An elderly couple lose their home and their grown children don't want them around, so where can they turn? After a creaky start, this thoughtful film becomes absorbing and very touching. It thankfully never resorts to feel-good measures: the oldsters are not painted as saints (in fact, Beulah Bondi's "Ma" is realistically nagging and nosy) and their kids are completely selfish (which is entirely believable). The picture has one of the most haunting endings that I can recall, and it's even more powerful to consider how timely it all is (and how this situation still rears its ugly head today). An emotionally gripping, wistful, memorable movie. ***1/2 from ****
92 Reviews
It'll make you call your mother, that's for sure
marcslope7 May 2002
One of the few American movies to look seriously (and reasonably honestly) at old age, this 1937 melodrama won wonderful reviews, but apparently it was so sad that audiences couldn't bear to look at it. While McCarey was justly celebrated for his sensitive direction, let's start with the shrewd, shaded screenplay, where nobody's entirely good or bad: The children do mean well, but let selfishness intervene; the aged parents are victims, but they're also unavoidably inconvenient and occasionally annoying. It is, unfortunately, a timeless topic -- parents turning into dependent children, children turning into their parents' parents, and the government yammering ineffectually about the problem decade after decade.
McCarey spins the tale out with subtle humor -- just a wink from Victor Moore, a visual aside by Beulah Bondi, says more than several lines of dialogue would. Plus, this is a couple whose passion has survived the years; they can't keep their hands off each other. The notion's a bit hard to swallow, perhaps a contrivance to tilt the viewer's sympathies more in their direction and away from the thoughtless middle-aged kids. But it does work dramatically and makes the last 20 minutes or so almost unbearably poignant. And the last shot, of Bondi, is unforgettable; it's up there with Garbo in "Queen Christina."
McCarey spins the tale out with subtle humor -- just a wink from Victor Moore, a visual aside by Beulah Bondi, says more than several lines of dialogue would. Plus, this is a couple whose passion has survived the years; they can't keep their hands off each other. The notion's a bit hard to swallow, perhaps a contrivance to tilt the viewer's sympathies more in their direction and away from the thoughtless middle-aged kids. But it does work dramatically and makes the last 20 minutes or so almost unbearably poignant. And the last shot, of Bondi, is unforgettable; it's up there with Garbo in "Queen Christina."
Hard to find classic now on DVD from Criterion
zetes28 February 2010
It took me a while to get into this one. It's kind of awkward and uncomfortable, but it turns out that's largely the point. The story is about an elderly married couple (Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi) who lose their house to the bank. None of their five children has enough room for both of them, so they end up breaking up, supposedly temporarily, to live in the homes of two of their children. Moore goes with his daughter (Minna Gombell) and Bondi goes with her son (Thomas Mitchell). Much of the movie focuses on Bondi living with her son's family (Fay Bainter is Mitchell's wife and Barbara Read his daughter). It's Hell for all of them. Bondi's old fashioned ways are annoying to the family. She herself feels out of place and confused, having lived with her husband for 50 years. Meanwhile, Moore is having just as awful a time at his daughter's place. The whole picture finds its way to one of the most satisfying and powerful final acts I've seen, where the old couple finally reunites. It's pretty much the first time in the film we see them spend a significant amount of time together, and these two people who seemed so awkward apart feel like a whole together. We see their love, we feel for what they've lost. It's absolutely gorgeous. The very end of the film is a killer. I've never quite seen a film like this (well, Tokyo Story is obviously in part based on this). On a rewatch, I think it may be a lot stronger, but I liked it a heck of a lot this time around.
You know old trees just grow stronger....
dbdumonteil4 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
... Old rivers grow wider every day
But old people just grow lonesome
John Prine, "Hello in there".
My favorite MacCarey drama,better ,IMHO,than his beloved works such as "Going my way" "the bells of St Mary's" "An Affair to remember".
