Comments on Thanks for the Use of the Hall - Archive: When Tomorrow Comes

Thanks, Dave! Wanting to be a reviewer these days...

2008-09-08T16:11:00.000-04:00

Thanks, Dave! Wanting to be a reviewer these days is like wanting to be Pope - the odds aren't great.

Somehow When Tomorrow Comes seems to have beem more persistently unavailable over the years than other Universal Stahl films, no? (The Eve of St. Mark is another Stahl film that has gone AWOL - I can't remember hearing of a screening in many decades. You'd think that one

An excellent post, Dan. It makes me wish once aga...

2008-09-06T13:11:00.000-04:00

An excellent post, Dan. It makes me wish once again that you were back working regularly as a reviewer.

The AFI Catalog claims that "When Tomorrow Comes" was based on an unpublished James M. Cain story, and goes on to cite The Hollywood Reporter to the effect that "at least twenty-one writers worked on the script," and that it still was not finished when shooting began. It's not

Blake - I do recall that Cain made an issue of tha...

2008-08-26T08:02:00.000-04:00

Blake - I do recall that Cain made an issue of that borrowing at the time. There's an interview with him in an old Film Comment (May-June 1976) in which he tells the story of going to court after someone told him that Stahl openly advocated stealing from authors whose work he had purchased. Cain was impressed with Stahl's honesty on the stand, and decided that his source had fabricated the

I don't know the James M. Cain story "A Modern Cin...

2008-08-25T15:42:00.000-04:00

I don't know the James M. Cain story "A Modern Cinderella" (which may have been intended as the basis of the film and not actually exist on its own), but I believe the problem with the Cain estate may be that they lifted a sequence from Cain's novel SERENADE (the protagonist and the woman in the story are isolated during a storm in a church--the equivalent of the middle section you celebrate here

Just the reaction I was hoping for! It's not too ...

2008-08-22T22:34:00.000-04:00

Just the reaction I was hoping for! It's not too difficult to find this same crappy copy of the film - the trick is seeing a decent print. My understanding is that the estate of James M. Cain (the author of the short story upon which the film was based) is somehow preventing exhibition.

Wow! Thank you for introducing me to this film! ...

2008-08-22T18:02:00.000-04:00

Wow! Thank you for introducing me to this film! That clip was exquisite, the Resnais' reference is spot on, but boy is there a lot of greatness in these few minutes, much of it gestural (the way Boyer turns and walks away dragging on his cigarette after looking at the photo; the way Dunne opens the door to hear the music better). I must track this down!