Кейіккен көз жас (Keikennen köz jas)

1949 film by Byron Haskin

Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times conceded that Scott "gives the role everything she does have with a growling, unvarying intensity," but felt that overall the film was "a routine specimen of crime melodrama." A review published by the Spokane Chronicle described the film as "dramatic and tragic" and "an action packed film which has its good moments." Alternately, a reviewer for the Detroit Free Press was unimpressed by Scott's performance, writing: "She produces a characterization which is without explanation or belief  Miss Scott appears terribly tired in the film. Her acting has the same quality. All of which leaves what should have been an exciting movie in a somewhat rundown condition." Film critic Dennis Schwartz in 2005 wrote a favorable review:
Byron Haskin's low budget film noir makes good use of its Los Angeles locale and its lady bluebeard is fun to watch as she does her nasty gun thing with her nice guy hubby and rotten poison thing with her boyfriend (she took care of her first hubby off camera, so we're not sure how he got it!) Though a minor film noir, it relates to the ambitions the middle class had during the postwar period to better their life materially and socially. Jane's drive for wealth was so extreme that she will not stop at murder to rise above her impoverished middle class circumstances, and her warped character is used to show how money can't buy one happiness. The husky voiced winsome smiling Lizabeth Scott turns in a finely tuned performance as the femme fatale; while Dan Duryea is in his element as the alcoholic weak kneed cad, who shows he doesn't have as much stomach for his criminal mischief as does his lady accomplice. as of May 2023, the film holds a 100% approval rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on five critical reviews.

Too Late for Tears fell in the public domain in the decades after its release, owing to the dissolution of its corporate holders who failed to renew its copyright. The original camera negatives were subsequently lost. The Film Noir Foundation, dedicated to preserving film noirs, had sought to restore the film since its inception in 2006, but were unable to locate quality prints. The restoration entailed the use of both the French 35 mm print (bearing the French language title, Le Tigresse), as well as an American 35 mm print from 1955, when the film was re released bearing the alternate title Killer Bait. The film's closing titles also had to be reconstructed using the same method. The following month, British distributor Arrow Films released the restored print in a DVD and Blu ray set through their Arrow Academy label.

Scott's performance in the film is regarded by several critics as among her best work. Her femme fatale character in the film has been noted as one of the most merciless and avaricious in film noir, and marked a departure from her previous performances in Pitfall (1948), which featured elements of character vulnerability. Film scholar Fabio Vighi notes in Critical Theory and Film: Rethinking Ideology Through Film Noir that, "Like few other femmes, she appears unstoppable, ready to do anything to achieve her object." Interviewed in 2001, Scott commented on the role: "Obviously, there was a softness and an inordinate amount of feminine qualities in [the character]   When a woman like this is corrupted, she would surrender to that corruption. Money would become her delight and her total obsession, and she would then kill for it." Too Late for Tears has developed a cult following in the decades since its original release. Todd Weiner of the UCLA Film & Television Archive wrote upon the film's 2016 Blu ray release: "Modern audiences now recognize it as a darkly satisfying and atmospheric meditation on the covetous societal and materialistic ambitions of postwar middle class America." Film critic and writer Eddie Muller cites the film as "The best un known American film noir of the classic era."