Its influence was important in Europa ,notably in France (René Allio's "La Vieille Dame Indigne" ) or in Italy (Luigi Comencini's "Buon Natale,Buon anno;Vittorio de Sica's "Umberto D" ).
Unforgettable scenes:
The bridge game during which the old lady gets in the way.The sound of her rocking-chair,the phone call,the children ashamed of their mum,all rings true,all leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
The letter ma sent to pa :"I cannot read anymore,you'll read the rest when your glasses are fixed " the old man's buddy says as the news become more and more depressing .One should notice here McCarey's skills;a tearjerker maker would have shown us through the home for aged people,but the sentences of the letter are much stronger than the pictures "This is a lovely place" the daughter-in-law keeps repeating.
The last afternoon together ,the last hours which are all the more precious .The tenderness the director feels for his characters is infinite.Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi shine during this extraordinary romantic final: coming back to the chic hotel where they spent their honeymoon,they won't return to their selfish children's home for one last meal (what kind of beast could enjoy such a feast?).In the hotel,they dance and there's that magic moment : the conductor,realizing these old people cannot adapt themselves to the new jazzy rhythms ,asks his musicians to play "let me call you sweetheart".
The ending is one of the saddest I know.Whereas Frank Capra would have probably gathered the whole family in the station,or have Thomas Mitchell arrive at the last minute when the train moves off,McCarey refuses any happy end.Hence the failure of the movie when it was released.
Make way for tomorrow indeed! There are very revealing shots of New York with the skyscrapers and the cars which run faster and faster ,leaving the old by the wayside.And however these sacred lines had warned us before the tragedy began:" honor thy father and thy mother",written on an ominous sky.
Waiting for someone to say
Hello in there,
Hello (J.P.)
But old people just grow lonesome
John Prine, "Hello in there".
My favorite MacCarey drama,better ,IMHO,than his beloved works such as "Going my way" "the bells of St Mary's" "An Affair to remember".
Its influence was important in Europa ,notably in France (René Allio's "La Vieille Dame Indigne" ) or in Italy (Luigi Comencini's "Buon Natale,Buon anno;Vittorio de Sica's "Umberto D" ).
Unforgettable scenes:
The bridge game during which the old lady gets in the way.The sound of her rocking-chair,the phone call,the children ashamed of their mum,all rings true,all leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
The letter ma sent to pa :"I cannot read anymore,you'll read the rest when your glasses are fixed " the old man's buddy says as the news become more and more depressing .One should notice here McCarey's skills;a tearjerker maker would have shown us through the home for aged people,but the sentences of the letter are much stronger than the pictures "This is a lovely place" the daughter-in-law keeps repeating.
The last afternoon together ,the last hours which are all the more precious .The tenderness the director feels for his characters is infinite.Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi shine during this extraordinary romantic final: coming back to the chic hotel where they spent their honeymoon,they won't return to their selfish children's home for one last meal (what kind of beast could enjoy such a feast?).In the hotel,they dance and there's that magic moment : the conductor,realizing these old people cannot adapt themselves to the new jazzy rhythms ,asks his musicians to play "let me call you sweetheart".
The ending is one of the saddest I know.Whereas Frank Capra would have probably gathered the whole family in the station,or have Thomas Mitchell arrive at the last minute when the train moves off,McCarey refuses any happy end.Hence the failure of the movie when it was released.
Make way for tomorrow indeed! There are very revealing shots of New York with the skyscrapers and the cars which run faster and faster ,leaving the old by the wayside.And however these sacred lines had warned us before the tragedy began:" honor thy father and thy mother",written on an ominous sky.
Waiting for someone to say
Hello in there,
Hello (J.P.)
This Day and Age
lugonian12 September 2000
MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (Paramount, 1937), directed by Leo McCarey, ranks one of the very best and well scripted dramas from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and one worthy of recognition and/or rediscovery. No longer available on any local TV channel as it was in the 1970s, MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW had frequent revivals on American Movie Classics, from June 20, 1994 until its final air date, April 3, 1999, and a Turner Classic Movies premiere September 6, 2010. Thus far, it's never been distributed on video cassette but DVD distribution did finally come many years later.
