Les hommes de demain

A Nazi youth is taken in by his American uncle and his family.

As a kid, the movie scared the wits out of me. I was about the same age as Homeier, but he was so unlike any kid I'd ever seen, it was like an alien intrusion into familiar surroundings. It's certainly an electrifying performance. His authoritarian side is absolutely convincing, with the best heel-clicking this side of Konrad Veidt.

I suspect there's something of a post-war subtext to the film even though it was made in the war year of 1944. The big question posed by post-war planning and the movie is whether Nazis are reformable. That is, can a democracy succeed in a German nation where the Third Reich has sunk its roots. This was an important political question once it became apparent the Allies would win the war. In the movie, it's a question of whether the thoroughly indoctrinated Emil (Homeier) can be Americanized by the all-American Frame family. If he can't, then symbolically there will be great difficulty in de-Nazifying a post-war Germany. Anyway, I suggest this as something of a subtext to the movie as a whole.

It's a fine cast that creates a lively household, especially little Joan Carroll as Pat. Her energetic, forgiving spirit amounts to a persuasive contrast to the robotic Emil. For this now geezer, it was nostalgic revisiting the youth and fashions of the period (minus Emil, of course). Too bad Homeier never got the credit as an actor that he deserved. That's probably because he was so good at playing dislikable characters, as a succession of Westerns and crime films of the 1950's demonstrate. Here, he's practically the whole show, in a part that's unforgettable once you've seen it. I know it's been so for me.

Lately I've been wondering about TCM's rating system. This is the second time I've been burned by a bunch of stars next to a film. I think they need to relook at some of these movies.

"Tomorrow, the World!" is based on the Broadway play. The film stars Frederic March, Skippy Homeier, Betty Field, Agnes Moorhead and Joan Carroll. Skippy is Emil (recreating his Broadway role), a German boy who comes to America to live with a scientist, Mark Frame (March), his sister (Moorhead) and his daughter (Carroll) - she's the same age as Emil. Field plays Leona Richards, a schoolteacher who is engaged to Mark. Emil has been indoctrinated by the Nazis to hate and to be prejudiced and also to lie and manipulate. The fact that Leona is Jewish and that Mike's insecure sister seems uncomfortable about the marriage plays right into Emil's hands, as he doesn't want Leona around.

Skippy was Skip by the time I became aware of him, and he was always a very likable actor and for baby boomers, a constant television presence. This was my first exposure to him as a child. He was a beautiful young boy, with a mane of blondish hair and enormous eyes. "Tomorrow, the World!" a propaganda film directed with a sledgehammer, is his screen debut.

In the beginning I was suspicious that it might be a comedy due to Skippy's totally outrageous performance as a Hitler Jugend. For one thing, tiny Natalie Wood could have taught him something about German accents and speaking German - she was perfect in "Tomorrow is Forever." He says his lines in a sing-song voice, often sounding Swedish, sometimes American; only sometimes is there a hint of German, and he speaks German like an American. In the second part of the film, however, he's very effective, really showing what he can do acting-wise. It's just a shame he was directed as he was. In his faux nice moments, he comes off like a German Eddie Haskell or a male Patty McCormick - you just don't buy it.

The biggest bone I have to pick with this film is the stupid soap opera part, which is the argument between Leona and Mark. Mark for reasons known only to himself thinks that Emil is becoming nicer and more acclimated to the American way; Leona disagrees with him passionately and says she cannot live in the house with the boy, thus breaking their engagement. Mark feels she's being unreasonable. Now, if only she'd thought to mention that precious little Emil had written "Miss Richards is a Jewish tramp" on a bunch of sidewalks, Mark might have understood that Emil's attitude wasn't improving as rapidly as he thought. But she fails to mention this nugget of info.

The second part of the film is far superior to the first. March, Field, and Carroll are very good in their roles. I agree with several posters here that Skippy dominates the film, but that isn't always for the right reasons.

The ending is too pat - that often happens when you only have less than two hours to make a point and you've spent most of it talking about America and its strengths. I suspect "Tomorrow, the World!" had more impact in 1944, though it's hard for me to accept that anyone ever believed Herr Skippy in his sweet, friendly moments.

This is an entertaining and interesting film, as much for what it doesn't say as for what it does.

