When Tomorrow Comes *** (1939, Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Barbara O’Neil) – Classic Movie Review 6673

Director John M Stahl’s 1939 romantic drama re-teams Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer following their hit with the classic Love Affair (1939).

Restaurant waitress Helen Lawrence (Dunne) and celebrated married concert pianist Philip Chagal (Boyer) have a fling in a Long Island church organ loft in a hurricane in this deliciously contrived, tear-stained and superior romance that provides enjoyable old-style entertainment without necessarily quickening the blood.

Barbara O’Neil has the thankless role of Boyer’s wife Madeleine Chagal, who is suffering from mental illness and has gone round the bend after having a stillborn baby.

Dunne and Boyer work hard to make something out of the artificial material and Universal’s top director Stahl, who usually did a first-rate job on this kind of movie, puts a polished gloss and veneer of quality over it.

The screenplay is surprisingly based on an original screen story called Modern Cinderella by James M Cain, the author of The Postman Always Rings Twice. He sold the story entitled Modern Cinderella to Universal Pictures for $17,500 on 22 November 1938.

Later, Cain unsuccessfully sued Universal Pictures, scriptwriter Dwight Taylor and director John M Stahl for copyright infringement of his 1937 novel Serenade on the 1939 screenplay for When Tomorrow Comes. The judge ruled that there was no resemblance between the scenes in the book and the film other than incidental similarities because of the situation, thus establishing a legal precedent.

Bernard B Brown won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording.

Also in the cast are Nydia Westman, Onslow Stevens, Fritz Feld, Nella Walker, Constance Moore, Jerry Marlowe, Addison Richards, Greta Meyer, Howard Hickman, Natalie Moorhead, Frank Darlen, George Humbert, Wade Botelier, Milburn Stone, Emmett Vogan, Gaylord Pendleton, Edward Keane Alden, Stephen Chase, James Flavin, Eddie Acuff and Ed Piel Jr.

When Tomorrow Comes is written by Dwight Taylor, shot in black and white by John Mescall, produced by John M Stahl and scored by Charles Previn.

When Tomorrow Comes was remade as Interlude in 1957 and again as Interlude in 1968.

Dunne was nominated for five Oscars and Charles Boyer was nominated for four Oscars, but neither ever won.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6673

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