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 by 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, that it should 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 production, dramatically anyway.
In support here are Fay Bainter (in a rare unsympathetic role); Thomas Mitchell (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 MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW lacks star names, it consists of character actors in leading parts, which is just as good. 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 tear inducing. Although she plays a woman possibly in her late 70s, she was actually 45 when the film was made. Sadly, MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW did not receive a single Academy Award nomination. If a nomination was to be offered, it definitely would go to Bondi as Best Actress for such highlights as sitting sadly in her rocking chair as the radio plays the sentimental score of "I Adore You" as introduced in Paramount's own COLLEGE HOLIDAY (1936), along with her closing scene at the train station bidding husband Moore farewell to the underscoring of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," scenes that remain in memory long after the movie is over.
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 close to great motion picture making such as this one. (***1/2)
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 by 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, that it should 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 production, dramatically anyway.
In support here are Fay Bainter (in a rare unsympathetic role); Thomas Mitchell (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 MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW lacks star names, it consists of character actors in leading parts, which is just as good. 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 tear inducing. Although she plays a woman possibly in her late 70s, she was actually 45 when the film was made. Sadly, MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW did not receive a single Academy Award nomination. If a nomination was to be offered, it definitely would go to Bondi as Best Actress for such highlights as sitting sadly in her rocking chair as the radio plays the sentimental score of "I Adore You" as introduced in Paramount's own COLLEGE HOLIDAY (1936), along with her closing scene at the train station bidding husband Moore farewell to the underscoring of "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," scenes that remain in memory long after the movie is over.
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 close to great motion picture making such as this one. (***1/2)
Respect your parents
moviemanMA25 April 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Make Way for Tomorrow is one of the most personal, heart-wrenching films every recorded on celluloid. Though it's story is utterly sad, nay, depressing, it is one of the most beautiful films ever made. It does not hold back and goes places the heart and mind would not like to wander of to.
We find ourselves in the midst of the Great Depression. A time before social security was put into play. We are introduced to Barkley and Lucy Cooper (Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi), an elderly couple who have just lost their home to the bank. They have known for several months, but saw no need to panic and tell their children just a few days before they are expected to move. The children are none too pleased that their parents are losing their house. More so because they will have to bare the burden of caring for them while they try and find a place of their own. With the unstable economy, it might be a while.
Lucy stays with her son George (Thomas Mitchell) and his wife and child while Barkley stays with their daughter Cora, several hundred miles apart from Lucy. They both find life with their children to be a bit unbearable. They have their good days, but mostly they find themselves getting in the way and becoming a nuisance. George's wife and daughter complain of being constantly bothered and having to deal with Lucy. Meanwhile Barkley health starts to get worse and Cora reluctantly must look after him.
The doctor says that Barkley must move to a warmer climate or else he could get worse. Lucy too finds that she is being shooed away by her own family. It is decided that Barkley must go to California with their other daughter but that only he can go because that is all their daughter can handle at the moment. Lucy and Barkley get together and spend the day with each other before he must head out west.
Just thinking of this sweet couple and what they are going through is hard. After having spent 50 years together, living in the same house and raising five children, to suddenly have everything taken away and having to live far apart must be devastating. They endure and try to make the best, just like they have been doing their whole lives.
One would think that the children, who were raised and cared for by their parents, would be sympathetic and a little less critical about the situation. It's hard to imagine that collectively their children can muster up the heart to care for their aging parents.
McCarey, whose work primarily consisted of both physical and witty comedies, delivers a much darker and emotional whopper of a film. It doesn't hold back and delivers scene after scene a new piece of drama that just makes you want to reach out and help these people. His style is not the most technically advanced, but the story he delivers is second to none. One aspect of his film-making that I enjoyed were the longer shots of conversation and contemplation. It makes the actors work harder and gets a much more personal performance onto the screen.
