Les amants du crime

This film screened at the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on April 7, 1999. It was described in the American Cinematheque schedule as follows:

"TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY 1951, Warners, 90 min. Steve Cochran's an ex-con who's never been with a woman. Ruth Roman is a dime-a-dance dame with no use for sappy men. A hotel room, a dirty cop, a gunshot - the perfect jump-off for a fugitives-on-the-run love story. This virtually unknown noir is Felix Feist's masterwork, packed with revelatory set-pieces. Cochran was never more vulnerable, Roman never sexier. Imagine GUN CRAZY scripted by Steinbeck - it's that good."

I just saw this film, and I agree with every word of the above description.

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.

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.

...for a suspenseful,absorbing,often moving film.

My favorite scenes are the very first ones:Bill/Mike leaving jail and discovering the outside world,struggling to adjust to something which is completely new for him.When he asks for three slices of cake ,everybody laughs at him,but we do not.This man spent 18 years in jail for something he had never done.

Steve Cochran and Ruth Roman (fresh from "strangers on a train") are a good pairing .The screenplay is not very new ,and sometimes verges on melodrama (M.Dawson's accident) but it's a well-constructed story of redemption (a double redemption) one can recommend to films noirs buffs.