Al di là del domani

I found this film when I received a catalog from Alpha Video advertising it. The film (properly called Beyond Tomorrow) sounded interesting, so I ordered it. This is a perfectly charming story from classic Hollywood which explores human emotion on a fairly deep level. Here is an unsung holiday film which is different. A B-list cast to be sure, but the players here are at their best and create unforgettable characters. This will bring a tear to your eye and a lump to your throat unless you are a true Scrooge. The film quality is what you'd expect from Alpha. An unrestored 16mm print, but very viewable and at 84 minutes, it is preferred to the colorized version which is 5 minutes shorter for no reason that makes any sense. I've not seen this version, but the cuts generate some continuity issues from what I've read. This is available very inexpensively from a variety of public-domain companies. If you like classic Hollywood, this belongs in your collection.

How is it possible that I have never seen (or heard of) this movie before?! Thanks to TCM I was able to check it out and I must say - this should be a holiday tradition, shown on TV as regularly as "It's A Wonderful Life". Although it's not quite up to that level of classic perfection, "Beyond Tomorrow" gives one a similarly uplifting feeling. The ending makes you feel glad to be alive...and less afraid of death.

I won't give away the story - just watch. Some may say it's naive and sentimental, but I feel sorry for anyone who's such a hard-hearted cynic (and what are you doing watching Christmas movies anyway?) So many movies try to be "heartwarming" and fail, coming off as phoney and emotionally manipulative. It's good to see one as sincere and genuinely moving as this one.

It's a shame the print isn't better quality, despite some recent restoration work. How such a great film could be allowed to deteriorate, I'll never understand. It's especially shameful when you think of how many other, older movies are in better shape. I hope the TCM print gets released on DVD, since it seems to be an improvement over the cheapie DVDs out there. This film deserves to be better known, and should be preserved so that it can be seen...beyond tomorrow.

I really wanted to see Maria Oupenskaya, a Russian American actress, who trained Ruth White among others. Tragically she died in a fire. This film is the first I was able to see. Back in the studio system days, films like this were done quickly and more efficiently. If anything, the quality of writing isn't great. Still the cast do a terrific job with the script. The Christmas dinner and party was delightful to watch. The tragic loss of the three elderly wealthy men who return as spirits who guide the young honest couple back to each other. The film might have quality issues with the DVD. Still the film is worth seeing at least once and should be aired around the Christmas holidays.

Beyond Tomorrow is a film that should be considered a Christmas classic, but sadly is film which has slipped through the cracks. This film began production in 1939 at General Service Studios which was rented out by Academy Productions, Inc. The film was released in May 1940, certainly not during the Christmas season. The film was distributed by RKO. This film was considered to be a second feature, or B picture. The cast, which are excellent in the roles, are all supporting players in other films, but here they are given the lead. This film was known as an "orphan" film. The copyright on this film was allowed to expire when Academy Productions went out of business. Because this film didn't have major stars in it, the film was not widely replayed during the Christmas season, except in smaller local markets. Interestingly, "It's A Wonderful Life" really only became the classic film it is, because it too slipped into the public domain, and repeated TV viewings around the holidays insured that film would become a classic.

In the age of DVDs "Beyond Tomorrow" would soon find a new life, and would appear on any of a number of DVDs from various film studios. Most of these DVDs, regardless of price, would use the same source material, mainly the print stored at the Library of Congress as part of it's copyright deposit collection. The film print that most people are used to is very dark, with cuts and splices throughout.

In 2005 the film was put out in a colorized verison on DVD. The distributer of the film is listed as 20th Century Fox, however the film was colorized by a different company. The colorization, though a major improvement over techniques used in the 1980s, still has its limitations. The color is muddy, very unrealistic, and even distracting. The print that they colorized, while a different print then the ones used on most other DVD releases of this film, was still poor, and that is reflected in the colorized version. Additionally several short scenes were cut from the color verison, but these scenes are included as "deleted scenes" on the DVD. Had these scenes been left in the film the movie would have made a bit better sense.

Fox Home Entertainment has once again attempted to improve upon a classic. Last year it was THE GREAT RUPERT, which the studio decided to colorize and release under the title THE Christmas WISH. (Fortunately, the B&W original--with the new title, alas--was included as a bonus.) Now, BEYOND TOMORROW gets similar treatment. However, in addition to colorizing and retitling the film (BEYOND Christmas), the company has also chopped out about 5 minutes of material from the movie. (Made even more obvious by the fact that the footage shows up on TV and on all previous VHS & DVD versions, including the bargain bin copies.) Granted, they include the material in the Extras as "deleted footage," but that only begs the question, "What was the point of deleting it at this time, to begin with?" Some of the deletions, such as the sequence where Arlene Terry's ex-boyfriend clashes with her new leading man, destroy the emotional impact of the showdown between the two men and Arlene during the film's finale. To first-time viewers unfamiliar with the film, the jilted lover's appearance at the end comes almost out of the blue, causing confusion as to who he is. In spite of these alterations/deletions, the box proudly announces the film is fully restored. Sorry, Fox, but the term "restoration" does NOT mean alteration or condensation. (For those wanting to see the complete film as it was meant to be seen, check out the VCI DVD.) And with the various advances in such technology, it is amazing to see how artificial the colorization still looks, at least on this film. (To this day, perhaps the most realistic colorization remains the process used on select episodes of Walt Disney's ZORRO TV series from the 1950s. If colorization is a process that has to still be practiced, then it needs to be perfected. There is no excuse for the color quality on this, especially considering how long ago it was that Disney colorized ZORRO and some of the early Mickey Mouse shorts, to convincing effect.) On a more positive note, however, the Fox release does include some vintage theatrical Christmas shorts, such as Bob Hope and Bette Davis pitching Christmas Seals.