Don't miss WHEN TOMORROW COMES (1939) on TCM

[TopBilled]

13 minutes ago, Vautrin said:

This was a weird animal. It began like a romantic comedy of the working class girl meets

eccentric rich guy variety and then turns into a rather overwrought melodrama, complete

with thunderstorm, followed by a flood. The downpour seems like it would never end.

Thank goodness it finally did. Barbara O'Neil gave the finale a little added oomph, but

it ends with a whimper. Charles Boyer does his sophisticated, soigne Frenchmen/European

thing again. He does it well, but it gets tiresome after you've seen it for the third or

fourth time. This has some promise but needs to be sent back to the garage for a major

overhaul. 

It's based on a James M. Cain short story called 'A Modern Cinderella.' Not sure how many liberties the screenwriter took, however.

[kingrat]

As Vautrin says, it's an odd screenplay that starts as a romantic comedy plus pro-union tract (very surprising for the time) then morphs into a romantic melodrama similar to Back Street, except that the heroine makes a different choice. I was reminded a bit of History Is Made at Night, which lurches from genre to genre even more than When Tomorrow Comes. 

Charles Boyer is excellent, and he and Irene Dunne have good chemistry. Dunne is saddled with some unbecoming clothes (puffy sleeves must have been "in" that year), and her hairstyle made me think of June Allyson. Barbara O'Neil had some good scenes as Boyer's mentally disturbed wife; she looks so much younger, prettier, and thinner without the hoop skirts of GWTW and All This, and Heaven Too.

June Allyson and Rossano Brazzi starred in the 1950s remake, Interlude, which is the weakest of the dozen or so Douglas Sirk films I've seen.

 

 

 

[Vautrin]

4 hours ago, TopBilled said:

It's based on a James M. Cain short story called 'A Modern Cinderella.' Not sure how many liberties the screenwriter took, however.

It would be interesting to read the story and see how if differs from the movie. As Ben mentioned, 

Cain sued because the screenwriter had taken some of the storm scene from another one of his

books though Cain lost his suit. I do give them credit for having a somewhat ambiguous

ending instead of having Barbara O'Neil commit suicide or get run over by a car.

[TopBilled]

12 hours ago, kingrat said:

As Vautrin says, it's an odd screenplay that starts as a romantic comedy plus pro-union tract (very surprising for the time) then morphs into a romantic melodrama similar to Back Street, except that the heroine makes a different choice. I was reminded a bit of History Is Made at Night, which lurches from genre to genre even more than When Tomorrow Comes. 

This is something I've been meaning to comment on...not only with regards to this movie, but I've seen these sorts of remarks in other threads.

I really don't see the problem with a film being multi-genre. In fact, I think it keeps a screenplay from becoming too formulaic and the story from becoming too predictable. Plus, different genres appeal to different viewers, so a studio can be assured of a wider audience for said film.

Somewhere along the way people got the idea that a film can only fit into one genre, which seems too limiting and quite frankly, a bit unrealistic. Characters will experience different moods, and stories should be allowed to take on different meanings as the movie unspools.

[lydecker]

22 hours ago, Vautrin said:

This was a weird animal. It began like a romantic comedy of the working class girl meets

eccentric rich guy variety and then turns into a rather overwrought melodrama, complete

with thunderstorm, followed by a flood. The downpour seems like it would never end.

Thank goodness it finally did. Barbara O'Neil gave the finale a little added oomph, but

it ends with a whimper. Charles Boyer does his sophisticated, soigne Frenchmen/European

thing again. He does it well, but it gets tiresome after you've seen it for the third or

fourth time. This has some promise but needs to be sent back to the garage for a major

overhaul. 

Yep.  I was looking forward to this but nothing happens in this movie until Barbara O'Neil appears. Endless Dunne-Boyer scenes in deserted (or near-deserted) spots while they emote.  I could not believe the end.  What a waste of time and I was so looking forward to this never-seen film.

[CinemaInternational]

I liked the film and stayed up to watch it and High Wide and handsome. I have to wonder if Columbia holds the rights to it today, despite being done at Universal. Columbia made the remake and the Screen Gems logo appeared at the end of the film.

[Vautrin]

4 hours ago, lydecker said:

Yep.  I was looking forward to this but nothing happens in this movie until Barbara O'Neil appears. Endless Dunne-Boyer scenes in deserted (or near-deserted) spots while they emote.  I could not believe the end.  What a waste of time and I was so looking forward to this never-seen film.