The acting is spot on. Both Moore and Bondi give fantastic performances, each playing their age perfectly. Somewhat forgetful yet always sincere and never mean. The children too, especially Mitchell, do a wonderful job in conveying their feelings about their situation. It's obvious that these aren't the greatest children in the world, but they are by no means the worst. Mitchell truly feels sorry for his parents, but he is also aware that he has a family that needs taking care of and their needs have been placed higher than his parents.
The final scenes of this film are some of the most intense and moving ever. I mean ever. I have never been more surprised, delighted, and completely torn apart over what was unfolding before my eyes. It's an absolutely brilliant sequence of events, culminating to an end that only a master of his craft could orchestrate.
We find ourselves in the midst of the Great Depression. A time before social security was put into play. We are introduced to Barkley and Lucy Cooper (Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi), an elderly couple who have just lost their home to the bank. They have known for several months, but saw no need to panic and tell their children just a few days before they are expected to move. The children are none too pleased that their parents are losing their house. More so because they will have to bare the burden of caring for them while they try and find a place of their own. With the unstable economy, it might be a while.
Lucy stays with her son George (Thomas Mitchell) and his wife and child while Barkley stays with their daughter Cora, several hundred miles apart from Lucy. They both find life with their children to be a bit unbearable. They have their good days, but mostly they find themselves getting in the way and becoming a nuisance. George's wife and daughter complain of being constantly bothered and having to deal with Lucy. Meanwhile Barkley health starts to get worse and Cora reluctantly must look after him.
The doctor says that Barkley must move to a warmer climate or else he could get worse. Lucy too finds that she is being shooed away by her own family. It is decided that Barkley must go to California with their other daughter but that only he can go because that is all their daughter can handle at the moment. Lucy and Barkley get together and spend the day with each other before he must head out west.
Just thinking of this sweet couple and what they are going through is hard. After having spent 50 years together, living in the same house and raising five children, to suddenly have everything taken away and having to live far apart must be devastating. They endure and try to make the best, just like they have been doing their whole lives.
One would think that the children, who were raised and cared for by their parents, would be sympathetic and a little less critical about the situation. It's hard to imagine that collectively their children can muster up the heart to care for their aging parents.
McCarey, whose work primarily consisted of both physical and witty comedies, delivers a much darker and emotional whopper of a film. It doesn't hold back and delivers scene after scene a new piece of drama that just makes you want to reach out and help these people. His style is not the most technically advanced, but the story he delivers is second to none. One aspect of his film-making that I enjoyed were the longer shots of conversation and contemplation. It makes the actors work harder and gets a much more personal performance onto the screen.
The acting is spot on. Both Moore and Bondi give fantastic performances, each playing their age perfectly. Somewhat forgetful yet always sincere and never mean. The children too, especially Mitchell, do a wonderful job in conveying their feelings about their situation. It's obvious that these aren't the greatest children in the world, but they are by no means the worst. Mitchell truly feels sorry for his parents, but he is also aware that he has a family that needs taking care of and their needs have been placed higher than his parents.
The final scenes of this film are some of the most intense and moving ever. I mean ever. I have never been more surprised, delighted, and completely torn apart over what was unfolding before my eyes. It's an absolutely brilliant sequence of events, culminating to an end that only a master of his craft could orchestrate.
Overlooked...? Indeed!!!
emhughes29 November 2001
I cannot believe that this movie did not receive any Academy Awards! I give it "All T's", for touching, tender, terrific, and tearfully timeless!!! Why it continues to be overlooked and not made into a video behooves any Beulah Bondi fan and people like me that have had the privilege of catching it tucked away between 2am infomercials on other stations. Get it on the shelf in the video stores! I've been looking for it for years! Can you say, "Bitter batter baby buggy bumpers" to your spouse as lovingly as these two lovebirds did in that 1937 classic? Romeo, Juliet, Scarlett and Rhett can't hold a light to 'Pa' and 'Ma' Cooper!
