Les hommes de demain

"Tomorrow the World" is a thought provoking film about an American family who adopts a troubled German boy after the war. Together they try to undo the ridgid Nazi influence that was instilled in him (which is no easy feat). Leslie Fenton directs a first rate cast including Fredric March, Betty Field, Agnes Moorehead and Joan Carroll. However it is Skip Homeier as the Nazi youth who steals the picture with an electrifying performance. The film is available on video and DVD.

Based on a play, the movie tells the story of an American family that adopts an orphaned German relative before the end of WWII. To their horror, the boy is a Hitler Youth who spouts anti-semitic rhetoric and boasts of Germany's ultimate victory (Tomorrow the World!). Fredric March gives his usual wonderful performance as the uncle, Agnes Moorehead is once again convincing as the maiden aunt lacking self-confidence, and Betty Field is great as the intelligent school teacher/fiancee who tries hard to understand the boy. The real treat here is Joan Carroll, who plays March's young daughter with such charm and ease that she just lights up every scene she's in.

Some dialog contributed by Ring Lardner, Jr., whose characteristic crackle is most welcome in what could be a preach-a-thon.

An obviously cheaply-made film version of the long-running Broadway hit that that was one of several films made during the War addressing the vexed question of just what was to be done with the Germans once the War was over.

It preserves for posterity the young 'Skippy' Homeier's extraordinary performance as Emil Bruckner, a feral eleven year-old Hitler Youth who just turns up in a small town in wartime America without attracting any attention on the part of the authorities. There is also a memorable performance by Joan Carroll as the host family's perky young daughter, but it's strange to see an actor of Fredric March's stature taking such a back seat to the proceedings as her father. Although we're told that the still young and glamorous Betty Field - who is both a teacher at the local school and March's fiancée - is Jewish, this element isn't developed and the fact that she's supposed to be Jewish is seldom referred to - even by Emil.

Recalling Frank Borzage's 'No Greater Glory' (1934) and anticipating 'Frieda' (1947) and 'The Bad Seed' (1956), parts are quite amusing - possibly intentionally - others extremely shocking; and the writers plainly didn't know how to end the thing. (An interesting version could be made today with the young kid a Middle Eastern refugee...)

...based on a Pulitzer-prize winning (!!!) play, from United Artists and director Leslie Fenton. Fredric March stars as Mike Frame, a small-town American who is taking charge of an orphaned relative, 13-year-old German boy Emil (Skip Homeier). Mike, his sister Jessie (Agnes Moorehead), young cousin Pat (Joan Carroll), and Mike's fiancee Leona (Betty Field) welcome the boy into their home but are shocked and appalled by his Hitler Youth sensibilities, including vocal antisemitism, anti-American sentiments and a desire to continue the German cause in any way possible. Emil's attitude naturally leads to trouble both at home and in school, with things coming to a violent conclusion. Also featuring Edit Angold, and Rudy Wissler.

I called this hysterical and it is, in both senses of the word. Emil is depicted as such an extreme exaggerated caricature that he becomes an object of unintended hilarity. Homeier, who had originated the role on Broadway and was making his film debut here, overplays it to the hilt. The situations are often absurd, the character decisions ludicrous, and the last half hour is just one bizarre moment after another, including attempted murders, brutal fist-fights among children, and one of the more unconvincing sappy endings in some time. There's no way that I'd call this a good movie in the conventional sense, but as a bad movie I found it very amusing.

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.