Kill Me Tomorrow (1960)

Pretty Good

Best movie ever!

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

KILL ME TOMORROW is a low rent British thriller from a decade chock-full of such pictures. Many of them were, like this one, rather undistinguished, but still interesting to film fans thanks to their casting of famous and not-so famous faces alongside familiar production figures from the industry. Despite the nondescript storyline, KILL ME TOMORROW is worth a watch thanks to Hammer director Terence Fisher's assured handiwork.The story is about a washed-up reporter, on the verge of losing his job, whose life falls apart still further when his kid falls seriously ill. Before long he falls in with a criminal gang and must strive to set things right in an increasingly complex and mean-spirited world. The writing isn't exactly stellar here, but it's fun to see American star Pat O'Brien (ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES) in a low rent British film and the supporting cast includes the familiar faces of Freddie Mills, Ronald Adam, and George Coulouris. Lois Maxwell's here too, looking lovely in the decade before she became famous as Miss Moneypenny. Tommy Steele contributes a musical number.

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.

In Kill Me Tomorrow it was Pat O'Brien's turn to be an American actor who was past his prime as a leading man in the states to turn up in a British feature film. The idea was to give it greater marketability in the States. I well remember seeing a lot of these type of films as the bottom half of doublebills in my neighborhood movie theater. O'Brien who had done a lot of noir type features in America fits comfortably with the genre in the UK. Even his Irish countenance is hardly out of place as so many Irish people from Ulster and from the Republic were living and working in Great Britain.O'Brien is an alcoholic reporter working for a Fleet Street paper run by editor Ronald Adam. Adam's lost patience with O'Brien, a year before Pat's wife was killed in an automobile accident that he caused driving drunk. Now he's got a second piece of bad news, his son is ill with a tumor behind an eye and needs one quick operation from a specialist in Switzerland. A thousand pounds would cover it.Ronald Adam has bigger fish to fry than O'Brien's problems. He's running an expose on some criminal rackets in London headed by George Coulouris. A stoolie after giving information to Adam is murdered and Coulouris and assorted hoods come calling. Adam winds up shot and then O'Brien arrives and Adam gives a dying declaration as to who did it.But Pat's concern is the boy and he makes an unusual bargain with Coulouris. For a thousand pounds, he'll take the fall for him and confess to the murder.I have to say that this was one of the more unusual plot twists in a film I've ever seen and for that reason it rates a cut above your average noir film. The production values were adequate, no more than that, the players gave a good account of themselves. Lois Maxwell soon to be Ms. Moneypenny in a few years is Adam's niece and even though she sees O'Brien with gun in hand leaving the premises and calls Scotland Yard, she still believes in him.In fact the scheme is badly thought out, but it was thought out by a desperate man. A timeline and forensics shoot O'Brien's confession full of holes, but he insists on playing it his way as movie favorites do.Two interesting people have small roles in Kill Me Tomorrow. One is former Light Heavyweight Champion Freddie Mills, a sports hero in the British Isles plays one of Coulouris's thugs. Mills met a tragic end a few years later, a suicide that some think was murder.The other person was Great Britain's first rock and roll star Tommy Steele. He sings one of his early hits Rebel Rock in a coffee bar that Coulouris owns and is the headquarters for his enterprises. Tommy is not one of the crooks however. Having seen a more mature Steele in Half A Sixpence, Finian's Rainbow, and The Happiest Millionaire, it was interesting to see him in his rock and roll roots. I shouldn't actually say that because Steele as a performer would have been right at home in the British Music Hall Theater and has been for most of his career. He's got an infectious personality and style that has made me one of his biggest fans.So while O'Brien is in the film for the American market, I've no doubt that Kill Me Tomorrow did well at the British box office with Tommy Steele performing. Kill Me Tomorrow is a good B noir thriller that could hold its own with America's product.

This is one of many 1950s British B-pictures which featured an American actor in the lead role, in this case round-faced, turnip-haired Pat 'O Brien. He usually played well-meaning Irish priests or policemen but here he's somewhat unsympathetic, and unconvincing, as Bart Crosbie, a washed-up journalist going through a mid-life crisis. His wife died in a car accident (he was driving), he has a drink problem and now his estranged son (Jimmy) needs an eye operation because of a tumor.Worryingly the kid neither looks or sounds anything like his dad and has a voice so posh and squeaky it's small wonder the hospital staff didn't throttle the little brat. The hospital scenes with Jimmy are somewhat awkward and uncomfortable with O'Brien looking like he couldn't give a damn. Notice also that little Jimmy's teddy bear only has one eye which seems a bit cruel under the circumstances (or perhaps it was an in-joke). O'Brien's lack of concern is also evident the end where he and fellow journalist Jill (Louis Maxwell) are waving Jimmy off at the airport when he's traveling to Switzerland for the operation. 'Goodbye Jimmy, goodbye Jimmy my boy' O'Brien mutters unenthusiastically and repeats it in the same bored tone of voice like he can't wait to be rid of the kid so he can have his wicked way with Jill. However you get the impression from the equally unenthusiastic way Lois Maxwell turns away from O'Brien at the end when he is supposed to be kissing her, that she either couldn't stand him or he had really bad halitosis.There are many more equally ludicrous and unintentionally funny moments in this film which you musn't miss: When Jill (Louis Maxwell) drives up to Scotland Yard to give evidence she not only narrowly misses running over a pedestrian but she also does what is possibly the worst bit of parking ever seen on screen, and this was outside England's Police Headquarters! The cafe scenes with Tommy Steele performing the song rock 'n' roll song Rebel Rock are wonderfully naff as well. Some of the lyrics are not words but Tommy making a lot of strange noises like he's having a seizure, which is a bit disconcerting. And he seems to perform the song over and over again like a human jukebox. Perhaps the producers could only afford to commission the one song and got maximum use from it. Also watch out for the cafe owner (and gangster) George Coulouris and his heavies and the way hang around the joint looking furtive and menacing. Surely anyone would have guessed that they were up to no good. Lastly you have to question the way the doctor (Richard Pasco at his most zombie-like) works out that Jimmy's operation will cost exactly £1,000 and that he needs payment in cash the next day. Surely private medicine doesn't work that way? You get the impression that the whole operation thing was a scam and that half way across the English Channel the doc was going to shove little Jimmy out of the plane and head off to sunnier climbs with the nurse, keeping the grand for himself. Surely that's a better plot that the one they actually used and at least the title would make sense. Watch it at your peril...