Live Now, Pay Later

{{Infobox film

| name = Live Now, Pay Later

| image = Live_Now,_Pay_Later_(1962_film).jpg

| caption = British theatrical poster

| story =

| based_on = novel All on the Never-Never by Jack Lindsay{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1c7eCwAAQBAJ&q=live+now%2C+pay+later+1962+denis+gifford&pg=PA716|title=British Film Catalogue: Two Volume Set - The Fiction Film/The Non-Fiction Film|first=Denis|last=Gifford|date=1 April 2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317740636|via=Google Books}}

| narrator =

| starring = Ian Hendry
June Ritchie
John Gregson

| music = Ron Grainer

| cinematography = Jack Hildyard

| editing = Roger Cherrill

| studio = Woodland

| distributor = Regal Films International {{small|(UK)}}

| released = {{film date|df=y|1962|10|25|UK}}

| runtime = 104 minutes

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| budget =

| gross =

}}

Live Now, Pay Later is a 1962 British black-and-white comedy-drama film directed by Jay Lewis and starring Ian Hendry, June Ritchie and John Gregson.{{Cite web |title=Live Now, Pay Later |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150035225 |access-date=10 November 2023 |website=British Film Institute Collections Search}} It was loosely based on the 1961 novel All on the Never-Never by Jack Lindsay. However, the script was solely written by Jack Trevor Story, who subsequently authored the 1963 novel Live Now, Pay Later.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jacktrevorstory.com/new_page_47.htm|title=Live Now, Pay Later}}

The film focuses on the life of a salesman who habitually seduces his female customers in order to convince them to buy his products. He is secretly embezzling money from the sales, and has a side career as a blackmailer.

Plot

Unsavoury door-to-door salesman Albert Argyle's technique involves bedding his female customers in an attempt to seduce them to buy on credit. As well as being unfaithful to his pregnant girlfriend, the unrepentant Argyle is also cheating his boss out of profits, and trying his hand at a spot of blackmail.

Cast

Ian Hendry as Albert Argyle
June Ritchie as Treasure
John Gregson as Callendar
Liz Fraser as Joyce Corby
Geoffrey Keen as Reggie Corby
Jeanette Sterke as Grace
Peter Butterworth as Fred
Nyree Dawn Porter as Marjorie Mason
Ronald Howard as Cedric Mason
Harold Berens as Solly Cowell
Thelma Ruby as Hetty
Monte Landis as Arnold (credited as Monty Landis)
Kevin Brennan as Jackson
Malcolm Knight as Ratty
Bridget Armstrong as Gloria
Judith Furse as Mrs. Ackroyd (credited as Judith Furze)
Joan Heal as Mrs. Pocock
Michael Brennan as bailiff
Geoffrey Hibbert as Price
William Kendall as Major Simpkins
Georgina Cookson as Lucy
Justine Lord as Coral Wentworth
Andrew Cruickshank as vicar
John Wood as curate
Peter Bowles as Reginald Parker
Diana King as woman looking round flat
Robert Raglan as first bailiff on doorstep

Production

Filming locations included London, Elstree and Luton.

A version of the opening titles song "Live Now, Pay Later" (Clive Westlake, Ruth Batchelor) was released in 1963 as a single by Doug Sheldon (Decca 45-F 11529).{{Cite web |title=Live Now, Pay Later |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/2191352-Doug-Sheldon-Live-Now-Pay-Later |access-date=7 October 2023 |website=Discogs}}

Release

The only known print was discovered and made available on DVD in June 2020{{Cite web |title=Live Now, Pay Later |url=https://renownfilms.co.uk/product/live-now-pay-later-dvd-special-offer/ |access-date=7 October 2023 |website=Renown Films}} and has been shown on Talking Pictures TV.

Reception

Variety considered the film to have "many amusing moments, but overall it is untidy and does not develop the personalities of some of the main characters sufficiently. Extraneous situations are dragged in without helping the plot development overmuch."{{cite web |author= |date=31 December 1961 |title=Live Now, Pay Later |url=https://variety.com/1961/film/reviews/live-now-pay-later-1200420147/ |access-date=7 October 2023 |website=Variety |publisher=}}

Monthly Film Bulletin said: "It is the cheerful unpretentiousness of its social criticism which gives the film its rather endearing flavour. ... The unevenness in the acting and the perpetual uncertainty of mood indicates a lack of control in Jay Lewis's direction. Nevertheless his film is constantly entertaining, and it has both a conscience and a heart."{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1962 |title=Live Now, Pay Later |journal=Monthly Film Bulletin |volume=29 |issue=336 |pages=167–168}}

Leslie Halliwell opined: "A satirical farce which lets fly in too many directions at once and has a cumulatively cheerless effect despite some funny moments."{{Cite book |last=Halliwell |first=Leslie |title=Halliwell's Film Guide |publisher=Paladin |year=1989 |isbn=0-586-08894-6 |edition=7th |location=London |pages=607}}

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 5/5 stars, calling the film: "a remarkably cynical and revealing portrait of Britain shifting from postwar austerity into rampant consumerism and the Swinging Sixties. ... Hendry's character is appalling, yet he is also sympathetic since he's the only person who ever does anything in a society built on inertia and the sense of defeat that ony wartime victory can bring. "{{Cite book |title=Radio Times Guide to Films |publisher=Immediate Media Company |year=2017 |isbn=9780992936440 |edition=18th |location=London |pages=551}}

In Hollywood, England: British Film Industry in the Sixties Alexander Walker wrote: "The film's cynicism was total, its targets were ruthlessly demolished, and everything had the vigour of a cartoonist's world where the action is carried an instant beyond its naturalistic conclusion."{{Cite book |last=Walker |first=Alexander |title=Hollywood, England: British Film Industry in the Sixties |publisher=Michael Joseph |year=1974 |isbn=9780718108915 |pages=169}}