The Film Junkie

How bad can a movie with Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles be?  ‘Tomorrow’ proves it can be godawful.

The premise of this movie is that Colbert and Welles are married, but early into their life together he enlists for WWI and when the soldiers return a few months later she recieves word that he is dead.  However he was not actually killed, only disfigured.  He chooses to continue the lie so as not to disrupt her life.

Cut to 20 years later when Welles, now posing as an Austrian scientist, comes to America and due to various contrived circumstances finds himself involved in Colbert’s new life with her husband and two children, the oldest of which is, of course, Welles’ son.

This film is pure melodrama from start to finish and it takes Colbert an insane amount of time to figure out that Welles is her first husband, it is almost painful to watch.  You can only stretch dramatic irony so far. 

Perhaps the best work in the film is Natalie Wood as Welles’ adopted Austrian daughter.  And in a film with two screen legends, a little girl stealing screen time is something to say.

From the music, to Welles’ over-acting eyebrows, this is a clunker.

Grade: C-

This is not the best Welles film, but it is a great film noir with one of the best endings in all of American cinema.

The ending is a sight to be seen, and I grade this film based largely on those last ten minutes or so, they are adventurous and breathtaking to behold.

Grade: A-

This is a deeply flawed but lovely film by Orson Welles about a 19th century upper class family that loses everything.

The film is far too short at 88 minutes and this is due to the fact that RKO edited out 40 minutes of Welles’ vision without his permission to try and appease audiences and stay closer to the novel on which it was based.

The short film is messy and confusing in plot, the characters are labelled and forced to try and evolve under those labels, the ending comes far too fast and leaves one with an empty feeling as it was never really developed.

However, for all its flaws, this film has some of the most astoundingly beautiful cinematography of the era.  Welles has an eye for frames that he used to invent new concepts in 1941’s ‘Citizen Kane’ and he employs that eye with tremendous skill here. 

One can only imagine what his larger vision was for the film.  There are some underlying incestuous plotlines that are on the cusp of being explored throughout the film.  There is also a devious jealousy hidden within Agnes Moorhead’s spinster sister character that could have been so much more delicious. 

The sets are remarkable and it is a visually stunning film, but it is really only a nibble at what Orson Welles wanted it to be.  I am left hungry for more.

Grade: B+