It Happened Tomorrow

Reporter Dick Powell in the gaslight era of 1896 big city America would like to have the knowledge of the future. Well, think of all the scoops he could have on his job. Later on that evening another staffer on the paper John Philliber gives him a copy of tomorrow's evening addition. And for the next three days Powell's life is turned topsy turvy trying to take advantage of this most inside of information.

At this point in Dick Powell's career he was looking desperately to rejuvenate his career. His musical days were over, he left Warner Brothers, signed with Paramount looking for some straight acting parts, but Paramount mostly put him musicals and not as good as the ones he did with Warner Brothers.

Powell had scored some success in Preston Sturges's Christmas in July with no songs and he grabbed this one. He did well in the role here, but soon he'd change his screen image for all time later that year in Murder, My Sweet.

Exiled Rene Clair helmed this whimsical tale and got good results from his cast. Linda Darnell is as lovely as ever with her uncle Jack Oakie as a mind reading carnival act. And Edgar Kennedy does his patented slow burn as a police inspector who suspects the worst when Powell is scooping the police on some crime stories.

The plot has quite a few twists and turns and it would be a sin to give even one of them away. Powell and Darnell learn a most valuable lesson to take the future as it comes day by day. A little knowledge can indeed be a dangerous thing.

If you are a fan of the TV show "Early Edition" it should be noteworthy that it was based on the film "It Happened Tomorrow," director Rene Clair's 1944 fantasy follow-up to his own "I Married a Witch."

This early "Early Edition" is a classic film whose story is like one of the great "Twilight Zone" episodes complete with twists, irony and a lesson to be learned. In comparison to contemporary offerings it is nice to see a film that is both fun and intelligent. Though technically a drama, this film has plenty of comedy too.

One of my favorite actresses, Lynda Darnell ("Forever Amber"), co-stars along side Dick Powell and one of the great comedic side-kick actors of all time Jack Oakie. Comedy film buffs watch for Eddie Acuff (the mailman in the Blondie series) in an uncredited role.

There were many 'screwball comedies' in the 1930s and 1940s, and this film could probably be described as 'a comic screwball ghost film'. The French director Rene Clair evidently found it more convenient to be in America during the Nazi occupation of France, and this was a film which he shot there in English. I saw the DVD in a French issue, and the French subtitles did no justice at all to the racy colloquial English spoken in the film. Dick Powell, with his quirky laconic humour tinged with despondency (one imagines him going home after shooting to a lonely Scotch), is perfectly cast as a young journalist who wants to know tomorrow's news today. The old codger who kept the archives for the newspaper, eerily played by John Philliber, dies and comes back as a ghost to hand Powell the next day's paper in advance, and he does so several times. This leads to wildly incalculable results, including Powell being accused of murder and trying to escape his own murder of which he has read the report. Powell falls for the glamorous Linda Darnell, jealously protected by her uncle Jack Oakie, and there is a big tussle over her. It is all very lively and very jolly, and although it is not sophisticated, the implications are profound, as the nature of time is under serious consideration, however light-hearted the story may be. The film is adapted from a play by Lord Dunsany.

I first saw this film in the year of it's release in 1944 when I was 14 years old. I haven't seen it since I was in my early thirties and I am now in my middle seventies so perhaps I am viewing it through a rosy glow. I enjoyed Dick Powell as an actor once he got rid of playing in those silly musical films (42nd St type, etc)and rate this one a good comedy to compare at the side of his tougher vehicles like "Farewell My Lovely". His early death robbed the screen of an actor who hadn't yet fulfilled his potential. A pity there aren't more films like this one instead of the constant cycle of sex and violence with which the film industry is now preoccupied.

In the beginning of the Twentieth Century, Lawrence 'Larry' Stevens (Dick Powell) is an ambitious reporter of The Evening News. One day, he is celebrating with his colleagues and he tells his friend Pop Benson (John Philliber) that he would like to know the news in advance before it happens. While they are walking on the street, they see a poster of the clairvoyant Cigolini (Jack Oakie) and his gorgeous niece Sylvia Smith (Linda Darnell) and they decide to go to a theater to see the show.

Larry flirts with Sylvia and on his way back home, he overhears Pop on the street and the old man tells that he is waiting for him and gives a newspaper to him. Larry does not give much attention and puts the newspaper in the pocket of his jacket. On the next morning, he finds that the newspaper is an edition of the next day. Larry uses the information to scoop about a hold up in the opera house, becoming the prime suspect of Inspector Mulrooney (Edgar Kennedy). Larry dates Sylvia and Pop gives another edition of The Evening News of the next day. Larry becomes a successful reporter and is promoted and has a raise on his job. He plans to marry Sylvia and decides to find the winners of the horse race. But soon he also learns that he will die on the next day. Now he questions whether the future can be changed.

"It Happened Tomorrow" is a delightful and fantastic romantic comedy by René Clair. The plot is very funny and entertaining with a perfect combination of romance and comedy. Linda Darnell and Dick Powell have a stunning chemistry, and Jack Oakie is hilarious. The sequence when the gossipers see Sylvia breaking in her room through the external window dressed like a man and believe that she is having an affair is one of the funniest moments of this great film. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Tempo é Uma Ilusão" ("The Time is an Illusion")