Tomorrow Is Forever

Plot synopsis:
At the end of World War I, on Armistice Day, Elizabeth MacDonald (Claudette Colbert) is waiting for her husband, John Andrew MacDonald (Orson Welles), to come home. However, she receives word of his death. Her boss, Lawrence Hamilton (George Brent), takes her home, where Elizabeth faints. He discovers she is pregnant with John's child. Already a little in love with her, Larry proposes to Elizabeth and she eventually agrees. They raise John Andrew Hamilton (Richard Long) as Larry's son, and have another son, Brian (Sonny Howe).However, John is not dead but severely injured and disfigured by an explosion. He refuses to reveal his name to the Viennese doctors, not wanting to be a burden to his wife or pitied. He agrees to experimental plastic surgery and re-establishes himself as a leading chemist, Erik Kessler. He remains friends with his surgeon, Dr. Ludwig (John Wengraf).Twenty years goes by. The Nazi's kill Dr. Ludwig and his wife, Erik adopts their daughter, Margaret (Natalie Wood) and flees to England. He obtains the chief chemist job at Larry's company and arrives back in Baltimore with Margaret in tow. On a visit, Erik discovers Elizabeth marriage to Larry; his son, Drew Hamilton, and their second son, Brian. But all is not quiet on the home front. Concerned about German aggression in Europe, Drew wants to join the Canadian RAF and fight the Nazis. Elizabeth refuses her consent, refusing to lose her son to another world war, even though Drew will turn 21 in a two months. Erik also disturbs her. She suspects he is John MacDonald, which he refuses to admit. He also brings an personal Nazi experience, undermining her objections to Drew joining the RAF.Drew decides to leave with his friends and join the RAF, anyway. He leaves a letter for this father (Larry) but does not tell his mother. In panic, Elizabeth calls the factory and asks to speak with Erik when she discovers Larry is in Washington, DC, on a business trip. Erik reads Drews' letter and hurries out into the rain storm, heading to the train station to stop Drew. He takes Drew home to his mother. Elizabeth tries one more time to get Erik to admit he is John MacDonald, but he tells her to forget the past, because it is beyond their reach to change. She should live for the future and her family. She finally accepts John's death and lets Erik go. Elizabeth helps Drew repack for a Canadian winter, letting him join the RAF with her consent. Erik goes home, but the cold, soaking rain and his already weakened health leads to his death. The next morning, Larry and Elizabeth arrives to thank Erik, but takes Margaret home with them upon hearing of his death.

Tags: melodrama, flashback

Review:
"Tomorrow is Forever" is interesting because of Orson Welles' appearance as the supposedly dead husband that returns under a different disguise.Today's audiences don't have patience to deal with what for the movie going public in the early days were able to allow in the reality department.
Some negative comments to this forum express that viewpoint, but in spite of them, films like this will always be immensely rewarding for those fans that feel comfortable with the plots created for this type of movies.Claudette Colbert makes a wonderful Elizabeth.
Orson Welles was the real surprise in the dramatic role that Ms. Colbert championed for him, at a time of his life that he wasn't recognized for his genius.
Natalie Wood as the young German girl, Margaret, showed a talent for stealing scenes from much established actors.This is a film to be cherished by people who love the genre..
For me, the performances by Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles are their most effective; hers ranks with her work in "Three Came Home" and "Since You Went Away," while his is even finer than in "The Stranger." Anyone who loves a good old-fashioned love story, sob story, multi-generational saga of the type Hollywood used to make so well should give this one a try..
Richard Long is likewise fine as an idealistic young man wanting to do his part to make this a better world.Max Steiner's score is unusually rich, complete with high voices mixed with strings, and a romantic main theme highlighting the essence of this sentimental script.
He, Claudette Colbert, George Brent and Richard Long provide some wonderful acting.Long, playing the elder son, presents a tremendous contrast of how a young man acted back in the 1940s compared to nowadays in terms of of respect and manners.
It is a wonderfully acted film, which makes the lost love of John and Elizabeth the most poignant I have ever shared as a movie viewer..
The story concerns a young husband (Welles) at the time of the First World War who 'surprises' his wife (Colbert) one day at their comfortable home in Baltimore by putting on a uniform and announcing that he is going off to War. As we all now know, this kind of behaviour was common at the time, when all the young men didn't have any idea what they were getting into and thought it would all be over by Christmas.
