Destitute Dora Garbin (Cleo Moore), who can no longer earn a living even as a prostitute, jumps off a bridge, and is rescued from the water by a passerby.
A fortune-teller predicts that Dora will live a long life and find love.
Joe Cardos (John Agar), a murderer, will be hanged at dawn and has refused any legal representation, last rites or a visit by his sister Clara (Steffi Sidney).
At the jail, Joe tells to the Warden (Dallas Boyd) that he has changed his mind and now wants, as his last wish, a girl with whom to spend the night. By law, the warden must grant the wish.
Dora is desperate for money and has just received an eviction notice, so she accepts the job. When they arrive at the jail, Joe reacts with disdain to the bedraggled, sad Dora. With only five hours left before his execution, she offers to leave, but he brusquely orders her to stay.
Joe states that Dora needs to smile, and she tells him that she has never smiled, and this gloominess has cost her friends, lovers and jobs. Joe leaves to use the rest room, and when he returns, Dora has straightened her hair, removed her coat and applied lipstick, and Joe is stunned by her prettiness.
Joe finally admits that he believes his sentence to be unfair. Joe's best friend, Paolo, sets him up for jail sentences every time one of their schemes goes awry. One day, Paolo introduces Joe to Annie, and Joe falls deeply in love with her. When she and Paolo urge Joe to pull off a dangerous robbery, he complies, only to be caught. In jail, he discovers that Paolo and Annie have spurned him and are lovers. In a rage, Joe breaks out and strangles them both. He finishes his story by declaring to Dora that he has never once cried, not even when his mother died or his father beat him. Touched, Dora urges Joe to cry, revealing that she will cry when she leaves, because she wishes she had met him years earlier. Joe shouts at her, but she continues to push him to cry, and after he grows so incensed that he slaps her, he breaks down and sobs in her lap. When he looks up, she is smiling, and they embrace.
Later, he describes a dream in which the gallows break, an occurrence which would by law grant him a reprieve, and prison bells ring to announce his survival. Now gentle and loving, Joe informs Dora that, with her love, he will not be afraid to die. They dance, but are interrupted by the warden and priest. Joe begs the priest to marry him and Dora, and the priest finally agrees. Clara enters the cell to act as a witness, and Joe kisses her forehead. The priest offers Joe forgiveness, and then marries the couple, but immediately after, the guards lead Joe to the gallows. Dora and Clara kneel at the nearby altar, and as they pray for a miracle, Dora hears the prison bells ring.
A 1955 American Black & White film-noir drama film produced, written & directed by Hugo Haas, cinematography by Paul Ivano, starring Cleo Moore, John Agar, Frank DeKova, Dallas Boyd, Steffi Sidney, Mel Welles, Harry Guardino, Mona Knox, Arlene Harris, Kay Riehl, Jan Englund, and Pat Goldin.
Agar was a Universal contract player at the time of this film, and Moore was on loan from Columbia Pictures.
John Agar was born in Chicago, the eldest of four children. In World War II, Sgt. John Agar was a United States Army Air Force physical instructor. His 1945 marriage at the Wilshire Memorial Church to "America's Sweetheart" Shirley Temple put him in the public eye for the first time, and a movie contract with independent producer David O. Selznick quickly ensued.
Cleo Moore (1929 - 1973), born Cleouna Moore, was an American actress, usually featured in the role of a blonde bombshell in Hollywood films of the 1950s, including seven films with Hugo Haas. Moore was named Miss Van Nuys for 1947-1948. She also became a well-known pin-up girl. She made her film debut in "Embraceable You" (1948), and worked for Warner Brothers briefly in 1950. She worked for RKO Radio Pictures from 1950 to 1952. She signed with Columbia Pictures in 1952. During the 1950s, Moore was one of several buxom blondes in Hollywood to achieve notability following Marilyn Monroe's major breakthrough; the others included Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren, Diana Dors, Sheree North, Anita Ekberg, Barbara Lang, Barbara Nichols, Joi Lansing, Carol Ohmart, Pat Sheehan, and Greta Thyssen. Moore married Palmer Long, the youngest child of Huey Long, the former governor of Louisiana who was assassinated while a Senator for Louisiana, but the marriage ended in six weeks.
The film is inspired by Egon Erwin Kisch's novella "Tonka of the Gallows" (1930), which was previously adapted into film as "Tonka of the Gallows" (1936). This was the second film to co-star Moore and Agar, who had appeared together in"Bait" (1954), which was also directed by Hugo Haas.
An interesting mixture of film-noir and religious drama come together in this tenderly told unique hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold romantic fantasy. Discover this hidden-gem for yourself.
Негізгі бет Cleo Moore in Hugo Haas' "Hold Back Tomorrow" (1955) - feat. Harry Guardino
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