Make Way for Tomorrow (A- or 3.5/4 stars)
In the mood for a 3-hankie tearjerker? Well then 'Make Way for Tomorrow' (directed by Leo McCarey, & based on a play) might be the movie for you. 'MWFT' tells of a septuagenarian couple, kindly, unemployed bookkeeper Barkley Cooper (Victor Moore) & his beloved housewife Lucy (Beulah Bondi), short-changed by their 5 selfish grown-up children when they run into bad times during the Depression and the bank forecloses their country home. None of the 5 children have the room or inclination to take both parents in with them, so they separate them to the sad detriment of both. Lucy feels lost, lonely, & 'in the way' in the city apartment of her unassertive 46 yr. old son, George (the great Thomas Mitchell), his aloof wife, Anita (Fay Bainter), & their promiscuous 17 yr. old daughter, Rhoda.
Meanwhile, Lucy & Barkley's daughter Nellie (Minna Gombell) & her husband Harvey (Porter Hall) renege on their initial promise to let their father live with them in 3 months; husband Harvey ultimately decides that he won't allow it {meanie!}. So, that means that dad must again pick-up, move, & stay with his mean-spirited daughter, Cora (oooh, a vile Elisabeth Risdon) & her husband, Bill (Ralph Remley), some 300 miles away from mom, Lucy. Unsurprisingly, it's decided that dad isn't a good 'fit' with them either and, when Barkley comes down with a serious cold ... Cora fudges the local doctor's report on so that dad is sent by train to live with his other daughter Addie in the healthier climate of California. In the meantime, Lucy gives up on her son George and checks herself into a nursing home back east. One bad thing happens one after another until Lucy & Barkley finally meet again, perhaps, for one magical last time.
I read-up on 'Make Way for Tomorrow' before I saw it, knowing well & good that it is sad and, well, it SURE is. Having said that, it is so beautifully executed that I simply must acknowledge how worthy it is to be seen; sadness notwithstanding. Leo McCarey directs this uncompromising melodrama with grace, humility, and gets some wonderful performances from his cast. Beulah Bondi, who was in her 40s, but was aged to look 70, is heartbreaking, here. In one scene, Lucy confronts her granddaughter Rhoda about her grandpa, Barkley. Rhoda callously asks, "Why don't you face facts, Grandma?" Lucy sadly replies with, "When you're 17 and the world's beautiful, facing facts is just as fun as dancing or going to parties, but when you're 70 ... well, you don't care about dancing, you don't think about parties anymore, & about the only fun you have left is pretending that there ain't any facts to face. So would you mind if I just went on pretending?"
This is a movie so unflinchingly sad that even tough-minded Orson Welles once remarked, "It would make a stone cry". Director Leo McCarey defied the studio's request to lend it a more upbeat ending and, for that I'm glad, because the last sequence is among the most eloquently moving I've ever seen in a film. It's incredible to think that Leo McCarey directed both this film & The Awful Truth (starring Cary Grant & Irene Dunne) in the same year, perfectly capturing feats of both comedy & tragedy. While accepting his Oscar for directing The Awful Truth, he jested, "Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture". For as much as I enjoyed The Awful Truth, I think he was bang-on. Along with the iconic Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, 'Make Way for Tomorrow' is among the very best films of 1937.
Meanwhile, Lucy & Barkley's daughter Nellie (Minna Gombell) & her husband Harvey (Porter Hall) renege on their initial promise to let their father live with them in 3 months; husband Harvey ultimately decides that he won't allow it {meanie!}. So, that means that dad must again pick-up, move, & stay with his mean-spirited daughter, Cora (oooh, a vile Elisabeth Risdon) & her husband, Bill (Ralph Remley), some 300 miles away from mom, Lucy. Unsurprisingly, it's decided that dad isn't a good 'fit' with them either and, when Barkley comes down with a serious cold ... Cora fudges the local doctor's report on so that dad is sent by train to live with his other daughter Addie in the healthier climate of California. In the meantime, Lucy gives up on her son George and checks herself into a nursing home back east. One bad thing happens one after another until Lucy & Barkley finally meet again, perhaps, for one magical last time.
I read-up on 'Make Way for Tomorrow' before I saw it, knowing well & good that it is sad and, well, it SURE is. Having said that, it is so beautifully executed that I simply must acknowledge how worthy it is to be seen; sadness notwithstanding. Leo McCarey directs this uncompromising melodrama with grace, humility, and gets some wonderful performances from his cast. Beulah Bondi, who was in her 40s, but was aged to look 70, is heartbreaking, here. In one scene, Lucy confronts her granddaughter Rhoda about her grandpa, Barkley. Rhoda callously asks, "Why don't you face facts, Grandma?" Lucy sadly replies with, "When you're 17 and the world's beautiful, facing facts is just as fun as dancing or going to parties, but when you're 70 ... well, you don't care about dancing, you don't think about parties anymore, & about the only fun you have left is pretending that there ain't any facts to face. So would you mind if I just went on pretending?"
This is a movie so unflinchingly sad that even tough-minded Orson Welles once remarked, "It would make a stone cry". Director Leo McCarey defied the studio's request to lend it a more upbeat ending and, for that I'm glad, because the last sequence is among the most eloquently moving I've ever seen in a film. It's incredible to think that Leo McCarey directed both this film & The Awful Truth (starring Cary Grant & Irene Dunne) in the same year, perfectly capturing feats of both comedy & tragedy. While accepting his Oscar for directing The Awful Truth, he jested, "Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture". For as much as I enjoyed The Awful Truth, I think he was bang-on. Along with the iconic Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, 'Make Way for Tomorrow' is among the very best films of 1937.