Our depiction of small town middle American life circa 1944 is wildly inaccurate and glorified, but this is not at all unusual in films of the era. World War II era audiences would have considered themselves morally superior to the Germans and had no argument with life as seen in "Tomorrow, the World!". In reality, however, it is unlikely that a Jewish woman would have been a teacher in a largely protestant public school, and even less likely that she would have entered into an interfaith marriage with the only protest being raised by a small foreign boy. And if one considers how the story would have played out had the character of Leona been black, she not only would have never been teaching in a white public school, but had she and Mike Frame sought to be married, there likely would have been a response from the community that involved a lynching and thus our moral superiority over the Germans is exposed as being more imagined than real.

None of which particularly ruins the film. It requires no greater suspended-disbelief than Superman or Dracula, and on its own merits this film is an enjoyable experience. However sanitized, small town 1940's America is a place one almost cannot help but to long for. And into this idealized world enters Emil, a character that at first comes on ludicrously overplayed, and yet pulls you in just the same. The audience quickly becomes concerned for what will happened to the Frame family, and the guilty pleasure of watching this pre-"Bad Seed" demon will keep you on the edge of your seat.. After what Emil does to Pat, the vigilante justice meted out by Pat's school-mates is shamelessly gratifying to see. Throughout the story one keeps secretly hoping for Emil's redemption, and it is the film's greatest drawback that it attempts to grant this wish in a quick and unrealistic throwaway end. This inadequately explored issue as well as the intriguing and thoroughly under-utilized subplot of Emil's manipulation of Jessie leave the distinct impression that someone demanded a great deal of running time be shaved off of this film.

"Tomorrow, the World!" still gets major points for at least attempting a subject matter few films of its era, outside of propaganda newsreels, would dare touch, and it's worth a watch.

"Tomorrow the World", the play in which this picture is based, was popular on Broadway during the WWII era. It was to expect it made it to the movies. Ring Lardner Jr, one of the best American writers of the time undertook the film adaptation aided by Leopold Atlas. Leslie Fenton, the director made the best of it.

An American family living in the midwest accept to house and care for a German youth whose father was friendly with the head of the household, Mike Frame, a widower, with a teen age daughter.

When Emil Bruckner arrives, he immediately makes a blunder when he describes his plane trip seated next to a fat Jew. Well, little does this little brat know that Mike is seeing a school teacher who happens to be Jewish. Leona Richards is the epitome of kindness and patience. So is Pat, the daughter who tries to show Emil around and help him make friends in her circle. Emil does everything possible to destroy this family that welcomed him into their home. Little by little he tries to get his way until everybody finds out this little boy is a bully and a coward.

The cast of this 1944 movie is headed by the great Frederic March, one of the icons of the American theater and the film industry. He plays the decent Mike Frame. Betty Field makes an impressive appearance as the kind Lee Richards. Agnes Moorehead, is also good as Aunt Jessie, who is charmed by the rotten Emil. Skip Homeier, repeating his theater role is remarkable as the young Nazi sympathizer who gets a lesson in how wrong he has been about his American hosts.

This is a movie that has a dated look, but still makes an impression because of the strength of the treatment it received from the writers and the director.

Tomorrow the World was the screen adaption of a Broadway play that ran a season or two previously. It's the story of an American family who adopts a kid over from Nazi Germany. Of course the kid comes over with all the attitudes instilled there from his time in the Hitler Youth. It's going to take a lot of deprogramming to straighten him out.

Skip Homeier repeated his role from the Broadway stage and made an electrifying debut. So much so that he overshadowed grownup stars Fredric March and Betty Field. March is his widower uncle and Betty Field is his fiancé who also is Homeier's teacher in public school.

Of course Homeier doesn't exactly make too many friends spouting all the party line he learned in the Hitler Youth. He's positively horrified to find out that he's going to be mixing with kids of all backgrounds that he's been taught are inferior.

Pretty much everyone gives up on Homeier save Joan Carroll who is March's daughter. Her scenes with Homeier are the best in the film.

Skip Homeier could never escape the typecasting after this movie. Even when he occasionally played good guys there was always an edge to them. No one would ever cast him as a hero. But he did well as a teenager and later as an adult. Fans today probably know him best as the mad leader of a futuristic hippie cult from an original Star Trek episode.

Fredric March might have been a bit miffed at being upstaged by a kid. But he had a second Oscar in his future in his very next film, The Best Years of Our Lives.

I think Father Flanagan in Boys Town would have had a handful dealing with Homeier, might have given his philosophy a quick review or he may have seen his thesis proved about they're being no such thing as a bad boy. It's all in how soon you get to them and whether the life programming patterns have taken root.