Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (film)

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye was based on a bestselling novel by Horace McCoy that was published in 1948.[3][4]

Humphrey Bogart and Robert Lord were interested in securing the film rights before the novel's publication,[5] but in November 1949, the film rights were sold to William Schiffrin, an independent producer.[6] In February 1950, the Cagney brothers bought the film rights.[7] In March 1950, Barbara Payton was cast.[8] Helena Carter joined the cast in April.[9] Filming began on April 14, 1950, at General Service Studios.[10]

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye was the first of four movies that the Cagney brothers made for Warner Bros.[11] James Cagney said that he and his brother entered into a deal in which they gave the banks the first $500,000 that the film made, in order to pay back debts from The Time of Your Life.[12]

The Cagneys liked Douglas' work and signed him to a multi-picture contract.[13]

This was the second film in which Cagney appeared with William Frawley (Fred Mertz from I Love Lucy), following 1937's Something to Sing About.

Though often compared unfavorably to White Heat, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye received mixed reviews. Critic Fred Camper, in The Chicago Reader, criticized the film's directing, writing: "Gordon Douglas's direction is almost incoherent compared to Raoul Walsh's in White Heat (1949), which features Cagney in a similar role; the compositions and camera movements, while momentarily effective, have little relationship to each other, and the film reads a bit like an orchestra playing without a conductor."[15]

Film critic Dennis Schwartz generally liked the film and wrote: "This is an energetic straightforward crime drama based on the book by Horace McCoy (They Shoot Horses, Don't They?) and the screen play, which hardly makes sense and is the root of the film's problems, is by Harry Brown. Gordon M. Douglas (Come Fill the Cup/Only the Valiant) helms it by keeping it fast-paced, brutal and cynical, and lets star James Cagney pick up where he left off in the year earlier White Heat as an unsympathetic mad dog killer. This was an even tougher film, but the crowds did not respond to it as favorably as they did to White Heat (which seems odd, since it is basically the same type of B-movie)."[16]

Filmink said: "Both Payton and Carter are a little too attractive looking for pudgy old Cagney, who was pushing fifty at the time – did he ever play such a stud muffin? It’s the biggest flaw in an otherwise solid gangster story."[17]