Tomorrow Is Forever

Since the first time I saw this wonderful film on late-night TV, maybe 30 years ago, it has been my sentimental favorite. Every time I've seen it since, once a year on average, it's made me weep; not many films ever have this effect on me, even once. I simply don't understand why it isn't better known, not to mention better regarded. The touching story, fine direction, good score and superb acting add up to a great experience. For me, the performances by Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles are their most effective; hers ranks with her work in "Three Came Home" and "Since You Went Away," while his is even finer than in "The Stranger." Anyone who loves a good old-fashioned love story, sob story, multi-generational saga of the type Hollywood used to make so well should give this one a try.

Rather unsung, but worthwhile, this tear-jerking wartime drama will entrance some viewers while unintentionally amusing others. Colbert plays a young newlywed whose husband (Welles) goes off to fight in WWI. He is severely injured, refuses to come home to her (or even give his name to authorities) and is presumed dead. Pregnant and alone, she relies on her employer (Brent) and his aunt (Watson) and before long agrees to wed Brent, who is very much in love with her. Flash-forward twenty years and Colbert and Brent have two sons, the first one actually Welles', though this is kept secret. Welles, crippled, aged, bearded, wearing thick glasses and sporting an even thicker accent comes to town to work for Brent, never dreaming that his former wife is now Brent's spouse. Just as Colbert has finally found a degree of happiness and has nearly forgotten Welles, whom she loved deeply, WWII threatens to break out and her eldest son (Long) is eager to go and fight! The film details the questions, mysteries and miseries of Welles and Colbert as they encounter each other again after two decades. Unabashedly sentimental and heart-tugging, it is likely to please fans of tear-jerkers while causing the eyes of pragmatists to roll feverishly. Colbert is lovely and exceedingly good in her role. It's always distracting, in hindsight, to view Colbert's films and observe the way she refuses to allow herself to be shot from her right side, but she's not as bad about that here as in some other films. Welles is mercilessly hammy and is buried under some truly horrendous age makeup. He goes way overboard in virtually every area, yet somehow it works to the film's benefit! Brent, already one of the most wooden of actors, is made even more so by the presence of Welles, but it's a nice contrast. Long has a particularly good early role (even if he hadn't quite grown into his nose at this point!) He is given a strong, sizable role for an actor his age. The always-reliable and entertaining Watson gives solid support. One of the greatest things about the film, however, is the utterly adorable and memorably adept presence of Wood as Welles' adopted daughter. Impossibly articulate, inhumanly precious and achingly touching in her role as a war orphan, she is a thorough delight. It was her first major role and she handles it with surprising poise and assurance. Her older sister instructed her on how to cry during the film, suggesting that she recall a ghastly accident she had witnessed involving her dog being hit by a car. It's very poignant to see her dainty little fingers helping Welles unbutton his vest, knowing that her life would later end so tragically. Working alongside Welles no doubt helped prep her for her famed role opposite Edmund Gwenn in "Miracle of 34th Street" one year later.

This is a lot more than a simple melodrama. It has elements of fantasy like "It's a Wonderful Life" or "A Matter of Life and Death". Although the drama on the surface is possible, the coincidences are so improbable that one senses a moving hand and that things are not as they seem. The film takes on the sheen of a lucid dream. There are allegorical elements, for example, the little girl made an orphan by the Nazis and forced to flee. She stands for all suffering Europe in the shadow of that terrible war, which had just ended. One can simply accept the surface story, or dig deeper for its meaning. One thing is certain, there is no way a simple melodrama would carry such a feeling of emotional weight and genuine pathos, in the Greek sense.

The acting is wonderful. Orson Welles gives one of his great performances. It is so strange that one never hears of this film. I just happened to catch it on TCM and to say I was startled, would be an understatement.

This is why we love movies.

This excellent 1946 vehicle provides Orson Welles with a role that he is most sympathetic with. Married to Claudette Colbert in this film, he is soon declared missing and dead. Colbert quickly remarries a wealthy gentleman who is most sympathetic when this apparent tragedy strikes.

Fast forward 20 years. By chance, Colbert comes across Welles in a new disguise. This is all coming about as World War 11 will envelop Europe. It appears that Welles was not killed off during World War 1, but merely was missing and apparently suffering from amnesia.

The film becomes a heartbreak after this. Both Colbert and Welles really are conflicted here. She suspects that he realizes his true identity now and he realizes that the son she bore is his.

Both Colbert and Welles put on some very fine acting here in this film where you had better have plenty of handkerchiers available.

What a powerful story! So powerful to me, at least, that I have only watched it one other time and have little desire to see it again.....even though it's a fine movie. It's too frustrating a story for me, frankly. I could NOT have done what Orson Welles' character did in this film. Welles, by the way, is outstanding in here. He, Claudette Colbert, George Brent and Richard Long provide some wonderful acting.

Long, playing the elder son, presents a tremendous contrast of how a young man acted back in the 1940s compared to nowadays in terms of of respect and manners. The little girl in here is played by Natalie Wood. I wouldn't have known it was her had she not been mentioned on the back of the video box. She has blonde hair and is about five or six years old, and does an impressive job speaking German.

This is a real heart-rendering story. The only drawback is the credibility of Colbert's character, "Elizabeth Hamilton," the wife of Welles. A supposed war victim and gone for years after his marriage to her, Wells - despite now having a beard and aging a bit - would still be recognizable (at the least, audibly) to his former wife. It was asking a bit much to believe she wouldn't realize it was him, but it's still good storytelling and a film that hits you deeply. Speaking about the last point, if you liked 1942's "Random Harvest," you probably would like this, too.