I guess it's partly how much of the stranded in a storm scenes one can take. To me they

last too long and drag the film down quite a bit in the middle. The late entrance of Barbara

O'Neil helps somewhat, but that can't salvage what went before. I think the kindest way to

think of this one is to call it a misfire.

[jamesjazzguitar]

2 hours ago, lydecker said:

Endless Dunne-Boyer scenes in deserted (or near-deserted) spots while they emote.

Even fine actors like these two,  with the chemistry they had, can't carry a film with that much emote!

 

[TopBilled]

They costarred in three films.

[Hibi]

It was an odd movie, but I liked it. Hard to believe this was based on a Cain story (bet it's quite different). I deliberately didnt read about the plot beforehand, as I wanted to be surprised. It starts out as a sort of Devil and Miss Jones, then midway it changes and goes off on another tangent. Did they ever go back to work? I can't remember now. Surprised the code was ok with that ending as it's made obvious Dunne will wait for him and intends to keep seeing him. I was wondering if Barbara O'Neil was ever going to show up! It was a bit disconcerting watching the patrician (and conservative) Dunne as a union organizer!  I recorded it to watch again down the road. The acting made up for gaps in the script.

[TopBilled]

This review was posted online after TCM aired the film:

"Love Affair proved so popular a film that Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne were reteamed in When Tomorrow Comes at Universal Pictures.

Dunne who is usually chic and stylish plays a cafe waitress who gets to wait on Charles Boyer. No one there including Dunne realizes he's a world famous concert pianist.

Dunne goes on strike as the waitresses get organized. Boyer courts her when she's not on the picket line. They have a nice romantic interlude on Long Island when a hurricane hits.

Boyer is keeping secrets from her like the fact he's already married to Barbara O'Neil who has some mental issues.

There's a choice to be made by both of them that's obvious. What they do is for you to watch the film for.

Both keep up the same romantic standard set in Love Affair. When Tomorrow Comes won an Oscar for Sound Recording. Fans of the stars will approve."

[TopBilled]

I should mention the above review, which I quoted, is from IMDb user bkoganbing who writes a truckload of reviews on that website, most of them quite good. So credit where it is due.

I like how he suggests the movie was made for Dunne-Boyer fans. Like nobody else's opinion matters, except fans of those two.

[rosebette]

I saw this one the other night and TCM On Demand, and while it's not the great classic that Love Affair is, When Tomorrow Comes certainly has its charm.  I'm not too concerned about the genre shift, which happens in Love Affair, too,  since that one moves from light romantic comedy to serious romance to tragedy.  I enjoyed the union stuff at the beginning, and I liked the storm bit, which is both emblematic of their emotions, but also turns a bit comic in the flooded church where they wake up.  I also liked the fact that it didn't have a "pat" ending.  The ending actually reminded me a bit of Now Voyager, which also features two people who love each other, but with the man's marriage being the obstacle.  I love the chemistry between Dunne and Boyer -- I don't find him tiresome at all.

[TopBilled]

7 minutes ago, rosebette said:

I saw this one the other night and TCM On Demand, and while it's not the great classic that Love Affair is, When Tomorrow Comes certainly has its charm.  I'm not too concerned about the genre shift, which happens in Love Affair, too,  since that one moves from light romantic comedy to serious romance to tragedy.  I enjoyed the union stuff at the beginning, and I liked the storm bit, which is both emblematic of their emotions, but also turns a bit comic in the flooded church where they wake up.  I also liked the fact that it didn't have a "pat" ending.  The ending actually reminded me a bit of Now Voyager, which also features two people who love each other, but with the man's marriage being the obstacle.  I love the chemistry between Dunne and Boyer -- I don't find him tiresome at all.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Lovely.

It would great if TCM could re-air this film with LOVE AFFAIR and TOGETHER AGAIN. Make a primetime triple feature for fans of Dunne and Boyer.

[rosebette]

59 minutes ago, TopBilled said:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Lovely.

It would great if TCM could re-air this film with LOVE AFFAIR and TOGETHER AGAIN. Make a primetime triple feature for fans of Dunne and Boyer.

But get a better print!

[Swithin]

Sorry I missed it, I was out of the country. When Tomorrow Comes (as Interlude) is one of the three John M. Stahl films (along with Magnificent Obsession and Imitation of Life) that were remade by Douglas Sirk in the 1950s. It would be interesting to have a day of all six films.