It Will Tear Your Heart Out
captain-bill30 May 2010
I purchased the Criterion Collection DVD of this movie, intending to rip it out of its packaging and watch it straightaway. Instead, I let it reside on the shelf for several weeks, and only got around to watching it a few days ago.
"Make Way for Tomorrow" has joined my very personal list of the greatest American movies. Its direction is so transparent, one might think it wasn't directed at all, but spontaneously happened in front of the camera. The acting is so unforced and natural, you might think you are watching your neighbors. Of course, such acting and direction are really difficult to achieve, so I wonder why I had not come across this masterpiece before.
Orson Welles is reported to have said it could make a stone cry. He was right. When I watched this movie, I certainly cried for the first time in about five years, having been unable to do so before I saw this incredible film that validates cinema. (Why not cry before this? PTSD, father died, partner died, a car hit me resulting in major injuries.) Don't be put off by thoughts of downer subject matter; if you love life and love cinema, you owe it to yourself to see this great, great movie.
"Make Way for Tomorrow" has joined my very personal list of the greatest American movies. Its direction is so transparent, one might think it wasn't directed at all, but spontaneously happened in front of the camera. The acting is so unforced and natural, you might think you are watching your neighbors. Of course, such acting and direction are really difficult to achieve, so I wonder why I had not come across this masterpiece before.
Orson Welles is reported to have said it could make a stone cry. He was right. When I watched this movie, I certainly cried for the first time in about five years, having been unable to do so before I saw this incredible film that validates cinema. (Why not cry before this? PTSD, father died, partner died, a car hit me resulting in major injuries.) Don't be put off by thoughts of downer subject matter; if you love life and love cinema, you owe it to yourself to see this great, great movie.
Overlooked gem.
apocalypse later24 March 1999
Beulah Bondi gave her greatest performance as a mistreated elderly mother in this bittersweet, highly underrated Leo McCarey gem. Oscar should have noticed. (Actually, McCarey did win the Best Director Oscar that year, for the screwball comedy "The Awful Truth" - also written by Vena Delmar. In his acceptance speech, McCarey thanked the Academy, but said "you've given me this for the wrong film" - referring to "Make Way For Tomorrow.") Believe it or not, Bondi was only 48 at the time of filming, only four years older than the actors playing her children. A marvelous performance, and a lovely film
No aging parent should go through this treatment
SkippyDevereaux25 December 1999
One of the greatest tear-jerkers of all time. The sad tale of how two parents lose their house and not one of their children will let their own parents live with them. I agree, Miss Bondi deserved to win the Oscar that year but what else can I say about that subject. If you ever get to see this film, bring along a box of tissues. Make that two.
Timeless
MikeyB179314 August 2011
Warning: Spoilers
How many films today deal with older people and how they impact their children and grandchildren? Not too many – and the ones that do, tend to romanticize older people.
This film – made in 1937 - is still very valid today.
An older couple, due to a bank seizure, are forced out of their home and have to rely on their children for support. It doesn't go smoothly. It is surprising how the same issues from the 1930's still exist today. The children squabble and negotiate who keeps their elderly parents and for how long. The unfortunate couple is split up between two of their children. More problems start when the grand-daughter must share her bedroom with her grand-mother. She no longer wants her friends over because she is not comfortable with them in the presence of her grand-mother. All these and other difficulties are presented in a very non-judgemental fashion – we are able to see these conflicts as "shades of grey" – no one is entirely right or wrong. They are just trying to live their own lives. It is the elderly couple who are caught within this paradox over-which they have sadly lost control. It is a fine performance by the grandmother – Beula Bondi. The film, I feel, is marred towards the end by the over-generosity of various restaurateurs in New York City – I am dubious of free meals in fine dining restaurants. But the very ending is poignant.
This is a fine film that well illustrates the timelessness of cinema.
