Let's be realistic.

From my favorite movies..

Best movie of this year hands down!

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

A great noir spoiled by a naive guy,Cagney produced a movie as vehicle to him,nevertheless the time is over to play a young characters, both women Barbara Payton and Helena Carter are twenty years younger,a lack of credibility for James Cagney, he actually is an older actor who don't fill the real Ralph Cotter,he shall be their father indeed,in other hand Ward Bond and Lutler adler are flawless a highlights to the picture,Barbara Payton plays a propper bombshell,later lost your life in wrong behavior and became alcooholic,a priceless lost!!Resume:First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8

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.

Some people here are claiming that this is very similar to WHITE HEAT down to Cagney playing a violent villain in the same vein as Cody Jarrett . I disagree . Ralph Cotter is a violent anti-hero and that's what he is - an anti-hero where as Cody Jarrett is one of the most terrifying psychotic screen villains committed to celluloid which on that score alone makes WHITE HEAT an all time classic of cinema . KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE is a much lesser known film and there might be a very good reason to this The good points are that it stars Cagney . Let's be blunt and say Cagney was never an actor but he was a movie star and his idiosyncratic style can carry the most mediocre of material . The story for the most part is very engaging and what makes Ralph Cotter an anti-hero the audience can empathise with is the fact he's usually only killing and blackmailing villains , stool pigeons and corrupt officials . Do your job , don't grass on your friends , behave yourself and you'll have nothing to worry about from Ralph Where the story falls down quite badly is that there's a couple of character subplots involving dames . One involving a female called Holliday Carleton makes some sense but the other involving Margaret Dobson does not and it's impossible to believe this young woman would have any romantic attraction to Ralph . You also have to overlook the fact that Ralph is a hunted man and yet nearly everyone from traffic cops to Margaret's father fail to recognise Ralph . These two romantic subplots seem merely to exist to set up the ending . In other words the story structure is painfully contrived in order to bring the story to an end and it's this that stops KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE from being a classic crime drama instead of being a watchable thriller

Gangster Cotter escapes prison and schemes his way into city underworld, leaving trail of broken bodies and broken hearts behind.Cagney's pushing 50, but you'd never know it from the energy level. Ever the human dynamo, he's dishing it out to both the competition and the dames. True, it's a stretch when old man Dobson calls Cotter (Cagney) "young man", but you hardly notice. This is the legend's final gangster film. It may not be the best, still it is fast, tough, and unsentimental. Once again, Cagney's the outlaw entrepreneur working his way up the money ladder with little more than guts, wits, and a .45 (automatic, please). Along the way, he corrals two crooked cops, a shady lawyer, a double-crossing garageman, and notorious Hollywood bad girl Barbara Payton. Looks like everybody's got an angle of some kind, just the types Cotter can subordinate to his relentless drive. The ending is really ironic when you think about it. This is a stone-cold movie. Hardly anyone's likable, least of all Cotter. His cocksure ambition fascinates even as it repels. Only a secure-in-his-skin actor like Cagney would risk a role as unsympathetic as this.I wish IMDb had more on screenwriter Harry Brown (not Harry Joe Brown of the Ranown cycle of Westerns). This Harry Brown did a number of high quality screenplays (A Place in the Sun; Ocean's Eleven et al.), including the one here. Director Douglas manages several nice touches, such as the true believer at the phony psychic session. Note, however, that the quarry killings are not shown, at least in the version I've seen. In fact, showing that may have pushed the producers over the censorship line.All in all, it's a worthy slice of thick ear for gangster Cagney to go out on, especially that last scene with it's great title line.