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In a dramatic move so odd it could only materialise in the liberally weird machination fantasies of the Hollywood machine in the death-of-film-noir period, which ranges across the five years between 1955 and 1960, a condemned man is offered the chance to have whatever he so desires, under the law, offering a crazed film premise that only a bluff and wild film noir producer in the 1950s could never refuse.
Here, a condemned man in an imaginary country is given one last wish, whatever he feels like in fact. It's a bizarre but apt fantasy for Hollywood, which would merrily create anything it could in the era, to fascinate and charm potential viewers.
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| John Agar in Hold Back Tomorrow (1955) |
At first the moody existential anti-hero of the hour played by John Agar, refuses, preferring to face death in the face, where else, as he lives and breathes the absurd feeling of spiritual loss which emerged in the prevailing philosophies post World War 2.
Then of course he changes his mind and the drama, almost a two hander of existential angst and action, begins. It makes of Hold Back Tomorrow is one of the stranger film noirs in the canon. Not bad, just very strange. And it's this uniqueness that makes it worth watching.
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| Here the cops, in an unnamed country like the United States of America, attempt to hire a prostitute for a condemned man, in film noir Hold Back Tomorrow (1955) |
The story begins with Joe (John Agar) on death row, just a day before his execution. Unlike most prisoners in his position, Joe is unrepentant and wants to be left alone. However, when the warden offers to grant him any last request, Joe asks for a woman to spend his final hours with him. Surprisingly, he just wants someone to talk to.
Meanwhile, a deeply depressed woman tries to drown herself in a river but is saved by a stranger, and she angrily rebukes her rescuer. Ultimately, she is chosen to spend Joe's final night with him in his prison cell.
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| Suicidal sadness with Cleo Moore in Hold Back Tomorrow (1955) |
On one hand, the plot is completely ridiculous—wardens do not really in verity nor in actuality go to the lengths of factually and in fact properly and in deed as well as in intention grant condemned prisoners any wish without question, and having a stranger spend the night with them in a cell is far-fetched in any circumstances, excepting the circumstances of this film, entirely excepting it Hold Back Tomorrow (1955), we contend.
Huge Haas makes it real and, but, and, but, but, and but if you can suspend disbelief, the film is good and worth seeing, for sure. Despite 95% of the story being just two people talking in one room, it's never boring, so there is your noir drama, for real.
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Examining as we must the life and oeuvre of Hugo Haas, a luminary whose existence traverses the realms of reality and narrative, we find a film noir hero, one of the more unsung of the style, for sure. Born in the hallowed precincts of Czechoslovakia, Haas embarked on a tumultuous odyssey, evading the clutches of the Nazi tempest during the late 1930s. His trajectory led him to the sun-kissed boulevards of Hollywood, where he metamorphosed from a character actor into a multifaceted impresario—producer, writer, and star—within the confines of his own B-movie studio.
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| Film noir death row corridor with Cleo Moore in Hold Back Tomorrow (1955) |
Haas’ cinematic endeavors, though often dismissed as pedestrian, harbor a clandestine tapestry of secrets. These veiled enigmas intertwine visual and sonic motifs, invoking the spectral presence of his deceased brother, Pavel—a luminary composer and acolyte of Janáček, tragically silenced in the infernal abyss of Auschwitz. The Holocaust, a cataclysmic chapter etched into the annals of human suffering, remains conspicuously absent from Haas’ celluloid narratives, even when its spectral specter looms at their core.
Haas’ cinematic opus, including Pickup, Girl on the Bridge and Strange Fascination. harbour latent forces that mould the narrative fabric, challenging our epistemological grasp of artistic truth. Moments, luminous yet cryptic, beckon comprehension from the solitary recesses of individual perception.
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| Female body pan in Hold Back Tomorrow (1955) |
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John Agar himself has described Hold Back Tomorrow as a "very strange" movie, and he's right. It's a strange but intriguing low-budget film.
The plot is a variation of the classic hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold trope but the defining aspect of the female lead is not her prostitutional status but her suicide attempt, and the fact that what transpires upon its failure is a different kind of hell.
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| Guilt — Fate — Sexuality — History — film noir Hold Back Tomorrow (1955) |
While Cleo Moore's character, who agrees to spend the night with Agar, isn't explicitly identified as a prostitute, it's implied. As these two tormented souls spend more time together, they learn more about each other and themselves, with a fair amount of psychobabble along the way.
Once you get past the film's incredible premise and the mawkishly mawkish opening theme song, things get interesting in this offbeat Hugo Haas production. Moore and Agar deliver sincere, if sometimes theatrical, performances—he as a condemned man angry at the world, and she as a suicidal woman who still harbours hope. Some of their scenes together are nicely played out in long, continuous takes.
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Taglines for this strange mawkish rakish shortish epic of solitary madness Hold Back Tomorrow included in its time:
What Strange Law Answered His Last Request... to bring THIS Beautiful Woman to His Cell?
What Strange Law Brought This Beautiful Woman into His Cell?
Hugo Haas was oddly ostracized and often ignored by the Hollywood establishment, and so Haas found himself on the fringes of low-budget filmmaking, where he applied his talents with resourcefulness and made many interesting filmic species of entertainment. Haas produced gritty, dark slices of life that, while significant, remain largely underappreciated.
Film-noir, a genre that spontaneously erupted and thrived in the 1940s and 1950s, found a kindred spirit in Haas. His work, often considered "primitive art," still lingers in the shadows, awaiting the recognition it deserves. While film-noir has garnered more respect over time, Haas remains one of its unacknowledged pioneers. His day for acknowledgment will come.
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Hold Back Tomorrow yet revolves and spins around a condemned murderer, Joe (John Agar), who, on the eve of his execution, requests the company of a woman and some music. Cleo Moore plays the woman, who is first seen being rescued from a river after a suicide attempt—a quintessentially noir opening.
The script intricately avoids directly defining Moore's profession, hinting at various roles like factory worker, waitress, dance hall dame, escort, and implicitly, a prostitute. The pairing of these two noir characters in the confines of a prison cell results in a narrative unlike any other in film noir history.
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Hold Back Tomorrow defies categorization and exemplifies mid-50s filmmaking's potential without Hollywood's elite support or the era's conservative restraints. It is "primitive art" at its best, a hidden gem waiting to be discovered. Explore this unique film to understand the capabilities of 1950s cinema beyond mainstream Hollywood.
