer" to outwit two crooked cops and after he does in fact outwit them, he turns to her and sneers:
"By this time tomorrow, the word 'small timer' will have gotten up and walked right out of your vocabulary. . . . If we're still alive."
He also makes an intriguing comment when Luther Adler asks him his real name. Cagney smiles and utters the cryptic line: "If you knew, you would die."
I think this is meant to imply that Cotter is the reincarnation of Arthur Cody Jarrett from "Whie Heat," about whom Virginia Mayo said: You can't kill Cody. He's not human."
Cagney personally selected Barbara Payton for the role of Holiday because of her off screen reputation for having the foulest mouth in Hollywood. (She wound up hooking out of a cheap Hollywood motel and died from a drug overdose).
And, to top it off, the same two cops from "The Maltese Falcon" are together again, except this time Ward Bond is the dominant one and Barton Maclane is the sidekick.
Yes, the movie has some downsides. It requires a major suspension of disbelief, and many of the scenes with Helena Carter and her father (Herbert Heyes, the father of frequent "Twilight Zone" director Douglas Heyes)are too long and drawn out.
But it's a "must see" if for no other reason than to see the finest performer of the 20th century unplugged unrestrained, and completely unhinged.
An absolute joy for any Cagney fan, and his last portrayal of a gangster before he REALLY started looking old (in "Love me or Leave Me" five years later.)
Cagney at his Toughest
Following closely on the heels of his successful "White Heat" James Cagney starred and produced "Kiss Yourself Goodbye," a 1950 release directed by Gordon Douglast that showed the charismatic performer at his toughest, combining sadistic brute force with innovative blackmail. Assisting Cagney was a talented ensemble of character performers along with two beautiful young women who did not begin to get their share of opportunities in top-level films.
The film initially teases viewers' curiosity as it opens in court during the trial of Cagney's list of criminal accomplices. After introducing them one by one the prosecutor explains that one person is missing, the head of the enterprise, namely Cagney.
The movie then moves into a flashback phase as we see Cagney with assistance breaking out of prison while part of an outdoor work detail. The breakout was arranged by Barbara Payton to spring her brother, Neville Brand, then in the early phase of a long career as a character performer, mainly cast as villains. Cagney engages in a double cross as he kills Brand during a shootout with authorities, something he will not tell Payton when he meets her and quickly forms a romantic attachment.
Cagney forms an early team with another veteran character performer, Steve Brodie, and soon he is using his opportunity to tape record police inspector Ward Bond while he seeks to engage him in criminal activity. He compromises the corrupt Bond, making him susceptible to Cagney's interests. A shrewd casting masterstroke occurred in teaming Bond and Barton McLane as a police team. They were cast in the same manner in the 1941 film noir classic "The Maltese Falcon" starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor.
Blonde Barbara Payton was one beauty romanced by Cagney in the film who was unfortunately restricted mainly to B films. The other is brunette Helena Carter, whose connections impress Cagney, since her father is a former governor and senator and allegedly the most powerful man in the state. When the father and Cagney meet the situation becomes understandably sticky. Carter was known mainly as a leading lady in low budget westerns.
As characteristic of some of Cagney's leading roles, in "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" he portrays a relentless criminal who believes he is unstoppable and combines sadistic ruthlessness with a piercing native intelligence. Ward Bond realizes that he will be ruined if he remains under Cagney's criminal thumb. He seeks to find a way to do him in.
While Cagney is shrewd and resourceful, so is Bond. Eventually he gets to Cagney by alienating the affections of Payton as he provides her with evidence that makes her hate the man she once passionately loved.
Another brilliant character performer who shines in the film is Luther Adler. The stalwart Broadway theater giant and brother of famous drama coach Stella Adler plays a shrewd criminal with a talent for playing the law enforcement community like a Wurlitzer.
James Cagney's brother is the film's producer of record. He also performs as none other than the brother of the relentless killer played by his real life brother.
Cagney's Compulsive Villain Sets Everyone On Edge.
"Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" was adapted from the novel by Horace McCoy and features James Cagney in one of his many memorable "gangster" roles. The film opens with the trial of 7 defendants for murder and accomplice to murder. We learn how this motley group of law enforcement officers, crooks, a lawyer, and one very pretty woman came to be charged with the crimes as the witnesses are called to the stand and recall a bloody tale that started 4 months ago. Ralph Cotter (James Cagney), an especially murderous thief, and a fellow inmate at a penal colony attempted an escape with the aid of the other man's sister, Holiday (Barbara Payton), and a hired driver named Jinx (Steve Brodie). But Holiday's brother is killed in the escape, leaving her angry but vulnerable and lonely enough that she turns to Ralph for consolation. When Ralph and Jinx rob a local grocery store, they are confronted by a pair of corrupt cops, Inspector Charlie Webber (Barton McLean) and Lieutenant Reese (Steve Brodie), who shake them down for a share of the loot. Ralph sees the crooked cops as an opportunity to turn the tables using blackmail. But his dalliance with the aristocratic daughter (Helena Carter) of a powerful steel magnate may bring ruin on everyone.
"Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" revolves around Ralph Cotter's ambitions, compulsions, and total sociopathy. Ralph is disloyal even to his fellow criminals. He will tell a lie or kill any person for the sake of his immediate convenience. Ralph's self-confidence is so overwhelming that he commits himself to any scheme without much thought to the consequences. Ralph's lack of discretion or any kind of hesitation strikes fear in everyone. Even the corrupt cops recognize that his endless heists and bloody trail threaten to destroy them all. Ralph is a single-minded destructive force so intimidating that the people around him seem at a loss to do anything except grit their teeth and wait for their world to come tumbling down. Ralph is by no means a sophisticated character, but he's a memorable one. This one-dimensional characterization may be limiting, but Cagney sets the audience on edge with his portrayal of a man whose actions no one, including himself, can control. Barton McLean, as the thoroughly corrupt Inspector Webber, gives good support to Cagney's performance in expressing Webber's consternation at this out-of-control criminal, whom even more powerful crooks fear. Ralph Cotter is an irredeemable character, and "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" is a solid film noir, but not as thematically sophisticated as truly great film noir. It's a must for James Cagney fans, though. The DVD from Republic Pictures, released in 2002 and distributed by Artisan, has no bonus features or subtitles.
