Sat Oct 27, 2012 12:01 pm
Nice production still. This is an excellent film for anyone wishing to mark Paramount Pictures' centennial by watching a variety of their key titles, and it's a shame it is so little-known. For those who may not have seen it, my review of the beautiful-looking Blu-ray released some time ago in Eureka's "Masters of Cinema" series is reprinted below from the "Old Movies in HD" thread.
MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (1937) **** 92m
Leo McCarey may be better remembered for films like THE AWFUL TRUTH, THE RUGGLES OF RED GAP, GOING MY WAY, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER, and his Laurel & Hardy silent shorts, but his favorite film was the decidedly less commercial but far more heartfelt character drama MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW. It’s a story even more timely today than it was in 1934 when the original novel (entitled “Years Are So Long”) was published, soon followed by a stage adaptation and then the film. What’s even more amazing is how it survived being turned into a Hollywood movie without being diluted into a sentimental, feel-good parable with an obligatory happy ending. This is especially noteworthy since it was made at a time when the movies celebrated family values and mutual support among family members, and largely provided escapism from the difficulties of economic depression or reassurance that things would eventually get better. Paramount’s reluctant release of the film caused a critical sensation, but predictably was a boxoffice failure.
The plot of MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW begins like any number of films, with a family of grown children with very different personalities reuniting at the picture-postcard home of their elderly parents. It seems as if it could easily develop into a screwball comedy, but very soon we realize something is wrong. The bank has foreclosed on the house and the children must suddenly decide how to handle the situation. We soon realize even further, that none of the five children is particularly able to bear the financial burden of having their parents move in with them, nor are any particularly enthusiastic about the prospect of having one or the other live with them for any length of time, disrupting their social lives and interfering with daily routines. We quickly see this realization on their faces and on the faces of the parents. And even though no less than Orson Welles once proclaimed it “the saddest film ever made” and declared it “could make a stone cry,” McCarey never lets the film turn into a heavy-handed sermon about heartless children and victimized senior citizens.
McCarey’s sensitive touch and the superlative cast of character actors allow the people to be believable individuals, each with his or her virtues and faults, each completely understanding of the situation yet each knowingly and stubbornly selfish in the face of it, with varying degrees of guilt. Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi give perhaps the performances of their careers as the elderly parents. Thomas Mitchell is outstanding, as usual, as the eldest son who is not proud of his siblings nor himself for their attitudes. Fay Bainter, Maurice Moscovich, Louise Beavers, and the rest of the cast, likewise give a depth to characters that could easily become stereotypes. Various subplots (such as escapades of the wild teenage daughter played by Barbara Read) might be the main focus of any other film, but here serve to make the story that much more textured.
Without casting any blame, the film dramatizes the effects of children being raised in a way that leaves them with a certain undeniable familial affection but little sense of personal duty. It depicts families that have grown apart and scattered across the country, a phenomenon gradually being felt since World War I and which would become the norm in the decades following World War II. And despite the uncomfortable pessimism about human nature, there are comic moments, and the film still celebrates the intense love of the parents for each other that has lasted through ups and downs for 50 years, and the innate decency of the average person, even a fast-talking car salesman (if perhaps more likely to be extended to strangers for a brief moment than to family members for an indefinite period). The film delivers plenty of food for thought and reflection on each of the characters’ motivations and past experiences.
The Blu-ray from Eureka’s “Masters of Cinema” series has a stunningly sharp and film-like HD transfer with good, solid sound (despite some very evident background hiss) in a lossless 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio track. Bonus features include a nice illustrated 36-page booklet with an insightful essay and a reprint of the original novel’s concluding paragraphs, quite different from the film but no less touching and just as devastating in a different way. On the disc itself there is sadly no audio commentary but there are two interesting 20-minute discussions about the film and McCarey, recorded originally for the Criterion Collection (and upscaled to 24p HD), as well as optional SDH English subtitles. Unfortunately while its price is surprisingly reasonable (about $21 including shipping from Europe, which is cheaper than Criterion’s DVD), Eureka’s release is encoded for Region B (and region 2 for the DVD also included in the package), so North American viewers will need a multi-region player to watch it. However, because of the fact it is region-locked there may yet be hope that Criterion could release it on Blu-ray in the future (as the transfer is obviously Criterion-quality and it’s doubtful copyright owner Universal would ever do it on its own).
MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW on Blu-ray –
Movie: A
Video: A+
Audio: A-
Extras: B
