Tomorrow is Another Day starts off as a hard-edged noir but halfway through begins to morph into romantic melodrama. By the final frame, we're treated to a full blown "happy ending," in contradistinction to the film's seemingly initial intent.
The leading man Bill Clark (Steve Cochran) has just been released from prison after serving time for 18 years for murdering his father when he was 13 years old (it's implied he's been in the same adult facility for the entire 18 years but wouldn't he have been first placed in a juvenile lockup until he became an adult?).
There's a very good scene in which Bill is befuddled walking around town following his release, unable to get used to the all the changes he sees after 18 years. He's then betrayed by a stranger who pretends to help him but turns out to be a newspaper reporter, who tricks him into revealing information about himself and then writes an article which is published in the next day's newspaper.
I doubt that many reporters would have done such a thing as most would fear some kind of retaliation; and indeed Bill does retaliate the next day by assaulting the reporter at his newspaper officer after reading the front page story that screams "Murderer released after 18 years!" Interestingly enough the reporter admits he deserved the beating and then refuses to press charges.
The scene in which Bill meets his temporary femme fatale Catherine Higgins, aka Cathy (Ruth Roman) is fascinating as it provides a window into the now defunct world where men bought tickets for a dime to dance with women for a minute at a time. I believe the women were called "taxi dancers." At this juncture, Cathy is a blonde and seems like she has little interest in going out with Bill, who has never been with a woman before due to being incarcerated for so long.
Somehow Bill ingratiates himself enough with Cathy that he ends up at her apartment where the break into the Second Act occurs: the shooting of Cathy's "landlord" (boyfriend?), Detective Conover (Hugh Sanders). It's Cathy who does the shooting after Conover knocks Bill out. The kicker is that Bill can't remember what happened and believes Cathy when she tells him that he's the one who shot the detective.
It's an exciting enough scenario and the couple's machinations once they're "on the lam" prove to be interesting (at least for a while). Especially the scene in which they hitch a ride on a trailer truck containing new cars (Bill is able to obtain the keys from the truck driver's glove compartment, which enables he and Cathy to enter one of the new cars and remain there until they arrive in California, after fleeing New York City where they were living prior to the shooting of the police detective).
The bulk of Act Two has the ex-con and the femme fatale suddenly morph into lovebirds and become "good citizens." Cathy's transformation into a pregnant homemaker-to-be occurs when she suddenly reveals herself to Bill as a brunette. The couple get married under assumed names and settle down in a run down community consisting of shacks owned by lettuce pickers. Bill is hired as a lettuce picker where he eventually earns his keep performing back breaking work. At this point, it feels we're watching a scene from The Grapes of Wrath, not a hard-boiled crime film.
All that's left basically is to find out how Bill and Cathy are found out-and that occurs when their neighbors, consisting of Bill's boss Henry Dawson (Ray Teal), his wife Stella (Lurene Tuttle) and their son Johnny (Robert Hyatt) become of aware of Bill's criminal identity through an article that features a photo of him in a pulp crime magazine. Stella initially doesn't want Henry to rat Bill out but changes her mind and informs the police after Henry's hurt in a bad car accident and a large amount of money is needed for a special operation that may or may not save his life.
The film has two more surprises: one good and one bad. The good one is when Cathy shoots and wounds Bill after he's about to shoot a police officer who has arrived to arrest him. The bad is the ending in which the DA back in NYC lets Bill and Cathy go free after it's revealed that Detective Conover confessed before dying that he was shot by Cathy while she was acting in self-defense.
Film noir expert Eddie Muller speculates that the ending was changed perhaps after a test audience indicated that they preferred a happy ending as opposed to the much more shocking one which he speculates to be that of Cathy actually killing Bill and then finding out afterward that both of them were going to go free.
Both Cochran and Roman are much better as embittered individuals who've had one too many hard knocks in life than what they later become (i.e. a couple of goody two shoes).
