Live Now – Pay Later **** (1962, Ian Hendry, Liz Fraser, June Ritchie, John Gregson) – Classic Movie Review 1,480

‘There’s 200,000 consumers in this town, and they’re all waiting for you… just you.’ – Mr Callendar (John Gregson).

‘Yeah, to con ’em into buying a whole load of stuff they don’t need and can’t afford.’ – Albert (Ian Hendry).

Director Jay Lewis’s neglected little gem of a 1962 British black-and-white drama Live Now – Pay Later stars Ian Hendry as anti-hero Albert Argyll, a door-to-door salesman for Callendar’s Credit Stores. He has the gift of the gab and can soon con housewives into buying goods they don’t need and can’t afford on hire purchase, particularly the dizzy, desperate Joyce Corby (played by Liz Fraser), wife of an ambitious, uncaring local councillor Reggie Corby (Geoffrey Keen). 

Albert’s motor-mouth skills get him into bed with every woman, married or unmarried, he meets. But he just can’t make a go of the one relationship he’d love to, with his relatively steady girlfriend Treasure (June Ritchie).

Based on Jack Lindsay’s 1961 novel All on the Never-Never, this is a fascinating exploration of the underbelly of the early 60s when the British people were told ‘you’d never had it so good’ but, with this emphasis on consumerism and spending, the reality was sometimes far different as ordinary folks over-extended themselves into terrible debt.

Live Now – Pay Later (1962, Ian Hendry).

Unfortunately, Live Now – Pay Later has an unnecessary blackmail plot that seems a bit commonplace and it is not a particularly imaginatively made or outstandingly well crafted film. Perhaps it needed one of the great new wave directors to helm it. Yet, nevertheless, Jay Lewis doesn’t let it down, either.

The characters, ideas, situations and the early 1960s details are all fascinating, and the film is valuable for its grittily realistic portrait of the British 60s suburbia and for the admirable acting from a fine ensemble. The largely underrated or forgotten actors and their performances prove quite special.

Charmingly slimy, slick and persuasive, Hendry is excellent in the star role, effortlessly inhabiting his Alfie-style role and carrying the film. Fraser is the film’s other success in a serious role a long way from her usual busty comedy parts. She is very credible and touching as the dim beauty Joyce taking elocution lessons for her husband’s sake, while getting up to her neck in debt.

June Ritchie oozes allure and easy appeal, even going topless in her morning bathtub. She was the first actress to go topless in a major British film – in John Schlesinger’s A Kind of Loving, released earlier in 1962. Geoffrey Keen is chillingly credible as Joyce’s irascible husband, and John Gregson also impresses as Albert’s boss Mr Callendar.

Peter Butterworth, Jeannette Sterke, Thelma Ruby, Andrew Cruickshank, Ronald Howard, Judith Furse, Monte Landis [Monty Landis], Nyree Dawn Porter, Justine Lord, Bridget Armstrong, Peter Bowles and John Wood are in the strong cast.

It is shot in London, Elstree and Luton.

Jack Trevor Story makes a very good job of adapting the screenplay from Jack Lindsay’s novel. The screenplay is only loosely based on the novel and it was solely written by Jack Trevor Story, so that unusually he was able to publish it afterwards as a novel called Live Now, Pay Later in 1963.

Born on March 30 1917 in Hertfordshire, Story was best known for Hitchcock’s The Trouble with Harry (1955), Postman’s Knock (1962) and Live Now – Pay Later (1962). He died on December 5 1991 in Milton Keynes.

The film was a hit and its catchy title summed up its era so neatly that it went into the popular parlance of the day. 

There was even a spinoff single record. The opening titles song ‘Live Now, Pay Later’ (Clive Westlake, Ruth Batchelor) was released in 1963 as a single by Doug Sheldon.

Jay Lewis only made one more film – the silent comedy A Home of Your Own (1964) with Ronnie Barker – before his death on 4 June 1969, aged 55, in London. He made only five films in total, and this one is easily the most memorable.

It is the credited feature film debut of Peter Bowles (16 October 1936 – 17 March 2022).

Its survival was a close thing. The only known print was discovered and released on DVD in June 2020 and is shown on Talking Pictures TV.

The cast are 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 (billed as Monty Landis) as Arnold, Kevin Brennan as Jackson, Malcolm Knight as Ratty, Bridget Armstrong as Gloria, Judith Furse (billed as Judith Furze) as Mrs. Ackroyd, 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, and Robert Raglan as first bailiff on doorstep.

Live Now – Pay Later is directed by Jay Lewis, runs 104 minutes, is made by Woodland, is released by Regal Films International (UK), is written by Jack Trevor Story, based on the novel All on the Never-Never by Jack Lindsay, is produced by Jack Hanbury, is shot by Jack Hildyard, is scored by Ron Grainer

Release date: 25 October 1962 (UK)..

Jay Lewis’s films as director: A Home of Your Own (1964) (also writer), Live Now, Pay Later (1962), Invasion Quartet (1961) The Baby and the Battleship (1956) (also writer and producer), and Queen’s Messengers (1941) (also producer).

Jay Lewis’s films as producer: Front Page Story (1954) (also writer) and Morning Departure (1950).

In 1961 Ian Hendry was cast as Dr David Keel in the TV series The Avengers, co-starring Patrick Macnee as John Steed. When the first season production was hit by a strike, Hendry quit to begin a film career (though the show continued with Macnee as star). Hendry had lead roles in several films; Live Now, Pay Later (1962), Girl in the Headlines (1963), The Hill (1965), Repulsion (1965), Doppelgänger (1969), and Get Carter (1971). His last part was as a corrupt policeman in McVicar (1980).

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1,480

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