Tomorrow Never Comes (1978)

Strong and Moving!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Frank a young man returns back to his home town, after going away for a couple months for a job so he could earn money and marry his girlfriend Janie. When he goes to her apartment, someone else is living there now. He drops off at a bar, where he gets into a bloody fight and learns Janie works as a singer at an top-class resort and is actually seeing someone else. While being seriously injured, he comes face to face with her and wants to talk, but things get out of hand when a snooping police officer accidentally gets shot when making something big out of nothing. From this build up, a hostage situation cooks up, and Officer Jim Wilson (who's on his last day on the job) takes control and wants a peaceful result in front of a growing crowd of onlookers in this resort town, but everyone else on the force and important political figures want to see Jim dead.What to make of it? It's a hard one to decipher, because is pretty much a sweet and sour drama-thriller with an exceptionally first-rate cast to boot. On the other hand, the performances are very varied with considerately good to simply one-note. Oliver Reed looks tired, and that transcends to his dry and salty, but (for me) surprisingly engaging performance of Officer Wilson. Lead Stephen McHattie provides a tortured intensity to his confused character Frank and really drills the performance superbly. The seductively saucy Susan George is perfectly convincing as the greatly concerned Janie. The support roles are mainly underwritten and stereotypically painted. Paul Koslo's hot wired police officer Willy added much needed friction and spark, but the likes of John Ireland, Raymond Burr and a moping Donald Pleasence (very much wasted in a nothing role) are kept on the sideline.Director Peter Collinson's muscular touch to his execution is aggressive, sombre and completely hard-boiled. Fluidly uniformed photography has a poignant embrace, while the stirringly overdrawn soundtrack throws pretty much everything but the kitchen sink into it.Despite the bitter nature and foreboding build-up, the film never manages to sustain that tightness throughout. Leaving pockets that really do drag with overwrought or mainly wooden dialogues. Sometimes it emotionally engages with its raging and suspenseful vibe, but it does stretch out the siege for too long. It never feels like its going to take off with the large amount breaks (and very few active spurts) it takes in trying to cover all the character's bases. It tries to take time to look deeper at the two central characters in the siege, but then Reed's character takes most of the limelight, even though he doesn't do hell of a lot. Especially that he has time to have beer and admire the view! Everyone feels secondary, despite the well-intended performances.Sydney Banks and David Pursall's story has good groundwork, but faults do crop up and there's an unsteady charge when it mixes the seriousness of the situation with comical breaks involving wry humour from the watching crowd. It mainly doesn't come off (because it can get unintentional) and what about some of these pretty questionable actions. I liked that it stuck to a very glum conclusion and cut off straight from that point. The script is extremely chewy with a lot of activity and mainly has a biting attitude or simply falls flat. "Tomorrow Never Comes" is a long way from perfect, but the forcefully downbeat mood and nice array of notable performers lend largely to the looming curiosity of the exercise.

Viewed this film only because Susan George had an appearance and I am sure that the director and producer used her to bring people to the box office in 1978. In the early 1970's Susan George was a very hot and steamy actress from England who drew plenty of people to see her in "Straw Dogs" and many others. Stephen McHattie, (Frank) plays the role as a boyfriend and lover to Janie (Susan George) and just goes off and leaves her all by herself and then returns and finds out she is being a kept woman by a very rich man who owns lots of business enterprises in town. Raymound Burr, (Burke) makes a very brief appearance along with Oliver Reed, (Jim Wilson) and both give great supporting roles. There is a scene where Frank asks Janie to go take a shower and make herself clean and then a few close ups of Frank drying her off and telling her how much he loves her and asks her how could she ever sleep with another man. This film is not much of a story and is very drawn out right to the very END; it is only 68 minutes long.

To describe this as a B grade movie is to insult the best efforts of people who make B grade movies. Tomorrow Never Comes has a niche' somewhere down the alphabet. The characters are so stereotyped that the acting has no option but to appear wooden. Actions taken by the movie's characters often seem incongruous with their persona and there are scenes that simply have no logical place in the movie.When i first stumbled across this movie it was 4.00am on free to air tv. No wonder! Yet, I must say that as bad as it was, it had me transfixed to the screen. I found it funny and couldn't help but reflect on Leslie Nielsen and The Naked Gun movies. Don't take it seriously and you may enjoy it, probably even laugh your head off. I know I did.

Well worth seeing. The plot concerns the return of Frank (Stephen McHattie) to his home town, as he has been away working. In the meantime his girlfriend, Janie (Susan George) has moved out of their pokey apartment and into a beach-hut of a luxury hotel complex, owned by a rather unlikeable character, played by John Osborne (II).Frank finds out she's been sleeping with the hotel's owner, and shoots a policeman who's been sent to the hut. Thus ensues a seige, with Raymond Burr, Donald Pleasence, and Oliver Reed sent along to help out.I don't really know what exactly it is that I like about this film - possibly the naiive and innocent way Frank lives his life; by simply walking into one brick wall after another. Or maybe it's the "one man picnic" Oliver Reed has, where he decides to stage an impromptu beer commercial outside the hut (after they've cut off it's water supply).Either way, if you've never watched this film before, I recommend you do. It also has an unhappy ending; for some reason, I prefer unhappy endings aswell.