Tomorrow We Live

This is a ww2 drama made in 1943.

It is exactly my sort of film but I don't recall seeing it before I bought an expensive remastered blu ray.

I value the fact that I can buy remastered forgotten classics.

The blu ray comes with a 40 page booklet that claims the director is underrated,disagree there is a reason why his films are not well known,they are weak.

I can't buy Operation Secret or Cross Of Lorraine but somebody decided to issue this film? Crazy.

My god I can see why it is never on tv or why I don't remember it.

I am British,my parents used to groan when most British films came on tv when I was a kid.

I thought this was unfair and I love lots of British films from 1940s and 1950s.

But this film was not known to me and I miss I had not bought it without seeing it previously.

I a trying to not be negative but I can't find much to like about this film.

I have a high tolerance for war films but this disappointed me.

TOMORROW WE LIVE is an odd and obscure little wartime thriller that was made slap bang in the middle of WW2 when an Allied victory was hardly assured. Thus the film serves as something of a propaganda movie particularly in its depiction of the French resistance tirelessly fighting against the Nazi oppressors in occupied France. The movie was made with the cooperation of the Charles de Gaulle government (exiled in London at the time) and thus in itself serves as an important historical document of its time.

It's also a pretty good thriller and as with many resistance thrillers there's plenty of suspense inherent in the proceedings. While the settings and characters might scream 'ALLO 'ALLO a bit, there's an air of authenticity to the proceedings and a cast of actors all of whom give it their best in their roles. John Clements headlines as Jean Baptiste, a man desperately trying to avoid the Nazis and escape to Britain. Greta Gynt bags the most interesting part as the daughter of a loyal mayor with a few dark secrets of her own. The likes of Herbert Lom and Walter Gotell have little early career cameos. TOMORROW WE LIVE is the kind of film that just gets better as it goes on, building to a climax which is equally thrilling and moving.

Somewhat out of the blue this wartime resistance drama has recently surfaced on Movies4Men.It is one of numerous similar films made around the same time of the war eg Flemish Farm,Freedom Radio which purported to show to English audiences what it was like to live in Occupied Europe.One wonders at this remove what their purpose was.Were they just rousing adventure stories or were they meant to show to the English audiences just how beastly the Nazis were and how the occupied nations were resisting them.I suppose the one standout of this film is the performance of Yvonne Arnaud.She is truly head and shoulders above the rest of the cast.This film is reasonably entertaining and worth a viewing

What is striking in this film is the grim realism which makes a very authentic impression. You might object against the outrageous cruelties, and there are no small number of casualties here, but rarher a majority of all the actors. Still there are some breaths of fresh air, some puffs of good humour, some moments of humanity, but we have to remember that 1943 was perhaps the grimmest of the war years, and we who live so long afterwards can have no idea of how it really was, except by films such as this, made in the middle of horrendous crisis; and another idea to cheer it up could be that the leading actor John Clements actually looks like James Stewart, and James Stewart would have been perfect in the role. He never made any French parts except one, which was a failure, but John Clements is perfect as a Frenchman and could be a good replacement for James Stewart.

I have seen around 20 features by Edgar G. Ulmer, and this is perhaps the worst of the group. I saw very good films that surprised me, but among the not-too-good pack, even "The Naked Venus" has some redeeming value. There is nothing to do about this one. It is even unintenionally funny, as in the final confrontation between Pops and The Ghost (who goes nuts) or the "propaganda scene" the next morning. It somehow made me remember the resolution of Emilio Fernández's masterpiece "Enamorada", when aristocratic María Félix takes the "soldadera" route and decides to follow her lover and join the Mexican revolution. But there is no revolution in this one, just a silly mellow date in San Francisco, too sticky for Ulmer's cynic universe.