Live Now - Pay Later (1962) User Reviews

Hendry's charmer ahead of his time!

[id247 · 8/10 · 9 February 2005]

Ian Hendry plays Albert, a cheeky, womanising, door-to door salesman, with a never-take-no-for-an-answer attitude, who lives his life for the moment, and with no thought of his future, or the consequences of his actions on the people he encounters.

Albert's patter, and his way with the ladies, is very reminiscent of Michael Caine's Alfie, made four years after Live Now Pay Later of course, a point not lost on Hendry later on his career, who often joked about life's irony that it was Alfie of course that went on to become a commercial hit, and made Caine an international star, whereas Hendry's film just got lost in B picture heaven!

Hendry also auditioned, and lost, against Caine for the part of Lt Bromhead in Zulu, but they finally got together on screen in 1971 in Get Carter!

It's not fair to compare Live Now Pay Later with Alfie, personally I like both films very much, but when you've seen both characters in full swing, you do see Hendry's point:)

I Met Hendry In A Pub Too

[malcolmgsw · 7/10 · 11 June 2011]

One evening many years ago i went into the long vanished Prince Albert pub in Golders Green Road.There swaying unsteadily was Ian Hendry looking very much the worse for wear and obviously drunk,offering to serve me.His career by that time was on the way down the drain to a great extent because of this drinking habit.Such a shame as he clearly had a lot of talent as shown by this film.What his career might have amounted to if he had been given some of the parts he was turned down for is now just conjecture.This is a very enjoyable film with lots of sparkling performances from familiar faces.With regard to the topless bath scene i wonder whether the version circulating was the continental version.Film directors would usually shoot 2 versions of such scenes.One more chaste for the British censor to approve,without any nudity,and one for the continent where it could all hang out !

"You've got a nasty streak of honesty"

[boblipton · 7/10 · 30 August 2019]

Ian Hendry is a tallyman. That's the fellow who sells you something on credit, with nothing down and just a little to pay each week. He's very good at his job, charming and energetic, with all the tricks at what is nowadays called upselling, with a sideline in seduction. The problem is that things are beginning to fall apart for him. June Ritchie, the girlfriend, whom he moved out on months ago, has just given birth to their daughter, and he knows he wants her and them, but he can't turn off the sales pitch.

Ian Hendry gives a great performance as the profligate salesman, who finds that you can buy anything you want, but if you don't make the payments, they can repossess, well, everything: the goods, your happiness, your life, even your immortal soul. What starts out as a comedy seamlessly turns into tragedy without Hendry noticing, and a savage satire of materialism and the credit philosophy. More than half a century later, it still stings.

Underrated Actors In An Undiscovered Classic

[marqymarqy · 10 September 2012]

Ian Hendry stars as Albert Argyll, a door to door salesman with the gift of the gab – not only able to sell goods that people don't need to people who don't need them on hire purchase – but also bed every woman, married or unmarried, who makes his acquaintance. Do we envy him – well no, not really – because he can't sustain the one relationship he would most like to: that with steady girlfriend Treasure (June Ritchie). June Ritchie is one of those sad assets of film – a page three girl born thirty years too soon - (alternatively, was The Sun's page three 30 years too late?) June appears here topless in her morning bathtub in the squat she shares with boyfriend Hendry – a steamy scene because of the hot water which should have been steamier but couldn't be as the result would have been hot water for the distributors – let's not forget this old corker of a film came out in 1962. A good sub-plot involves the magnificent Geoffrey Keen – an actor so good he's totally believable in any role - be it sympathetic, hardnosed or irascible – and wife Liz Fraser (what price to have seen her topless?) in a horrific marriage of inconvenience played out for her financial security and his social kudos ending in her panic induced death. John Gregson's over indulgent toupee rather lets the side down. Watch this film and witness guilt-free chain smoking – from a time when it was still a pastime not a life threatening habit – but just think – only 11 years after this film was released all UK cigarette packets would carry health warnings. It's almost impossible this has never been released on VHS or DVD. It was last broadcast in 1996 on Channel 4 in the UK

Social snapshot

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 16 October 2022]

LIVE NOW - PAY LATER is an interesting little slice of social milieu and one of those British social dramas that acts like a snapshot of its era, very similar to the kitchen sink or angry young man genres that were topping the box office at the time. This one's about the changing financial face of the country post-WW2 and the growth of credit and what it could do to people. Anyone who's a fan of the bailiff documentaries that are popular on TV in the 21st century will find much of interest here, while others will just enjoy the wealth of acting talent including Ian Hendry in his glory days and the likes of Gregson, Fraser and even Peter Butterworth as solid support.

"What you don't see you'll never miss!"

[ShadeGrenade · 10/10 · 30 April 2009]

Ian Hendry shot to fame as the star of the first series of 'The Avengers' in which he played crime busting 'Dr.David Keel', with Patrick Macnee as his sidekick 'John Steed'. He then left to pursue a career in film, leaving Macnee to assume star status in the show ( which became an international hit ).