But before long he comes face to face with Colbert, who does not recognise him, as well as his 20 year-old son by her, who does not even know that Brent is not his father.
She suspects that he realizes his true identity now and he realizes that the son she bore is his.Both Colbert and Welles put on some very fine acting here in this film where you had better have plenty of handkerchiers available..
I would call it a very difficult lesson in life to be learned, about letting go of the past and thinking of present values and the future instead - reaching forward to the positive in life and releasing the past - something not everyone is prepared to do.It is of a young couple, Elizabeth and John (Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles), who are abruptly parted by the duty of John's service in the First War. He is injured badly, and while wrapped in facial bandages in hospital he makes the decision not to notify next of kin and drop out of his young wife's life because he feels he could never be the same man again, at least to her.
Lawrence (George Brent) steps into her life to assist then eventually they marry and create a reasonably happy life together.A weakness in the film that challenges us is that John's features were not altered so very much in the movie after his war injuries and the required facial surgery.
But now, after nineteen years of their estrangement, reality has set in for both: Elizabeth has a family to care for, a present obligation which takes precedence, and John too has the responsibility of a young adopted daughter, Margaret (Natalie Wood).So while every ensuing meeting brings them closer to the truth of their former relationship, it is a very thin line indeed that separates them from the possibility of true recognition of each other and the memories of bygone days.
WWI newlyweds Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles meet heartbreak when he goes missing in action and is written off as dead.
Brent brings over to work in his firm a Viennese chemist who turns out to be -- Orson Welles, bringing in tow a blonde, very young (her debut, in fact) Natalie Wood, speaking German.Ever the gemutlich gentleman, Welles keeps his cards close to his vest, even when talking about the "situation overseas" with the strapping lad he now realizes is his son, who wants to enlist in the Canadian Air Force.
Enjoyed this great classic film from 1946 starring Claudette Colbert as Elizabeth Hamilton who was a young woman very much in love with her husband, Orson Wells, (John MacDonald/Erik Kessler).
It just so happens that Elizabeth's first husband is not killed and has been severally wounded and finally returns to America with a little girl named Margaret Ludwig, (Natalie Wood).
Director Irving Pichel got so much out of Orson Welles and Claudette Colbert in this movie.
But it does make one have to work overtime to accept the rest of the plot.It does not help, by the way, that a few years before Colbert made a splendid little movie with John Payne called REMEMBER THE DAY, wherein they are teachers at a small town high school, who marry, and who are permanently separated when he is called to World War I by the draft.
More interesting is Richard Long, playing the grown up son of Welles, determined to fight for the U.S. in the coming war (despite Colbert's fears).
This film could easily have been nominated for multiple oscars, for Colbert, Welles, and Brent, screen play, and direction.
After only one year of marriage a soldier goes to war (WW-1) returning later, old and disfigured to find his wife re-married and his son looking to join the military..
The end is a real tear-jerker no matter how many times you watch it and this is one to keep in your permanent.The story is classic (man goes to war and returns later to find his wife re-married)but there are twists and turns leaving you to discuss later what you might have done or wanted.This is a great movie without having to rely on special effects, vulgar language, computer generated whatevers, it has survived all these years on the quality of the actors, story line and the ability to keep the viewer interested through the last scene.Highly recommended..
The plot of the film has been used in others in different ways, however one must acknowledge that acting of Orson Welles and Claudette Colbert added another quality to this drama.
If anyone wants to see what film acting is all about, watch Claudette Colbert's performance in this movie.
This is an astoundingly good movie.I'm neither a big Claudette Colbert fan nor one of Orson Welles -- I find her usually too cloying and chick-flickish and him too morose and self-important -- but they are fabulous together in this wonderful film.
The characters treat each other with great respect and dignity, the dialog is marvelous, sensitive subject matter like war is dealt with honestly and non-ideologically.The "triangle" of Welles, Colbert and Brent is very good.
It's about personal decisions and living after with the consequences.Great acting by that giant actor/director, Mr. Orson Wells and a very moving performance by Claudette Colbert, in a very difficult role.This film has all the elements of a good psychological thriller: someone coming back from the dead, a past that comes to haunt you after 20 years, exile in your own land, fighting the Nazis, and finally, leaving the past behind to join the living in the present.A great 1946 movie by Irving Pichel.
