Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Tomorrow Is Forever Blu-ray Movie Review

Yesterday once more.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 25, 2017

Have you ever played one of those party “thought experiment” games where, for example, someone will ask everyone to think of an animal beginning with the letter k, and virtually everyone answers ‘kangaroo’ (pity the poor koala)? Well, here’s something similar for those of you who love film trivia: what’s the first film you think of if I ask you to name the first post-World War II film of either Orson Welles or Natalie Wood? A dime will get you a dollar that the vast majority of respondents will probably come up with 1946’s The Stranger with regard to Welles, and one of two 1947 films, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir or (more probably) Miracle on 34th Street, with regard to Wood. Well, none of those had better be your final answer, at least if you’re going for accuracy, for Tomorrow is Forever came out at least a couple of months before The Stranger did in 1946 and in fact features both Welles and Wood, along with Claudette Colbert, George Brent and a handful of other widely recognizable supporting players. A somewhat turgid piece of melodrama, Tomorrow is Forever borrows elements from a number of other properties, ones as disparate as the real life story of Martin Guerre (which later was adapted into a number of films, including The Return Of Martin Guerre and Sommersby ) to the hoary three hankie weeper The Sin of Madelon Claudet, the film that won Helen Hayes her first Academy Award back when talkies were still something of a "newfangled" item.

According to the interesting commentary by Ray Faiola included on this Blu-ray as a supplement, the source novel upon which Tomorrow is Forever is based was actually set in the film industry, which might have given this cinematic adaptation too much of a “glamour” angle to adequately support what is a rather pointed, if tangential, take on some anti-war material. That material is at least somewhat unusual for a film produced in the waning days of World War II, a time when American nationalist sentiments had been raised to a fever pitch, even if many people were suffering from the traumas of that very battle. The film actually begins in the closing days of World War I, when a young woman named Elizabeth MacDonald (Claudette Colbert) receives the dreaded telegram that her soldier husband John Andrew (Orson Welles) has been assumed killed in action overseas. Adding to Elizabeth’s emotional undoing is the fact that she soon discovers she’s pregnant.

Elizabeth is nurtured by Lawrence Hamilton (George Brent), an entrepreneur who owns a local chemical factory, and Lawrence’s Aunt Jessie (Lucile Watson), with romance and ultimately marriage blossoming between Lawrence and Elizabeth. Meanwhile, however, it’s revealed that John is not in fact dead, but lying horribly wounded and disfigured in a German hospital, where he’s being tended to by the kindly Dr. Ludwig (John Wengraf). Here, too, Tomorrow is Forever does something at least a bit unexpected by portraying a German partisan who is clearly meant to be seen as sympathetic by the audience, and in fact Ludwig’s admonitions to John (whose identity is unknown) to “pick himself up and dust himself off” take on a whole new subtext when delivered by a purported “enemy”.

Most folks can probably guess what’s going to happen next, and it more or less does. John, who at least gets relatively mobile again (with the help of a cane), assumes the identity of one Erik Kessler, and is ultimately hired by Lawrence. Erik arrives in the United States with an adorable foster daughter named Margaret (Natalie Wood) in tow, but he is unaware of the connection between Lawrence and Elizabeth. Kind of interestingly, that connection, while lingering in the background for the bulk of the central part of the film, turns out to only be a tangential link to what becomes a focal point, namely the now grown son of Elizabeth and John, Drew (Richard Long). The film again departs from the source novel, which was set during World War II, by positing the still nascent World War II in the late thirties, a growing threat which Drew wants to confront by joining the Royal Air Force. That leads to several rather interesting exchanges about the worthlessness of war and how the “casualties” it creates are not necessarily limited to combatants who die in battle.

