st-shot Free of the nagging headaches of White Heat James Cagney once again goes to his bread and butter gangster role for the second time in row after putting it on sabbatical for a decade. He's no Cody Jarret but homicidal nonetheless.Ralph Cotter (Cagney) busts out of prison with the help of an inmate's sister (Barbara Payton). Returning to his life of crime other opportunities become available when he switches his identity. Soon he has a pair of corrupt cops in his pocket while being ably assisted by a crooked lawyer and the cash begins to roll in. When he falls for a society dame matters get tenuous.Unlike Jarrett Cagney's Cotter has the intemperate rage under better control in Goodbye allowing him to convey his cocksure threatening arrogance with a degree of sanity and control. More grounded without the mother fixation it extends his reach in things both criminal and romantic.Barbara Payton in her first big role shines and shows great promise in a career that would nosedive as fast as rise while Falcon detective duo Barton McClain and Ward Bond, stretching his role more than usual, reprise their occupations but this time they are on the take. Luther Adler's corrupt lawyer 'Cherokee' Mandon gives an excellent understated performance buttressing Cagney by being a worthy adversary and advocate in attempting to keep Cotter on his game. Prolific director Gordon Douglas ( 5 features in 1950, 4 more in 51) keeps things moving along at a decent pace with straightforward storytelling and handling of subplots that clearly in comparison lacks the desperation and intensity of Heat but remains a decent follow-up worth the watch.

dglink Six men and one woman are on trial, and the prosecutor tells the jury that each one is evil. The camera slowly pans past the group, which includes several veteran character actors, while the prosecutor says that an eighth defendant should be on trial with them. The first witness is then called from that group, and as he begins to testify, the story flashes back to a prison scene. The eighth person is likely James Cagney, who reprises his iconic gangster persona in "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye." However, the film and his performance are less engaging than "White Heat" made only a year earlier. Although still a charismatic actor, Cagney is in a mid-career limbo; past his prime as a young tough and prior to his re-emergence as a distinguished elder character actor.Unlike his Cody Jarrett in "White Heat," at age 51, Cagney is visibly too old for the part of Ralph Cotter, and his age is a factor in the film's disappointment. The two young women who play Cagney's romantic interests are young enough to be his daughters, and the love scenes between them lack any chemistry, spark, or believability. Cagney's appeal to the two young women, especially the reckless young heiress, is mystifying, and, when her father addresses Cagney as "young man," viewers will question the man's eyesight. However, the tougher grittier scenes, planning heists or conspiring to entrap corrupt cops, evoke some of the early Warner Brothers gangster epics that featured Cagney, Robinson, and Muni at their best.Unfortunately, Harry Brown's screenplay, from a novel of the same title by Horace McCoy, often lacks credibility. The heists seem unplanned, casual, and even sloppy. One robbery occurs in broad daylight at a neighborhood grocery, where the criminals regularly shop; the robbers use no disguises, yet, incredibly, a witness after wards claims to have seen nothing but the guns, and other witnesses, who clearly saw the men, are not even questioned. Equally astounding, Brown evidently thinks that feigning a fever is enough to fool prison guards and successfully break out. While the supporting players include such stalwarts as Ward Bond, Luther Adler, and Barton MacLane, the plot is not worthy of their talents. Character motivations are often unexplained or non-existent. Arguably the film's worst performance is given by Barbara Payton as Holiday Carleton, a suitably pulp-fiction character name; her histrionics and mood swings are overly dramatic and unbelievable, to be polite. Produced by Cagney's brother, William, and directed by Gordon Douglas, the film has the look of a modestly budgeted programmer, the bottom half of a double bill. While not really bad, "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye," despite a great pulp-fiction title, is just not good enough; certainly not good enough to be the vehicle for a great star, even one beyond his prime. Viewers may want to revisit "White Heat" instead.

Dalbert Pringle As far as early-1950's Crime/Thrillers go, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (KTG, for short) was definitely something of a major let-down.This film, which starred veteran actor James Cagney (who at 51 was clearly too old and too tired-looking for his part), had the distinctive feel of being a "quickie" written all over it.And, speaking about James Cagney, I think (in his latter years) that he made for a mighty poor leading man. And here in KTG the viewer was expected to believe that this 5' 6" pipsqueak was a real lady-killer who was able to juggle, not one, but 2 hot, young babes (who were both bitterly jealous of each other) at one time.I mean, c'mon, this "lover-boy" business was just too unconvincing for words, especially since Cagney's character was such an unlikable, little bully with a huge chip on his shoulder to begin with.KTG's story was primarily a courtroom drama where each of the characters got their chance to recall (in extended flashbacks) their involvement in a payroll caper. This predictable, little tale featured the usual line-up of crooked cops, slimy lawyers and, yes (get this!), even newlyweds who slept in separate beds.My advice would be to pass on this dud. With there obviously being so many superior films from that era to chose from, there's no point in one wasting their time watching something as mediocre as this.

writers_reign It's hard to believe that Above The Line talent like Gordon Douglas, Harry Brown and Horace McCoy could fall so badly into the old Flashback trap; you know the one, one character begins to tell another or, in this case, a crowded courtroom of something that happened in the past and almost as soon as we're in full flashback mode the character narrating disappears leaving us to watch a series of events at which he was not present and by extension could have no knowledge of. Perhaps the fact that this film is now 59 years old and what was arguably fast-moving then now veers toward the pedestrian draws attention to this basic flaw. It's quite possible that viewers at the time were prepared to put up with sloppiness like this if they were caught up in the plot. Clearly it was a cynical ploy to cash in on the success of the previous year's White Heat which provided Cagney with one of his finest gangster roles. He has another good gangster role here but it's never going to get even close to Cody Jarret. Neither Barbara Payton nor Helena Carter have any real charisma as the two love interests competing for Cagney and stalwarts such as Barton McLane, Luther Adler, Ward Bond and Rhys Williams appear to be walking through it and/or phoning it in. It's certainly watchable as a filler on television which is where I saw it and it did keep me watching til the finale which, inevitably, ended in tears.