Kill Me Tomorrow

"Crosbie" (Pat O'Brien) is a jaded old journalist who is involved in a car accident that robs him of his wife and seriously injures his son. Now facing a bill of £1,000 to send him to Switzerland for urgent treatment, he becomes desperate and turns to the dubious "Webber" (George Coulouris) and offers to take the rap for the recent death of his old boss if he will fund the surgery. What "Crosbie" hadn't figured on, though, was the police actually wanting to get to the bottom of the crime and "Insp. Lane" (Wensley Pithey) isn't convinced he has his man! The only solution for "Crosbie" now might be to team up with fellow reporter "Jill" (Lois Maxwell) and see if they can solve the crime themselves. It took me a while to recognise a very young Richard Pascoe as the doctor and Tommy Steele also features briefly, but otherwise this is all a rather formulaic drama that is probably fifteen minutes longer than it needs to be. It's reasonably paced and passes the time, but you won't recall it afterwards.

This UK, homegrown, studio based movie, was not one of the best films of the period. The great American star Pat O'Brien, who often played a priest or a good guy in his roles, many opposite his real life friend James Cagney, was in life, the nice man he betrayed. On the set of Kill Me Tomorrow, he gave me his dedicated photo and wrote to my mother when he returned to the states. I doubt if movie stars of today would have the time or thought to be so nice to child actors. Lois Maxwell of Miss Moneypenny fame, was also wonderful in her role. However, the film was rather disjointed and Tommy Steel's introduction was marred by his over-long performance. The film can be rented from Amazon and the poster is now available on the Internet. Good fun if you like to see black and white London in the 1950's. Raymond Russell, boy in hospital bed.

'B' picture mainly interesting to me as I saw Tommy Steele's name listed first and I have tickets to see him in 2016!! Rock on. However, back to the picture. Directed by Terence Fisher and starring American gangster actor Pat O'Brien, near the end of his illustrious supporting career to stars like James Cagney. Quite how Terence Fisher went from this dud to the wonderful The Curse of Frankenstein with Peter Cushing in a matter of months is beyond me. Anyway, O'Brien plays a booze riddled newspaper man who needs a £1000 to get his son cured of an eye tumour that will almost certainly kill him if it's not fixed pronto. He gets involved with gangsters led by George Coulouris and the whole thing becomes a bit convoluted but O'Brien still somehow ends up getting the girl, played by Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny from the early Bond films) who looks young enough to be his granddaughter. Ug! gross, particularly when he tries to kiss her in the final scene and Lois appears to turn her head away. Still, it was funny seeing Tommy Steele rocking away like an idiot which is how these young stars were presented in this type of picture back then. Another reason I love watching these old films is to see the character actors and actresses, most of them long dead. Boxer Freddie Mills, Al Mulock, Robert Brown, Richard Pasco, Ronald Adam, Wensley Pithey, all familiar faces to me. Always worth a look.

This is another 50's low budget film that parachutes an ageing American actor, Pat O'Brien into a limp drama, hoping to inject interest and a wider audience. The problem here is with the casting of slow moving O'Brien, who looks overweight and seems frankly bored with the storyline. Credibility is further strained when you see the age of O'Brien's young son in a hospital bed, fighting for his life. The lack of reality is further ratcheted up when elderly and paunchy O'Brien defeats the lantern jawed, Freddie Mills, ex world light heavyweight in a fist fight! Richard Pascoe, plays a doctor but his lifeless performance seems to sum up the film. Also, Ronald Adam, a stalwart of countless British films, is wasted by being miscast as the newspaper editor. The tedious storyline wasn't exactly livened up by the then British rock 'n' roll, toothy, blond Tommy Steele, who appears in a cameo part. His two songs are totally forgettable. Overall, a very dull and ploddy film.

Pat O'Brien used to be a top reporter, but he has taken to the bottle since his wife's death. He quarrels with his editor in the newsroom and is fired. He then discovers that his son has a rare deadly disease that only a specialist in Switzerland can cure for a thousand pounds. He goes to the editor's house to make peace and get an advance, but hears gunshot and sees some racketeers leave. O'Brien breaks in and finds the editor dying. He picks up the gun when he hears a noise, but it's Lois Maxwell, the editor's niece and a fellow reporter. The next morning, O'Brien goes to the gangster, George Coulouris, and offers to confess to th murder, to give him and his gunsels time to flee the country for the money he needs.

O'Brien is too old for the part, despite the pep and professionalism he puts into it. The rest of the cast behaves in unlikely ways, especially Lois Maxwell as the dead man's niece who finds O'Brien standing with a gun over her uncle and yet comes to believe he didn't do it. I was also unconvinced by the way O'Brien took out two young hoods in a fight. To add to the issues, Claude Kingston, who plays his son, is one of those nasal, high-voiced drips with a teddy bear that riles me up. They needed someone ten or fifteen years younger.... or to have put O'Brien in a toupee.