There's enough here to keep your interest but Tomorrow is Another Day is only half a noir-if you're expecting the full noir treatment with the tragic ending for a bitter ex-con and his femme fatale, you will decidedly be quite disappointed.
The leading man Bill Clark (Steve Cochran) has just been released from prison after serving time for 18 years for murdering his father when he was 13 years old (it's implied he's been in the same adult facility for the entire 18 years but wouldn't he have been first placed in a juvenile lockup until he became an adult?).
There's a very good scene in which Bill is befuddled walking around town following his release, unable to get used to the all the changes he sees after 18 years. He's then betrayed by a stranger who pretends to help him but turns out to be a newspaper reporter, who tricks him into revealing information about himself and then writes an article which is published in the next day's newspaper.
I doubt that many reporters would have done such a thing as most would fear some kind of retaliation; and indeed Bill does retaliate the next day by assaulting the reporter at his newspaper officer after reading the front page story that screams "Murderer released after 18 years!" Interestingly enough the reporter admits he deserved the beating and then refuses to press charges.
The scene in which Bill meets his temporary femme fatale Catherine Higgins, aka Cathy (Ruth Roman) is fascinating as it provides a window into the now defunct world where men bought tickets for a dime to dance with women for a minute at a time. I believe the women were called "taxi dancers." At this juncture, Cathy is a blonde and seems like she has little interest in going out with Bill, who has never been with a woman before due to being incarcerated for so long.
Somehow Bill ingratiates himself enough with Cathy that he ends up at her apartment where the break into the Second Act occurs: the shooting of Cathy's "landlord" (boyfriend?), Detective Conover (Hugh Sanders). It's Cathy who does the shooting after Conover knocks Bill out. The kicker is that Bill can't remember what happened and believes Cathy when she tells him that he's the one who shot the detective.
It's an exciting enough scenario and the couple's machinations once they're "on the lam" prove to be interesting (at least for a while). Especially the scene in which they hitch a ride on a trailer truck containing new cars (Bill is able to obtain the keys from the truck driver's glove compartment, which enables he and Cathy to enter one of the new cars and remain there until they arrive in California, after fleeing New York City where they were living prior to the shooting of the police detective).
The bulk of Act Two has the ex-con and the femme fatale suddenly morph into lovebirds and become "good citizens." Cathy's transformation into a pregnant homemaker-to-be occurs when she suddenly reveals herself to Bill as a brunette. The couple get married under assumed names and settle down in a run down community consisting of shacks owned by lettuce pickers. Bill is hired as a lettuce picker where he eventually earns his keep performing back breaking work. At this point, it feels we're watching a scene from The Grapes of Wrath, not a hard-boiled crime film.
All that's left basically is to find out how Bill and Cathy are found out-and that occurs when their neighbors, consisting of Bill's boss Henry Dawson (Ray Teal), his wife Stella (Lurene Tuttle) and their son Johnny (Robert Hyatt) become of aware of Bill's criminal identity through an article that features a photo of him in a pulp crime magazine. Stella initially doesn't want Henry to rat Bill out but changes her mind and informs the police after Henry's hurt in a bad car accident and a large amount of money is needed for a special operation that may or may not save his life.
The film has two more surprises: one good and one bad. The good one is when Cathy shoots and wounds Bill after he's about to shoot a police officer who has arrived to arrest him. The bad is the ending in which the DA back in NYC lets Bill and Cathy go free after it's revealed that Detective Conover confessed before dying that he was shot by Cathy while she was acting in self-defense.
Film noir expert Eddie Muller speculates that the ending was changed perhaps after a test audience indicated that they preferred a happy ending as opposed to the much more shocking one which he speculates to be that of Cathy actually killing Bill and then finding out afterward that both of them were going to go free.
Both Cochran and Roman are much better as embittered individuals who've had one too many hard knocks in life than what they later become (i.e. a couple of goody two shoes).
There's enough here to keep your interest but Tomorrow is Another Day is only half a noir-if you're expecting the full noir treatment with the tragic ending for a bitter ex-con and his femme fatale, you will decidedly be quite disappointed.