You will be surprised by it's quality.As a bonus, the third performance in film, by the then 8 year old Natalie Wood, as an adorable little blond Austrian exile girl..
This is one of the most sensitive films ever made, Orson Welles giving perhaps his life's most interesting performance as a war invalid surviving against his will.
George Brent as the second husband is perfectly alright as such as well, but his character lands in the shadow of the drama - he really doesn't understand much of it but does what he has to do as an honest man.Orson Welles is gutted in the first world war with a face that has to be remade, which is why he doesn't want to survive as he can't show himself to his newly wedded wife, who protested wildly against his going to war.
His doctor persuades him to give life an chance nonetheless, and twenty years later Orson returns as an Austrian fugitive to his home town Baltimore and finds his widow well and prosperous with a new family, but her son (and his) wants to go to war.It's a terrific drama, the whole suspense resting on how Claudette Colbert will recognize her former husband or not, and whether he will acknowledge his former identity or not.
I was 3 1/2 years old in 1942, and so during the war, while he was in the South Pacific, I heard my mother's stories about 'Brother Joe,' that she told so that I would understand that I had a brother and he would eventually come home and live with us.
Natalie Wood is a wonderful surprise as a tiny war orphan, perhaps eight years old; Orson Welles was at the top of his form, but Claudette Colbert was the brightest star of this film.This is not an anti-war film, it's much more a 'why we must go to war film.' There's a lot of philosophy buried in the script, but it never slows the film.
I found the whole film too far fetched.Colbert and Welles are excellent but in reality people just don't behave the way Welles behaves.He loves his wife but their is no yearning to comfort her ,tell her what happened,just a refusal to admit that he is her husband, because he wants his wife to live in the present and not the past .
Colbert is right in not wanting her son to go to war and after what happened to Welles you'd think he would support Colberts view .Instead he talks her into letting her son go - hard to believe a man who so horribly disfigured both mentally and physically (that he wanted to kill himself)would be so content with allowing his only son to war I get that people's lives change and Welles could not just sail back happily into Colberts but for Welles to close himself off from any chance of a happy reunion,especially after she tells him how much she loves him is taking his nobility too far.
Despite the movie's Harlequin-level romance novel title, the unlikely pairing of classic Hollywood leading lady Claudette Colbert and resident bad-boy Orson Welles actually works in this intriguing albeit far-fetched 1946 melodrama directed by the relatively undistinguished Irving Pichel.
Perennial also-ran George Brent is wooden as expected as Hamilton, but a couple of familiar faces shine as the children - Richard Long as the grown Drew and an eight-year old Natalie Wood, blonde and sporting a convincing Austrian accent, as Kessler's adopted daughter Margaret.
Tomorrow Is Forever finds Orson Welles and Claudette Colbert as a pair of young marrieds during World War I when Orson announces he's enlisted in the American Expeditionary Force.
Orson gets good support from Claudette Colbert, George Brent and the rest of the cast.Too bad he didn't get to do the whole film, direct as well as act..
Elizabeth (Claudette Colbert) sends her husband John MacDonald (Orson Welles) off to WWI.
Touching weeper about a man (Orson Welles) who goes off to fight in WWI, leaving his wife (Claudette Colbert) behind.
Family secrets at wartime, condensed into tidy soaper: Orson Welles plays Scottish-American soldier in WWI who is badly disfigured while in Germany and undergoes plastic surgery; back home in the States, pregnant wife Claudette Colbert is informed her husband was killed and she quickly remarries--but after many years pass, the two meet again.
Tiny, blonde Natalie Wood is wonderful as a youngster whom Welles has adopted; Richard Long (also quite young) plays Welles' and Colbert's son.
After one year of marriage John (Orson Welles) decides to alist and goes to Europe to fight on the war
Herein, Claudette Colbert (as Elizabeth MacDonald) is informed that husband Orson Welles (as John Andrew MacDonald) is a Great War causality.
After two decades, Welles goes home - but, he has a surgically altered face, and walks with a limp.Directed by Irving Pichel, Colbert and Welles are great fun to watch; with their fine performances, you can read some ambiguity into the film's ultimately flawed storyline (which has to do with recognition).