This film – made in 1937 - is still very valid today.
An older couple, due to a bank seizure, are forced out of their home and have to rely on their children for support. It doesn't go smoothly. It is surprising how the same issues from the 1930's still exist today. The children squabble and negotiate who keeps their elderly parents and for how long. The unfortunate couple is split up between two of their children. More problems start when the grand-daughter must share her bedroom with her grand-mother. She no longer wants her friends over because she is not comfortable with them in the presence of her grand-mother. All these and other difficulties are presented in a very non-judgemental fashion – we are able to see these conflicts as "shades of grey" – no one is entirely right or wrong. They are just trying to live their own lives. It is the elderly couple who are caught within this paradox over-which they have sadly lost control. It is a fine performance by the grandmother – Beula Bondi. The film, I feel, is marred towards the end by the over-generosity of various restaurateurs in New York City – I am dubious of free meals in fine dining restaurants. But the very ending is poignant.
This is a fine film that well illustrates the timelessness of cinema.
The Twilight Years
bkoganbing6 September 2010
No big box office names grace Make Way For Tomorrow, but Leo McCarey put together a great ensemble cast in this story about old age and the consequences thereof in 1937 America. Though Social Security had just passed, no one would see any money from it until 1942 and health insurance was strictly for those who could afford it.
But Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore who are in relatively good health all things considered are not entering the twilight years of a happy life together without some big problems. The family homestead as did many family homesteads during the Depression has been taken by the bank, forcing Victor and Beulah to look to their children for help.
In those days that's exactly what used to happen. But none of their five children can take on both of them, they have no room. So Beulah goes to live with son Thomas Mitchell and his wife and daughter Fay Bainter and Barbara Read. Moore goes to live with daughter Elizabeth Risdon and husband Ralph Remley. In both households the parents are made to feel in the way and in some respects they were.
It was the cruelest kind of punishment to separate two people who spent half a century together. But that's what happens to both. Before the end of the film, the two spend a day in New York reminiscing of lost youth and the good times therein.
Moore and Bondi were around the same age as their 'children' and were made to look much older. Bondi made a specialty of playing much older than she was and in fact did live into her nineties. As for Moore though he was doing character roles now, he was a big comedy star on the Broadway stage going back to the ragtime era. His biggest role on Broadway was co-starring with Fay Templeton in George M. Cohan's 45 Minutes From Broadway.
Especially in the last half hour Moore and Bondi will pull all the emotional restraints from your soul. They really do become an idealized version of parents and grandparents. Make Way For Tomorrow is heartstring touching movie and hasn't dated one bit.
But Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore who are in relatively good health all things considered are not entering the twilight years of a happy life together without some big problems. The family homestead as did many family homesteads during the Depression has been taken by the bank, forcing Victor and Beulah to look to their children for help.
In those days that's exactly what used to happen. But none of their five children can take on both of them, they have no room. So Beulah goes to live with son Thomas Mitchell and his wife and daughter Fay Bainter and Barbara Read. Moore goes to live with daughter Elizabeth Risdon and husband Ralph Remley. In both households the parents are made to feel in the way and in some respects they were.
It was the cruelest kind of punishment to separate two people who spent half a century together. But that's what happens to both. Before the end of the film, the two spend a day in New York reminiscing of lost youth and the good times therein.
Moore and Bondi were around the same age as their 'children' and were made to look much older. Bondi made a specialty of playing much older than she was and in fact did live into her nineties. As for Moore though he was doing character roles now, he was a big comedy star on the Broadway stage going back to the ragtime era. His biggest role on Broadway was co-starring with Fay Templeton in George M. Cohan's 45 Minutes From Broadway.
Especially in the last half hour Moore and Bondi will pull all the emotional restraints from your soul. They really do become an idealized version of parents and grandparents. Make Way For Tomorrow is heartstring touching movie and hasn't dated one bit.
