Tomorrow Never Comes
(1977)
Director: Peter
Collinson
Cast: Oliver Reed, Susan George, Raymond Burr
I've got to admit that Tomorrow Never Comes has
a cast
that's both memorable and once in a lifetime. Not only does the movie
include
Oliver Reed, Susan George, and Raymond Burr, but John Ireland and
Donald
Pleasence also make appearances. It's clear that the Canadian/British
team
behind this tax shelter co-production did make some plans from the
movie's
conception to give it some marketable features (unlike the Canadian
so-called
"films" of today); pity that the plans didn't go beyond the casting,
and
work on giving the audience other pleasing factors such as likable
characters,
strong direction, and a story that not only makes sense, but makes a
point
as well. I don't see any tomorrow for this movie, so don't count on it
ever being released on any new media formats (at least, in North
America
- it somehow wangled a DVD release in England.)
It doesn't get off to an auspicious start thanks to the
song playing
over the opening credits that's not only incredibly trite ("Sitting on
a balcony / I look but there's no you to see / Alone am I /
Every day and
every place / I close my eyes and see your face / Alone am I" etc.),
but
doesn't really have anything to do with the story. It centers around
Frank
(Stephen McHattie), a young man who we see in the beginning of the
movie
returning to his home town after his out of town job ended several
months
early. After saying hello to a boy who played the freaky kid in the
legendary
horror cheapie The Pit, he goes looking for his
girlfriend
Janie (George), though is mystified when he goes to her apartment and
finds
someone else living there.
He keeps asking around for her, and finally not only
find her, but a
nasty surprise - she now works at a fancy resort, and this job and her
fancy digs have been provided by a sugar daddy. This news, plus a very
serious injury to his head he received the night before, doesn't
exactly
put him in an accepting mood, and after a nosy police officer comes snooping
around Janie's digs, an accident soon results in Frank creating a
hostage
situation. At the same time across town, police officer Jim (Reed),
spending
his last day on the force before moving to a small town, gets wind of
the
situation and decides to take charge in order to resolve the situation
in a peaceful way that conforms to his beliefs...I think. There's never
really explanation as to why this very unemotional man would bother
going
out on his last day on a dangerous assignment in very hot weather,
especially
when most of the other cops seem to despise him. The only life Reed
puts
into this character is when he darts his eyes side to side, as if he's
looking for his cue cards, or when he practically insults his fellow
cops
when they give him a going-away present.
It's not just Reed's character that's unlikable -
there's nobody
to be found in this movie that you could possibly give a damn about.
Certainly
Frank is not supposed to be a likable character, of course, but neither
is he a compelling one. McHattie tries to come off like a third rate Al
Pacino, possibly in an attempt to remind viewers of Dog Day
Afternoon,
but instead he comes across as a third rate Sylvester Stallone with his
mumbling and posturing. He does have one excellent scene when he fires
off one furious question after another to Jaine at the speed of a
machine
gun, the intensity of the scene building more and more with each
outburst
until you think there will be an explosion.
It's a riveting scene as well as well acted, and
McHattie becomes the
best actor in the movie because of it, though also by default. Everyone
else has little to do; Susan George spends the movie whimpering and
blubbering;
Donald Pleasence wanders in and out of the movie mostly at random, his
non-sequiter sounding dialogue enunciated like he has a bite of a
sandwich
in his mouth; John Ireland appears a couple of times just to gnash his
teeth; Raymond Burr appears for a few seconds in the first ten minutes,
then doesn't appear again until the last twenty minutes. Though Reed is
the central figure of the movie, and everything revolves around him, he
actually doesn't do that much. In fact, he doesn't really need
to
be there; the few things he does during the hostage taking could be
divided
among the other characters. The only reason why I think Reed (who still
had some prominence back then) took this particular role is that his
character
drinks a beer the night before the hostage taking, and then later slams
down a few cool ones during the crisis. ("You mean I'll not only drink
beer, but get paid to do it?!? Where do I sign?")
If you think there's something wrong there, you're
absolutely right.
I'm no policeman, nor do I know anyone who's a policeman, but I still
know
that a policeman is not supposed to drink while on duty. I also know
that
when putting a bead on your adversary, a policeman should
hide behind something
solid instead of standing right out in the open. Policemen in real life
also frown upon the idea of sending children as couriers between them
and
hostage takers, and getting in gigantic arguments and shoving matches,
especially when both the public and the media are watching them
closely.
Also, I think even children would know that a hostage crisis would be
handled
by the supervisor of a S.W.A.T. team and his men, instead of a lowly
cop.
Getting trivial details of police work wrong can be excused, but the
cluelessness
this movie has when it comes to major police procedures is staggering.
Not only does the movie make major boners when it comes
to police procedures,
but there are some real obvious mistakes elsewhere in the movie. They
include
the scene where Jaine tells Frank there's no water available despite
the
fact she took a shower not long ago, and the earlier scene when the
policeman
gets the maid to stay outside before he enters Jaine's residence, then
a few minutes later inside, we suddenly see Frank grab this maid from
one
of the rooms in the residence. Poor direction, (such as underlighting
the
inside of the house, making it hard to see Jaine and Frank in the house
when the shades are drawn) gives the movie a constant feeling of
confusion,
but the worst thing about it is that it never gives the movie any sense
of tension or desperation, despite the subject matter. Every new crisis
falls flat, at least when they are not ludicrously scored with bursts
of
"happy" music. The ending is especially infuriating, because there is
absolutely
no real consequence after everything is over - it just ends, with no
point
and no message.
There is one interesting oddity in the direction, at
least in the opening
fifteen minutes. During this brief time, there seems to be a conscious
decision by the director to have some fun with the material, even if
its
at the expense of a serious treatment. We are treated to
the sight of a
splattered corpse of a guy who fell from a ferris wheel (despite this
having
nothing to do with the rest of the movie), some gratuitous nudity
provided
by the female tenant of Jaine's old apartment when Frank enters, and
some
odd cursing at Frank by the boyfriend of this woman, who tells Frank to
get out of the "Goldarned room, idiot face!" and subsequently yells at
him "None of your flaming business!" and other restrained insults.
(There's
plenty of very salty language later in the movie, incidentally.) Maybe
all of this stuff is silly, but had the director made the other 94
minutes
of this overlong 109 minute bore with the same attitude, it would have
been more entertaining than this present version's otherwise serious
tone.
Check
for availability on Amazon (DVD)
See also: Baker County U.S.A.,
Road Ends, Sunday
In The Country
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