There's Always Tomorrow [Blu-ray]

Director: Douglas Sirk Douglas Sirk

Overview

There's Always Tomorrow is a remake of a 1934 film of the same name. Fred MacMurray is a toy company executive whose wife (Joan Bennett) and kids (Gigi Perreau, William Reynolds and Judy Nugent) take him for granted. Barbara Stanwyck is Fred's former girlfriend, whose own business activities result in a surprise reunion. MacMurray falls back in love with Stanwyck and prepares to leave his family. MacMurray's children go to Stanwyck and politely ask her to back off. She does so, and MacMurray's wife Bennett, who's been out of town during all this, is none the wiser. In the original There's Always Tomorrow, the male and female leads (Frank Morgan and Binnie Barnes) were farther apart age-wise, making their brief encounter all the more poignant.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/25/2020
UPC:	0738329249304
Original Release:	1956
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Language:	English
Time:	1:24:00
Sales rank:	8,455

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Fred MacMurray	Clifford Groves
Barbara Stanwyck	Norma
Joan Bennett	Marion Groves
Gigi Perreau	Ellen
Pat Crowley	Ann
William Reynolds	Vinnie Groves,Actor
Race Gentry	Bob
Myrna Hansen	Ruth
Judy Nugent	Frankie Groves
Jane Darwell	Mrs. Rogers
Paul Smith	Bellboy,Bartender
Jane Howard	Flower Girl
Helen Kleeb	Miss Walker
Frances Mercer	Ruth Doran
Sheila Bromley	Woman From Pasadena
Louise Lorimer	Chic Lady With Dog
Dorothy Bruce	Sales Manager
Hermine Sterler	Tourist
Fred Nurney	Tourist
James Rawley	Foreman
Jack Lomas	Pianist
Jean Byron	Saleswoman
Bert Holland	Clerk
Carlyle Mitchell	Mr. Carl
Mack Williams	Norma's Hotel Clerk
Richard Mayer	Customer
Pat Meller	Groom
Vonne Lester	Junior Executive
Lorelei Vitek	Bit
Ross Hunter	Cameo Appearance
June Clayworth	Actor
Heinz Roemheld	Composer
Herman Stein	Composer

Technical Credits

Bernard Schoenfeld

Douglas Sirk	Director
Bernard Schoenfeld	Screenwriter
Ross Hunter	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Director Douglas Sirk tends to inspire mixed reactions from viewers. Many hail him as a visionary who used the gloss and surface texture of 1950s melodrama to create a surprisingly personal vision, while others find his films treacly, sudsy, and manipulative. There's Always Tomorrow won't change anyone's opinion of the director; it's typical Sirk, although shot stunningly in black-and-white rather than in the gorgeous color usually associated with him. (It doesn't make a difference; Russell Metty's cinematography is still stunning, playing with shadows and light to marvelous effect and indulging Sirk's fondness for windows and doors.) The story is pure melodrama, but it does provide an interestingly subversive look into the sorrow and desperation beneath the happy surface of Middle America in the 1950s. The quiet death that Fred MacMurray's character is actually quite affecting, and had the studio let Sirk keep his original ending -- in which the robot toy that is a symbol for MacMurray's manipulated life falls off a table and kicks helplessly on the floor -- the film might have packed an even greater punch. MacMurray does very fine work here, movingly portraying a good husband and father whose family is slowly strangling the life out of him, and Barbara Stanwyck hits all the right notes as the woman who could save him. Tomorrow doesn't hit the heights of prime Sirk like Magnificent Obsession, due to the familiarity and predictability of its screenplay, but it's a good little wallow for regular viewers and a treat for Sirk aficionados.