******* Tomorrow Is Forever (1/18/46) Irving Pichel ~ Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles, Richard Long.
This film features Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles, and an 8-year-old Natalie Wood in her first credited role, as well as a script written just after WWII ended which addresses the question of going off to war.
What first seems to be a story focusing on the pathos of seeing the love of one's life now living with someone else, quickly gives way to the stronger moments of the film, which center around their son (Richard Long) wanting to go off to war himself.
Reason must overcome emotionalism.That is made especially apparent in the scene where Kessler (Orson Welles) implicitly compares Mrs. Hamilton (Claudette Colbert) to his young charge, Margaret (Natalie Wood).
Claudette Colbert gives one of her most sincere performances as the loving wife who marries another (George Brent) when she is told her husband is dead, only to have him return years later, crippled and drastically changed, never revealing his true identity.The heartstrings are pulled rather heavily but it's all so well acted by Welles, Colbert and Brent that you can easily overlook some of the plot contrivances.
On the brink of World War II, a man believed killed in World War I returns in "Tomorrow is Forever," directed by Irving Pichel and starring Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles, George Brent, Richard Long, and Natalie Wood.
After her husband John's death in the first world war, Elizabeth (Colbert) finds out she's pregnant.
When "Dr. Kessler" (Welles), a scientist working with her husband, first appears at their home, Elizabeth doesn't realize it's John, who never returned to the U.S. because of his crippling, debilitating war wounds.
Wood, a blond here, is absolutely adorable and very accomplished, speaking German and then English with a German accent.Orson Welles is an actor whose magnificent presence, acting technique, and voice allowed him to basically phone in most roles - his whole purpose in movie acting was to make money for his film projects - but obviously Irving Pinchot didn't accept a phone-in from him.
It stars Claudette Colbert, George Brent and Orson Welles....so it's bound to be very good..
I always love films these folks are in--especially George Brent and Claudette Colbert.The film begins with a husband (Orson Welles) going off to fight in WWI.
Colbert has married a nice man (Brent) and the son she was expecting on Welles' death (Richard Long) thinks Brent is his actual father and they are a happy family.
She isn't a character actress and lacks the range of a Bette Davis, certainly, but her effortless portrayal of her own humanity always grounds the story, and she seems to catalyze and enhance the other performances (a rare and subtle talent).Rather than retell the story or cover similar ground, I will comment on a couple of points.I did feel that Colbert was convinced at the end by Welles that he was not her husband John, my only doubt being the denouement when her possession of his daughter, Natalie Wood, and her exit, is so perfunctory.
At the time I was on an Orson Welles kick and was interested in looking at films where he played lead roles but did not direct.
Elizabeth MacDonald (Claudette Colbert) is working there as a librarian for Lawrence Hamilton (George Brent) and his father.However, when she goes home that night to prepare for her husband's homecoming, she receives a telegram informing her that he had been killed in the war.
(It is as though John was acting as Drew's father in this ONE very important moment in Drew's life.)Orson Wells' performance in this movie is like discovering a hidden gem.
The richly textured story has to do with Colbert(Mrs. Hamilton/MacDonald) losing her husband (John MCDonald) in World War 1 and then having his son and marrying Lawrence Hamilton (George Brent) and having another son.
I quite agree with another poster who...going against the tide...said that his is not a typical tear jerker film, and that this film has many "layers" of depth.The plot involves husband (Orson Welles) who goes off to WWI, leaving behind wife (Claudette Colbert).
And Richard Long does well as the elder son (although, he seems quite different here than in most of his other roles).This is almost a great film...were it not for Colbert not recognizing the love of her live, I'd give it an "8" -- a rarity..
Of course, that's the point, he doesn't want his wife to recognize him, but one can't help thinking that his wife Elizabeth (Claudette Colbert) is better off with the smooth and sophisticated Lawrence Hamilton (George Brent).
Welles portrays John MacDonald, who dashes off to WWI, leaving behind his wife, Elizabeth (a teary Claudette Colbert).
Coffee screenplay, this heart tugging drama stars Claudette Colbert, Orson Welles (who gives the film's best, a most credible, acting performance), George Brent, Lucile Watson, Richard Long, Natalie Wood, and Ian Wolfe, among others.It's November 11, 1918 and "the Great War" has just ended.