Mañana es otro día

I can't think of any other film from the pre-Moon Is Blue period that deals with so many tough social issues (without, of course, QUITE breeching the Production Code): prostitution, rape, pimping, and even premarital sex. Steve Cochran is excellent as a brooding ex-con on the run from a crime he didn't commit. Outstanding atmosphere, photography, and screenplay. Even the scenes in the lettuce fields are outstanding!

Tomorrow is Another Day from 1951 stars Ruth Roman, Steve Cochran, Lurene Tuttle, and Ray Teal.

Bill Clark (Cochran) went to prison as a teenager and is released 18 years later, having had little to no life experience. Due to being exposed in the newspaper where he lives, he gets out of town and goes to New York City.

Desperate for human companionship, he enters a dime a dance joint and becomes interested in Cathy (Ruth Roman in a horrible blond wig reminiscent of Stanwyck's in Double Indemnity). She's as tough as they come, doesn't really want Bill around, and tells him he has to buy her presents to impress her. He buys her a watch.

Cathy has a touch of vulnerability - and Bill is pathetic - so she agrees to take him around New York and show him the sights. When they arrive back at her apartment, her Sugar Daddy Connover, a cop in plain clothes, is waiting for her. Bill and Connover fight; Bill is knocked out. Cathy gets the gun and shoots Connover.

When Bill regains consciousness, she leads him to believe that he shot the police lieutenant. They wind up on the run together.

Some time must pass, though it's not shown, because it's obvious the two become lovers, and Cathy has softened quite a bit. She's also back to looking like Ruth Roman. Eventually, changing their names, they join farm workers picking lettuce.

I really liked this film. I do feel like Ruth Roman turned into a housewife awfully fast. However, she does both personalities very well. Cochran was terrific, awkward, shy, not like the Steve Cochran I've seen in other films. Tuttle and Teal play husband and wife farm workers who befriend the couple.

Very good.

The title sounds like a soap opera, and it kinda is, with some noirish touches. The first 30 minutes are familiar fare to any noir fan: ex-convict has troubles finding his way on the outside, meets a scheming blonde who only thinks of looking after Number One. At her place they run into her beau, who's none too pleased. Fists fly, and soon enough a shot is fired,hitting the boyfriend. We know it's the dame that did it, but since the ex-con was knocked out before the gun went off he doesn't know he's innocent. She doesn't clear things up for him, for obvious reasons. Fearing the worst, they hit the road together. From then on the melodrama takes over: she washes the bleach out of her hair, and becomes a reformed woman almost instantly. Love starts to bloom and they throw in their lot together. Will they ever find true happiness? At this point the movie lover who likes his noir hard-boiled might as well switch off. Those who sit out the rest of the movie either learn to care for the star-crossed couple or will feel cheated out of a good chase movie. I'm sort of on the fence about this one; both leads are engaging enough, but the story could have used more grit. Noir fans should try this one out, it has enough going for it, but be warned: Bonny And Clyde it ain't.

An ex-con and a dance hall girl flee the cops and a wrongful murder charge.

Catch that early scene in the tacky dance hall— it's a gem. I've seen a lot of cheap dives in movies, but none I think combines atmosphere and annoyance better than this one. Between the hard dames and the 1-minute buzzer, the guys better hold onto their wallets. Then too, the Warner Bros. production manages uncommon attention to detail. Note how taxi-dancer Cay (Roman) ends the dance hall scene by soliciting another customer. That way we know she's a real hard case no matter what she's said to poor Clark (Cochran).

These touches continue throughout, as with the back-and-forth wristwatch mirroring Cay's and Clark's relationship, or the heart-stopping dropped keys that unlock the carry-all car. All in all, these are the kind of deft touches that turn a good film into a memorable one.

However, despite the excellence of this noirish first half, I have to agree with reviewer Teller. The second half unfortunately collapses into unremarkable melodrama. Frankly, Cay's big turnaround from loose woman to wifely Madonna is simply too complete to be believable. That transformation is signaled in her change of hair color. There, Cay washes out the dance hall blonde for the darker natural color underneath, thereby releasing the real person redeemed now by true love. However, the problem remains-- the personality contrast between the "hard-case before" and the "all-sweetness after" is simply too strong and abrupt not to draw critical attention, regardless of how worthwhile the message.

That's not to say the second part is wasted. Those clapboard shacks for the transient pickers are right out of Grapes of Wrath and just as realistic. Plus, Clark's personality remains volatile and believable, though undergoing the inevitable softening. I just wish the film had modulated Kay's change in a similarly subtle manner. Then we might have had a memorable whole instead of a memorable half.

Yeah, I know, Scarlett O'Hara's favorite maxim. If by some weird set of circumstances this thoughtful little gem shows up on your TV after the latest infomercial, tape it, go to bed, and sometime when you're in the mood for some reflective film watching, shove it in the VCR maw. Steve Cochran plays a really dumb guy who gets entwined with Ruth Roman's cynical, smart loser dame through a series of preposterous events. If J. D. Salinger had written a crime film, it would have probably turned out like this. Why are films like this so hard to find? Other '50's obscurities worth checking out: Eight Iron Men; Kiss Me Deadly; Rogue River; Violent Saturday; Blood And Steel; Paratroop Command; Convicts Four (actually '62, but a great prison film.) I give up, nobody seems to remember anything about movies since 1980 anyway.