In film noir, you start with characters looking for the easy life. Whether it’s sex or money (and usually it’s both) they’re not willing to woo the girl or work the job. They believe that playing it straight is for suckers.
Tomorrow is Another Day is different. It begins with Bill Clark, a truly decent guy. Bill killed his no-good, abusive father at the tender age of thirteen, and spent the next eighteen years in prison paying for his crime. Now that he’s out, he’ll never catch a break, no matter how clear his heart, no matter how hard he works. This story is straight out of a Thomas Hardy novel.
Clark, played convincingly by Steve Cochran, is set free into the adult world at thirty-one years old with no more knowledge of the world than he had at thirteen. He ogles a new convertible, but has no idea how to drive it. He ogles a young woman, but has no idea how to approach her. If ever there was a chicken ready to be plucked, it’s Bill Clark.
His first encounter with an over-friendly stranger ends up in a front page story in the morning paper with Bill’s picture and an “exclusive” interview with the convicted murderer just released from prison. That night Bill finds himself in a dance hall with a harem of dime-a-dance girls. Bill is instantly drawn to blonde Catherine Higgins, played by Ruth Roman. Roman was remarkable as Farley Granger’s slutty wife in Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train.
Bill follows Catherine back to her apartment where they meet a third character, a thuggish cop who is doubling as Catherine’s pimp. He knocks Bill unconscious. When Bill comes to, the cop is gone and there’s a lot of blood on the floor.
Bill and Catherine embark on a crazy road trip running from the inevitable police inquiry. As they travel west, they fall in love. How Catherine journeys from a cynical blonde taxi dancer to a brunette and virtuous wife is a journey as long as their trip across country. And Ruth Roman really sells it.
They eventually befriend the Dawsons, a family of farm laborers who lead them to the lettuce fields of Salinas, California. The Dawson family are the kind of decent hard-working people that Bill and Catherine are striving to be. Catherine, after a grueling day of trimming lettuces, cooks and hangs curtains. It looks like our couple has found peace at last.
But that would be a happy story, and this is a noir. A notice in a national magazine offers a reward for Bill’s whereabouts. The message is clear: no matter how hard you try to play it straight, life is never going to give you a break.
But wait, there’s another twist…
Tomorrow is Another Day is different. It begins with Bill Clark, a truly decent guy. Bill killed his no-good, abusive father at the tender age of thirteen, and spent the next eighteen years in prison paying for his crime. Now that he’s out, he’ll never catch a break, no matter how clear his heart, no matter how hard he works. This story is straight out of a Thomas Hardy novel.
Clark, played convincingly by Steve Cochran, is set free into the adult world at thirty-one years old with no more knowledge of the world than he had at thirteen. He ogles a new convertible, but has no idea how to drive it. He ogles a young woman, but has no idea how to approach her. If ever there was a chicken ready to be plucked, it’s Bill Clark.
His first encounter with an over-friendly stranger ends up in a front page story in the morning paper with Bill’s picture and an “exclusive” interview with the convicted murderer just released from prison. That night Bill finds himself in a dance hall with a harem of dime-a-dance girls. Bill is instantly drawn to blonde Catherine Higgins, played by Ruth Roman. Roman was remarkable as Farley Granger’s slutty wife in Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train.
Bill follows Catherine back to her apartment where they meet a third character, a thuggish cop who is doubling as Catherine’s pimp. He knocks Bill unconscious. When Bill comes to, the cop is gone and there’s a lot of blood on the floor.
Bill and Catherine embark on a crazy road trip running from the inevitable police inquiry. As they travel west, they fall in love. How Catherine journeys from a cynical blonde taxi dancer to a brunette and virtuous wife is a journey as long as their trip across country. And Ruth Roman really sells it.
They eventually befriend the Dawsons, a family of farm laborers who lead them to the lettuce fields of Salinas, California. The Dawson family are the kind of decent hard-working people that Bill and Catherine are striving to be. Catherine, after a grueling day of trimming lettuces, cooks and hangs curtains. It looks like our couple has found peace at last.
But that would be a happy story, and this is a noir. A notice in a national magazine offers a reward for Bill’s whereabouts. The message is clear: no matter how hard you try to play it straight, life is never going to give you a break.
But wait, there’s another twist…