WELLESNET MESSAGE BOARD

It's much less interesting than "The Stranger" in my opinion. A ridiculously plotted tearjerker, "Tomorrow Is Forever" contains the kind of sentimental claptrap that Welles kept out of his own films. Welles plays a dashing young soldier in the first part of the film who leaves his wife (Claudette Colbert) to fight in the war. After being horribly disfigured by a landmine, Welles' character believes it would be better for him to simply disappear than to return home and be a burden to his wife. Years later his does return with a young daughter in tow (Natalie Wood) only to find his wife has remarried. The truly absurd aspect is that the "horrible disfigurement" is represented by dark charcoal marks under Welles' eyes. He grows a beard (and with graying hair resembles Welles as he actually looked in the 70s) and adopts a pronounced eastern European accent. He returns home and becomes a houseguest of Colbert who never suspects the man is her supposedly dead first husband. Anyway, you get the idea...

Absurd film, yes, but Welles' performance is very good.

It was released Aug. 9 on MGM’s Limited Edition Collection (manufactured on demand). A nice review of the film (not the dvd, sadly) can be found at http://technorati.com/entertainment/fil ... odrama-at/

"... Colbert, Welles, and Brent act their hearts out without ever going overboard (oh, okay there is that one little scene in the beginning when Elizabeth receives John’s personal effects), but it’s Natalie Wood's performance that steals the show, and Max Steiner’s score, incorporating strains of “Till We Meet Again,” is magnificent.
Interweaving patriotism, anti-war sentiment, the horrors of war, and the desire to return to a carefree past, Tomorrow is Forever gives the viewer more than expected; yes, it plays to our emotions, but it also gives us much to consider."

Remastered ‘Tomorrow is Forever’ coming to Blu-ray:
http://www.wellesnet.com/remastered-tom ... g-blu-ray/

Bluray.com on the new Blu edition of "Tomorrow is Forever":
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=22572

ClassicFlix, which released TOMORROW IS FORVER on DVD and Blu-ray in 2017, will be discontinuing the title at year's end.

Cute photo of Welles and Natalie Wood found on Facebook:

It is a cute photo... and illustrates the "horrible disfigurement" Welles' character supposedly suffered during the war that I alluded to in my post from 17 years ago seven posts up!

"Tomorrow is forever" is currently available, gratis, at Amazon Prime.
I'm about to watch it.

Setting aside the melodrama TiF is notable as the most subdued acting I've seen Welles offering. Here he is able to overcome or set aside his "King Actor" attribute. Even his voice is subdued.

As Callow puts it, "It is a performance like none other in Welles's career as an actor, interestingly pitched.... very softy, very quietly, the impeccable German accent used to striking effect, with an undertow of real feeling." (More on OW's acting in his Hello Americans, p224f.)

TiF is also of note since Welles appreciated Richard Long, who plays his son, and so cast him in The Stranger.

It's Long's first movie, as well as the first for a small blonde Natalie Wood, with her own excellent German accent.

This is another of his acting roles I've never seen so these posts stimulate me to find the necessary time to do so.

Tony, as noted above it's currently gratis at the Evil Empire's prime thing, so now's a good time to catch it.