When Tomorrow Comes — When Tomorrow Comes ( Blu Ray)
When Tomorrow Comes is a 1939 drama from director John M Stahl. Here's a handsome remastered 2k edition of the film- with original mono audio, and a few extras from Indicator/ Powerhouse.
The picture belongs to the genre that used to be called ‘Woman's film,’ romantic films targeted at women but now reclassified as melodramas. Today Stahl is overshadowed by Douglas Sirk who remade three of the former’s films to greater critical acclaim. These include Interlude, Sirk’s remake of When Tomorrow Comes. Stylistically the two directors have little in common and although Sirk’s reputation surpasses Stahl’s, the latter was incredibly productive during the silent and earlier sound period and crafted some very well-regarded and financially successful movies.
When Tomorrow Comes concerns the burgeoning romance between waitress and union activist Helen Lawrence (Irene Dunne) and concert pianist Philip Chagal (Charles Boyer). An earlier film from 1939, Love Affair directed by Leo McCarey was a multiple Oscar winner and box office hit and showed that the somewhat unlikely pairing of the proper and intelligent Dunne and the romantic and rather louche Boyer made for great chemistry on screen and Tomorrow was an attempt to capitalise on this. A third co-starrer, directed by Charles Vidor, Together Again (1944) made the appeal implicit in the title.
This prestigious Indicator release reflects not only the film’s own virtues but also its position within a nexus of Hollywood heavyweights such as Stahl, Dunne, Boyer, Sirk (on account of the Interlude remake) and novelist and screenwriter James M Cain. The film was adapted from the writer’s short story A Modern Cinderella and he even became involved in a lawsuit against Universal Pictures because of alleged plagiarism from another source (his novel ‘Serenade’).
A product of its time, the most significant section is the set piece where the smitten pair take shelter in a church during a storm. Deferring to Chagal’s status as a married man (and adhering to the Production Code’s strictures on adultery) they spend an affectionate but chaste night. Helen’s feelings towards Philip are further complicated by the fact that his wife Madeleine suffers from a mental ailment and who by her own confession feels only able to face life because of Philip’s presence.
Stahl’s approach to melodrama is generally low-key and aims for realism. The film is decently mounted but not ostentatious. The movie’s thorough approach to all its technical aspects is reflected in its winning an Oscar for best sound. The storm section is extremely atmospheric and deploys particularly realistic lighting for its time.
When Tomorrow Comes is typical of the ‘Woman's film’ genre in putting its female protagonist through the emotional grinder. Helen is in the ambiguous position of acknowledging her love for Philip but needing to project an overly virtuous character in order not to alienate audiences. The film’s most distinctive feature is how it frames Helen’s essential decency and idealism. Helen is a union activist and a strike organiser at the restaurant she works at. Given the US’s ambivalence about labour relations and even its inability to acknowledge the existence of class in its nation, Helen’s outlook is portrayed as unambiguously a good thing. Her stirring speech at a strike meeting even helps cement her relationship with Philip. The presentation of the meeting may seem dated now, with delegates describing the workforce as ‘girls’ rather than ‘women’. Feminism isn’t mentioned but capitalism and labour are. The struggle remains valid of course. Anyone who doubts this should listen to Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s interview on X where the two bond over firing striking workers.
Showcasing Dunne and Boyer’s touching adult chemistry and augmented by elegant monochrome photography, crisp editing and an often-mobile camera, When Tomorrow Comes released in the Hollywood signature year of 1939 (The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind et al) reflects how far the art of talkies had progressed in just over a decade of their existence.
The Indicator Blu-ray has a handful of useful and informative extras. An audio commentary from academic and curator Eloise Ross covers the usual bases of production history, director and stars’ reputations filmographies and other key creators. Ross also provides an interesting potted history of strikes in US movies. If I have a caveat, it is that Ross only starts to discuss actors beyond the stars late in the commentary. This means that we learn little of performers who appear earlier in the film, such as Onslow Stevens who has dozens of film and TV credits from the thirties to the beginning of the sixties.
Stormy Weather, a 20-minute essay about the film by critic and author Geoff Andrew considers the place of When Tomorrow Comes in John M Stahl’s filmography as well as the melodramatic tradition in US cinema. In another filmed essay (21 minutes), The Mark of Cain, critic Michael Brooke gives an overview of James M Cain’s complicated attitude to his screenwriting career in Hollywood as well as a fuller picture of the background to his lawsuit against Universal.
The disc is further supplemented with an image gallery consisting of production stills and promotional materials and a script gallery comprising full dialogue and continuity screenplay.
This limited edition pressing of 3000 copies for the UK also contains a booklet with contemporary and retrospective articles about the film. one of the most interesting features is where Dunne and Boyer profile each other.
With this release, Indicator has found in John M Stahl another director whose legacy needs protecting and whose work needs to be introduced to new audiences. If you enjoy well-made romantic melodrama, this is well worth a look.