Live Now Pay Later (1962) – Stills

The film paints a vivid, valuable picture of early-1960s credit boom Britain, when austerity had become prosperity — even if the world was still in black-and-white — and the masses were coming to terms with their newfound spending power and learning to live beyond their means, thanks to the miracle of hire purchase.

Screenplay by Jack Trevor Story

The origins of the film remain somewhat murky. Apparently, film-maker Jay Lewis began by asking the writer Jack Trevor Story — the man who provided the source novel for Hitchcock’s darkly droll The Trouble with Harry – to adapt for the screen a novel by one Jack Lindsay, entitled All on the Never-Never. The book focuses on a housewife who gets into debt and, rather than tell her husband, resorts to prostitution.

This somehow turned into a vaguely related scenario revolving around a cheeky, energetic, bed-hopping jack-the-lad of a door-to-door salesman — or “tally boy” — by the name of Albert Argyle.

Extract from Live Now Pay Later (1962)

Ian Hendry Albert Argyle
June Ritchie Treasure
John Gregson Callendar
Liz Fraser Joyce Corby
Geoffrey Keen Reggie Corby
Ronald Howard Cedric Mason
Judith Furse Mrs Ackroyd
Nyree Dawn Porter Marjorie Mason
Jay LewisDirector
Jack Hildyard Director Of Photography
Jack Trevor Story Screenwriter
Jack Hanbury Producer
Roger Cherrill Editor