Too Late for Tears (1949)
“She'd do anything for money — and she does.”
Streamed free from the Internet Archive · no signup, no cost — this film is in the public domain.
Synopsis
When a satchel stuffed with $60,000 is tossed by mistake into Jane and Alan Palmer's convertible, Jane refuses to give it back — and her greed metastasizes into one of noir's most ruthless femme-fatale arcs. Lizabeth Scott is mesmerizing as the calculating Jane, matched by Dan Duryea as the small-time grifter who comes looking for the money and badly underestimates her. Don DeFore and Arthur Kennedy round out a circle of men who become obstacles to be removed. The film escalates from domestic tension to cold-blooded murder with bracing nerve.
Cast
About the Director
Byron Haskin — Byron Haskin, soon to be known for genre spectacle, directs with lean efficiency, letting Lizabeth Scott's performance carry the menace. The film's reputation has grown steadily, helped by a 2014 UCLA/Film Noir Foundation restoration that reassembled the picture from surviving prints. Haskin keeps the moral rot at the cool center of every scene.
Why It’s Free: The Public-Domain Story
A 1949 United Artists release, the film fell into the public domain because its copyright was never renewed — its corporate rights-holders dissolved and let the registration lapse. It appears on Wikipedia's list of films in the public domain in the United States and has circulated freely for decades.
Behind the Scenes
Produced independently and distributed by United Artists, the film was adapted by Roy Huggins from his own Saturday Evening Post serial. The original camera negative was later lost, and for years the film survived only in worn prints and an alternate cut released as Killer Bait. In 2014 the UCLA Film and Television Archive and the Film Noir Foundation completed a major restoration drawing on French and domestic 35mm and 16mm elements.
Did You Know?
- The film was reissued under the alternate title Killer Bait, with a different running time.
- Screenwriter Roy Huggins, who adapted his own serialized story, later created The Fugitive and The Rockford Files.
- The original negative was lost; the acclaimed 2014 restoration combined elements sourced from France with surviving US prints.
- Lizabeth Scott's Jane Palmer is frequently cited among the most cold-blooded femmes fatales of classic noir.
Reception & Legacy
Reviews at release were mixed, but the film's standing rose dramatically in later decades as noir scholarship rediscovered it. Critics now praise Scott's performance and the script's unflinching nastiness. The restoration earned warm notices and renewed festival play.
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