This is a very original film on a very original story with very original actors, and even the music is original. Hugo Haas was something of a buccaneer in Hollywood, doing his own films, writing his own scripts, finding his own actors and team work, and the result is something of the most original and fascinating of film making during the great age of noirs. Here the film begins with a girl trying to drown herself by jumping into the river, she is rescued against her will and has to return to her more than dreary existence of nothingness, being threatened by being thrown out of her shabby room, having no place to go and no one to care about. By chance two policemen look her up with the strangest of offers: she will be paid $200 for keeping company with a prisoner sentenced to death during his last night, since that is his last wish. She doesn't care about anything and therefore accepts, and most of the film is just the two of them talking together in his cell, airing their mutual hopelessness and finding each other. That's the whole story. The dialog is amazing, extremely intriguing and well written, and the warden, the watchmen, his stepsister also play some part, but as a chamber play this is perfect and enduring. She will never forget her last night with a man sentenced to hang, and no audience could possibly ever forget this film.
Review of Hold Back Tomorrow