Incredibly sad and moving, but also stiff and contrived--some personal taste at work
secondtake21 April 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
This is a movie about resignation. Even the title implies that times change and the old gets swept aside. Like it or not.
And if there is truth to that, there are also too many other factors at play, even in this family tear-jerker, to quite go along innocently for the ride. The plot, and the dilemma faced by children of aging parents who need a place to live, is timeless, even if their solution (to split the parents up) is a huge contrivance that should make most children (and parents) shake their heads in disbelief. The play of problems and affections across generations is believable and interesting enough, but again, for me, a bit canned. I try to see that this is a fresh approach for 1937 and I can't quite do that either.
But it has to be said that Orson Welles, among many others, have been greatly moved by the film, perhaps for its ultimate pessimism (not for the way it was filmed, I assume). And in fact the very best scenes, almost all of them with Beulah Bondi as the wise, heart tugging grandmother (and not a cliché like many of the other characters) really have subtlety and pathos.
Director Leo McCarey had an extraordinary career, yet so diverse in style, and lacking any one absolute knockout (a "Casablanca," say), it is often relegated to second tier below the Hitchcocks and Fords and Wylers of the era. But watching his films from the Marx Brothers in "Duck Soup" to both versions of the classic tale of true love derailed, "Love Affair" and "An Affair to Remember,", throw in Cary Grant in the moving but flawed "The Awful Truth" and see Bing Crosby in the moving but flawed "The Bells of St. Mary's," and you'll see the amazing conundrum of his arc.
"Make Way for Tomorrow" is so stiff and frankly awkward in the establishment scenes for the first half hour or so, it might take some forbearance to get to the later scenes where the plot divides into two parallel worlds. It is the New York plot that works, with the astonishing acting of Bondi as the grandmother, the fresh young actress Barbara Read as the granddaughter, and the somewhat strained father figure between the two, played by veteran Thomas Mitchell. And it is the rather amazing and very moving final half hour with the two oldsters together again in Central Park, and in the hotel where they had had their honeymoon half a century earlier (in the 1880s), that the real sobbing begins. And it is relentless, the sentiment and sadness, the inevitable sadness, without complication. It's about a couple facing their extinction, one way or another.
So, take this as a mixed experience. If the movie itself were to follow its own prescription, it (the movie) would accept that its style and attitude are antiquated even for 1937, and we might want to make way for another kind of Hollywood, and another kind of sentimental movie (like "Grapes of Wrath," as one example). But if you just grab the sentiment at its most sentimental, you'll but a blubbering mess at the end. Which is pretty good.
This is a movie about resignation. Even the title implies that times change and the old gets swept aside. Like it or not.
And if there is truth to that, there are also too many other factors at play, even in this family tear-jerker, to quite go along innocently for the ride. The plot, and the dilemma faced by children of aging parents who need a place to live, is timeless, even if their solution (to split the parents up) is a huge contrivance that should make most children (and parents) shake their heads in disbelief. The play of problems and affections across generations is believable and interesting enough, but again, for me, a bit canned. I try to see that this is a fresh approach for 1937 and I can't quite do that either.
But it has to be said that Orson Welles, among many others, have been greatly moved by the film, perhaps for its ultimate pessimism (not for the way it was filmed, I assume). And in fact the very best scenes, almost all of them with Beulah Bondi as the wise, heart tugging grandmother (and not a cliché like many of the other characters) really have subtlety and pathos.
Director Leo McCarey had an extraordinary career, yet so diverse in style, and lacking any one absolute knockout (a "Casablanca," say), it is often relegated to second tier below the Hitchcocks and Fords and Wylers of the era. But watching his films from the Marx Brothers in "Duck Soup" to both versions of the classic tale of true love derailed, "Love Affair" and "An Affair to Remember,", throw in Cary Grant in the moving but flawed "The Awful Truth" and see Bing Crosby in the moving but flawed "The Bells of St. Mary's," and you'll see the amazing conundrum of his arc.