Hendry made several films, of which 'Live Now - Pay Later' was one. In it, he played 'Albert Argyll', a door-to-door salesman for 'Callendar's Credit Stores'. Slick, quick-witted, irresistible to women, this man could sell anything to anybody. As a bonus, he gets to sleep with some of his customers. Indeed early on in the film one of them, called 'Treasure' ( June Ritchie ) turns up at the shop, demanding to see Albert. He has run out on her, leaving her to bring up a child born out of wedlock, as well making her responsible for a mass of bills. He is out on his rounds, so she vents her anger by wrecking the shop.

As the film progresses, her anger subsides and she and Albert once more become an item. When he is promoted to manager, he takes her to the shop and they fool around using the goods ( Albert does a stunningly brilliant 'Charlie Chaplin' impression at one point ). But he bites off more than he chew, and his boss Mr.Callendar ( John Gregson ) demotes him back to salesman.

Treasure goes off Albert too, leaving him alone once more. But is he downhearted? Is he heck? As the movie ends, he once is out and about ( he has a habit of jumping out of his van while it is still moving ) and working his charm on a new customer, called Coral ( Justine Lord ).

Another reviewer has rightly commented on the similarity between Hendry's 'Albert' and Michael Caine's 'Alfie'. I have always believed that Hendry deserved greater success than he ultimately got - he should have been up there with Oliver Reed and Richard Harris and Stanley Baker as a major international star. He had the talent. He just never found the right role ( like Reed and Harris he also had a terrible drink problem. My late father-in-law once told me Hendry came into his local pub one afternoon, and stood a round ), becoming instead a supporting star, albeit a good one, appearing in 'The Hill' ( opposite Sean Connery ), 'Get Carter' ( opposite Michael Caine ), 'The Internecine Project' ( opposite James Coburn ) and my favourite Vincent Price picture - 'Theatre Of Blood'. In all these films he was marvellous.

June Ritchie, who plays 'Treasure', holds the distinction of being the first topless woman in a major British film - John Schlesinger's 'A Kind Of Loving', also made in 1962. She was also the second topless woman in a major British film, as she takes a bath in Albert's flat. She too was tipped for stardom, which never materialised.

All British films of these period seemed to have wonderful supporting casts, and this one is no exception - Nyree Dawn Porter, Geoffrey Keen, Peter Butterworth, Bridget Armstrong, Jeannette Sterke, and an early sighting of Peter Bowles.

Particularly impressive is Liz Fraser as 'Joyce Corby', wife of an ambitious Councillor. She is up to her neck in debt and when the bailiffs come knocking, flees from the house in terror - only to get knocked down and killed. For anyone accustomed to her bubbly roles in the 'Carry On' series, it is quite shocking stuff.

Writer Jack Trevor Story and Jay Lewis had earlier collaborated on a dire wartime comedy starring Bill Travers and Spike Milligan called 'Invasion Quartet', so it makes this film's quality all the more surprising. Lewis only made one more film after this - the silent comedy 'A Home Of Your Own' with Ronnie Barker - before his death in 1969.

So this works both as a cautionary tale of the dangers of getting heavily into debt, and a comedy with charming acting from the leads. It really deserves an official D.V.D. release.

Jack the Lad, Spiv, or just plain unscrupulous.

[crumpytv · 4/10 · 18 October 2022]

Albert is a cheerful, unscrupulous "tally-man", a door-to-door salesman who cons housewives into buying things they don't need on the instalment plan. He's happy - until he begins to fall in love.

Albert's falling in love is never convincing, and so it proved. This is a rather tawdry tale of a man who cons himself, and everybody else, through life.

He talks the unsuspecting into living on credit, "only pay a shilling in the pound ... each week".

Living on tick, hire-purchase, the never-never was a forerunner to the credit card society we live in today, except the bailiffs would be round to repossess your items of desire if you couldn't keep up the payments.

Albert has at least three women on the go, and three families he barely owns up to. He is a nasty character, although I think he was meant to be seen as a loveable rogue.

There is a top notch cast of familiar faces, many who went on to do better things than this.

A gem from a mostly forgotten era.

[plan99 · 10/10 · 7 June 2023]

Ian Hendry never quite got the recognition he deserved and he's very good in this film, as is everyone else in it. His character takes full advantage of the consumer boom of the times when people wanted the latest gadgets but did not have the cash to pay the full amount required. Of great historical interest on top of being a film that's very well worth watching. I did spot Peter Bowles in a smallish part. There was probably a few real "tally men" like Hendry's character back in the day, there was of course agents from "The Provvy" who collected insurance premiums on a weekly basis on doorsteps. They are still around, The Provident that is not the collectors.