Directed by John M. Stahl, When Tomorrow Comes is a romantic drama from 1939 that features screen legends Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. The pair of actors had previously been in the film Love Affair together. When Tomorrow Comes is another tale about love, romance, politics, and infidelity! Movies where someone falls for a married man or woman are commonplace in cinema but this one comes with a great subplot with union workers going on strike!
In this movie, we follow a struggling waitress, Helen Lawrence (Irene Dunne, I Remember Mama, The Awful Truth) who falls in love with a man, pianist Philip Chagal (Charles Boyer, Gaslight, Back Street). It starts at a restaurant where Helen first sees Philip and there is an immediate attraction. Even though there are political differences between the two, she is on the left-wing and he is on the right-wing of the political sphere, Philip decides to join her at a ‘leftist’ union rally, even though he is anti-union! They of course, fall in love, but there’s an obstacle in the way. Unfortunately for Helen, Philip is an unhappily married man, and she must make a difficult decision, to continue the relationship or let it go. Helen even gets introduced to his wife Madeleine Barbara O’Neil (Stella Dallas, Tower of London) where she learns about why Philip is cheating on his wife.
When Tomorrow Comes is an enjoyable romance drama, even though many of us classic fans have seen this type of story many times before. The acting by the cast, which also includes veteran actors Onslow Stephens (House of Frankenstein, The Monster and the Girl) and Nella Walker (Flesh and Fury, Indiscreet) is outstanding. There is great chemistry between the two leads, Charles Boyer, and Irene Dunne.
An interesting tidbit about the film as there was a scene where the two actors go to a church to get out of the rain which wound up leading to a copyright infringement case with writer James M. Cain suing Universal pictures, screenwriter Dwight Taylor and director John Stahl over it!
When Tomorrow Comes has been given a Blu-ray release courtesy of Kino Lorber with a brand new 2K master. The picture quality is stunning with excellent clarity and contrast. The video boasts deep blacks and rich whites to go with balanced grays throughout. There are just a few scenes of softness to the image, and a few speckles and lines that pop up on occasion, but nothing that I would call distracting. It’s a nice, clean, polished image that I am impressed with!
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono soundtrack is also strong with clear easy to understand dialogue, with background noises such as rainfall, thunderstorms and music coming in perfectly fine and balanced. The audio is not overpowering or aggressive. No age-old anomalies such as hissing, or popping were detected. Optional English subtitles are available for this offering.
This Blu-ray has a commentary track by author/film Historian Lee Gambin and costume historian Elissa Rose where they discuss the film, acting, costumes and the remake from 1957 called Interlude.
Trailers for Back Street, Now and Forever, Desire, The Gilded Lily, The Good Fair and Love Before Breakfast are also part of the supplemental package.
I can easily recommend When Tomorrow Comes with the image and audio arguably looking and sounding as good as it ever will! Plus, there is a commentary track to go with this package for those who like commentaries. It is definitely worth picking up!
When Tomorrow Comes
Director- John M. Stahl
Cast- Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer
Country of Origin-USA
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –8/14/22