Tomorrow We Live

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of the Charles de Gaulle government (exiled in London at the time) and thus in itself serves as an important historical document of its time.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.

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.

One's first thoughts are how clichéd this film is. But then you realise, as with Shakespeare, that the characters and situations only became clichés because of the constant copying of the theme in subsequent movies. Whereas things appear to fall into the hero's lap as per usual, the action is, at times, surprisingly realistic. A female collaborator is viciously slapped about by the SS and later gunned down by the Resistance. In turn two German officers are shot in the back without compassion and in retaliation fifty hostages are rounded up and shot. Thankfully off-screen. However in the midst of all of this is a hilarious scene in a cinema when the French clientele,at being subjected to a newsreel of Hitler, begin catcalling and making shadows on the screen. These include a V-sign, a fist punching Hitler in the face, and fingers tugging at the Furher's hair. All in all an enjoyable propaganda film

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

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.