There’s a lot of overheated emotion running rampant throughout Tomorrow is Forever, and it in fact might be thought of as a four hankie weeper. The film does rely on some curious contrivances, though, not the least of which is John assuming a foreign identity and then passing himself off as that foreigner (replete with feigned accent), even if his supposed “wounds” don’t really alter his appearance that much (Welles is “fitted” with a ridiculous looking fake nose in a brief flashback detailing his marriage to Elizabeth, while as Erik he has his “own” nose, but is now bearded). It’s the same kind of patently ridiculous artifice that, for example, keeps virtually every bystander from realizing that Clark Kent is Superman simply because Kent is wearing a suit and glasses. The supposedly noble sentiments that John (and/or Erik) espouse about moving on and not being weighed down by the past might strike some as at least a little ironic, given the fact that John himself seems to be haunted by his own decisions involving not letting Elizabeth know he survived and who in fact he really is. Colbert plays her role with her typical steely yet vulnerable verve, and Welles brings some relative nuance to what is arguably an unwinnable characterization. Brent is kind of bland, however, and it’s therefore a bit hard to understand what Elizabeth might have seen in Lawrence, other than security for herself and her unborn son.

Tomorrow Is Forever Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tomorrow is Forever is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ClassicFlix with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Those of you who perused our annual Top 10 List will know that I singled ClassicFlix out as one of the nicer surprises of this past year, with a niche label offering some rarer titles with typically excellent technical presentations. That "tradition" continues with Tomorrow is Forever, another lesser known (or at least lesser remembered) title that has received an excellent looking restoration. While I'd rate sharpness and clarity just a tad lower than the incredible looking T-Men, with midrange shots that can look slightly soft at times (see screenshots 6 and 13 for two examples), generally speaking this offers nicely supported detail levels and, in at least some extreme close-ups, really comendable fine detail (see screenshot 2 and notice the downy hair on Welles' cheek). Damage has been all but eradicated, with no issues with regard to scratches, flecks or other distractions. Contrast is also solid, with deep blacks and nicely modulated gray scale. Grain resolves naturally and there are no compression issues to report.

Tomorrow Is Forever Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tomorrow is Forever features a nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track that capably supports both the dialogue and Max Steiner's beautiful score. There just the faintest hint of distortion when the score gets emotionally energized (with some of the higher string cues, for example), but there are no issues with dialogue. While the track isn't especially full bodied, it offers very good fidelity and no issues with dropouts.

Tomorrow Is Forever Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Film Score Restorationist Ray Faiola of Chelsea Rialto Studios. Mr. Faiola provides an entertaining and informative tour through the film's genesis and production, with some biographical tidbits and commendable attention to Max Steiner's lovely score. The commentary also includes excerpts from an old radio broadcast version of the film, in the first such example of such a use that I can personally recall. If you're a little slow on the uptake like some people (ahem), it may take you a minute to realize that when Mr. Faiola mentions Lucile Watson's name as incorrectly containing three "l"'s in the credit listing, he's including the initial letter of her first name.


• Isolated Music Track is a welcome bonus, but is unfortunately offered only in lossy Dolby Digital 2.0. Kind of surprisingly, Max Steiner's sumptuously romantic (and maybe even Romantic) score didn't even rate an Academy Award nomination.


• Image Gallery (1080p; 1:41) can be viewed either with Manual Advance or Auto Advance. The timing is for the Auto Advance, though have your Pause button handy if you do opt for Manual Advance and want to linger on any given image, since the timecode keeps a-tickin' and the gallery will advance to the next photo automatically anyway.

Tomorrow Is Forever Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Tomorrow is Forever should certainly appeal to those who like their love affairs doomed and their melodramas stuffed with overheated emotions. The film is quite interesting, though, in that it goes (at least intermittently) to an anti-war "place" that is quite unusual for the time period in which it was produced. Director Irving Pichel also offers a few stylistic flourishes along the way (note how he utilizes a grand flowing staircase in a manner at least somewhat reminiscent of a very famous shot from another 1946 film, Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious). ClassicFlix has offered another relatively obscure title with a nice looking restoration and some appealing supplements, and Tomorrow is Forever comes Recommended.