When Tomorrow Comes (1939) DVD-R

Starring Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Barbara O'Neil, Onslow Stevens,
Fritz Feld
Directed by John M. Stahl

Print: black/white
Runtime: 90 min.
Genre: drama
Print Quality: C-

Following up their successful film Love Affair, Charles Boyer and Irene
Dunne team up again for the romantic melodrama When Tomorrow
Comes, based on a story by James M. Cain. Philip (Boyer) is a concert
pianist who stops into a restaurant for lunch and meets waitress Helen
Lawrence (Dunne). He follows her to a rally where she is planning a
strike. The two fall in love despite the fact that Philip is married to
Madeline (Barbara O'Neil), who suffers from psychotic spells after a
miscarriage has brought her to madness. Helen goes on strike and Philip
wants to take her to Long Island on his sailboat, but they are stranded by
a hurricane. Taking refuge in a destroyed church, Helen learns about his
wife and is forced to make a difficult decision. When Tomorrow Comes
won an Academy award in 1939 for Best Sound, mostly due to the novel
hurricane scene. This is one of three films by director John M. Stahl to be
remade by Douglas Sirk in the late '50s and early '60s.