Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)

Director:

Leo McCarey

Writers:

Viña Delmar (writer)
Josephine Lawrence (novel)

Release Date:

7 October 1937 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

An elderly couple are forced to separate when they lose their house and none of their five children will take both parents in.

Plot Keywords:

Elderly | Based On Play | Based On Novel

Cast

Victor Moore	...	Barkley 'Pa' Cooper
Beulah Bondi	...	Lucy 'Ma' Cooper
Fay Bainter	...	Anita Cooper
Thomas Mitchell	...	George Cooper
Porter Hall	...	Harvey Chase
Barbara Read	...	Rhoda Cooper
Maurice Moscovitch	...	Max Rubens
Elisabeth Risdon	...	Cora Payne
Minna Gombell	...	Nellie Chase
Ray Mayer	...	Robert Cooper
Ralph Remley	...	Bill Payne
Louise Beavers	...	Mamie
Louis Jean Heydt	...	Doctor
Gene Morgan	...	Carlton Gorman

Also Known As:

The Years Are So Long (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Though they play elderly parents who have been cast aside by their children, Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi were only 61 and 49, respectively, when this film was made.

Quotes:

Pa: Two old-fashioneds, for two old-fashioned people.

Soundtrack:

LET ME CALL YOU SWEETHEART

This Day and Age

MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (Paramount, 1937), directed by Leo McCarey, ranks one of the very best dramas from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and one I never get tired of watching whenever it plays on television. No longer available on any local TV channel, MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW had frequent revivals on American Movie Classics, from its premiere June 20, 1994 until its final air date, April 3, 1999. So far, it's never been distributed on either video cassette or DVD. Yes, MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW is sad, moving, but so very true to life dealing realistically about coping with old age. Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi (in possibly the best film role in her entire career) play an elderly couple who lose their home and find that their adult children are finding excuses NOT to take them in. A situation that even rings true even in today's society.

Leo McCarey won an Academy Award as Best Director that year for the comedy THE AWFUL TRUTH (Columbia), starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. McCarey was reported to have said that he had won for the wrong movie. He was hinting that he should have won for this one. I agree. As much as THE AWFUL TRUTH is a fine movie in its own right, MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW is a far better movie, dramatically anyway. In support here are Fay Bainter (in a rare unsympathetic role); Thomas Mitchell (who is the only one of the children to know how selfish he has been while the others refuse to realize it themselves), Porter Hall, Barbara Read (as the adolescent granddaughter) and Elisabeth Risdon. While this movie does not have top box-office names, it consists of character actors in leading parts. Victor Moore, usually in comedic supporting parts or leads in program productions (better known as "B" movies), is fine in a rare dramatic role, but is overshadowed by Beulah Bondi, whose performance is excellent as well as moving. Although she plays a woman possibly in her late 70s, she was actually 45 when she did the film. Sadly, this very fine movie did not receive a single Academy Award nomination. If a nomination was to be had, it definitely would go to Bondi as Best Actress. Her closing scene at the train station bidding husband Moore farewell, with the underscoring of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," is not to be missed either.

The plot might sound trite in print, but to see it is to appreciate the kind of movie that can never be remade in the same manner as the original nor come anywhere near to great film making. (***1/2)