"Make Way for Tomorrow" is so stiff and frankly awkward in the establishment scenes for the first half hour or so, it might take some forbearance to get to the later scenes where the plot divides into two parallel worlds. It is the New York plot that works, with the astonishing acting of Bondi as the grandmother, the fresh young actress Barbara Read as the granddaughter, and the somewhat strained father figure between the two, played by veteran Thomas Mitchell. And it is the rather amazing and very moving final half hour with the two oldsters together again in Central Park, and in the hotel where they had had their honeymoon half a century earlier (in the 1880s), that the real sobbing begins. And it is relentless, the sentiment and sadness, the inevitable sadness, without complication. It's about a couple facing their extinction, one way or another.
So, take this as a mixed experience. If the movie itself were to follow its own prescription, it (the movie) would accept that its style and attitude are antiquated even for 1937, and we might want to make way for another kind of Hollywood, and another kind of sentimental movie (like "Grapes of Wrath," as one example). But if you just grab the sentiment at its most sentimental, you'll but a blubbering mess at the end. Which is pretty good.
Struggled to finish it
jdrennan1318 June 2020
The premise is interesting, but I was barely able to finish this film given how irritating the two elderly leads are. I do not understand how one is meant to feel any sort of sympathy given how annoying they are. I wanted to enjoy this film, but struggled to finish the thing.
So Quiet and Simple You May Not Realize How Brilliant It Is Until You've Had Time to Think About It
evanston_dad23 May 2014
"Make Way for Tomorrow," Leo McCarey's quiet tragedy about an elderly couple who are left with few choices when their adult children are reluctant to take care of them, is one of those films that grows in stature the more you think about it.
On one hand, it's a bit heavy handed and simplistic in the way 1930s films frequently were and which makes them seem dated now -- the parents are a bit too saintly, the children a bit too awful. As a study of characters, the film would have been more interesting if it had provided some insight into why the children turned out the way they did and what role the parents played in shaping them into the selfish adults they become. The children would have been more interesting if they had been portrayed more humanely; Thomas Mitchell, as the oldest son, is the only one who comes across as something other than a selfish horror.
But the film is more interested in examining a social topic than it is in exploring characters, and in that way it feels ahead of its time, even if its sophistication doesn't fully sink in until after you've had some time to think about the movie. For a 1937 film, it's extremely unsentimental when it might have been downright maudlin. The parents move about with a resigned air, and the film doesn't pander for sympathy. As one of the extra features on the DVD points out, audiences aren't interested in movies about old people even now, let alone then. And we haven't gotten much better at the way we view and treat the elderly in the 70+ years since "Make Way for Tomorrow" debuted. One of the things I liked best about the movie -- and that makes it still incredibly relevant -- is that it shows how dismissive younger generations are about older people, and how children seem to think their parents don't have lives outside of them. As portrayed brilliantly by Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore in the film, these two doddery folk have a rich history together; they had a life before children and they have a life after; they have things to teach, wisdom to impart, and they're very sharp and astute about what's going on around them. One of the biggest tragedies in the film is something that goes almost unspoken, and that's the disappointment they feel in their children but won't let their children see.
The final sequence of the movie is downright magical, when Bondi and Moore blow off their children to revisit the haunts of their honeymoon. It's funny, sad and almost unbearably poignant without being schmaltzy, thanks partly to the low-key direction of Leo McCarey but mostly to the wonderful performances of the two actors.
A lovely film.
Grade: A
On one hand, it's a bit heavy handed and simplistic in the way 1930s films frequently were and which makes them seem dated now -- the parents are a bit too saintly, the children a bit too awful. As a study of characters, the film would have been more interesting if it had provided some insight into why the children turned out the way they did and what role the parents played in shaping them into the selfish adults they become. The children would have been more interesting if they had been portrayed more humanely; Thomas Mitchell, as the oldest son, is the only one who comes across as something other than a selfish horror.
But the film is more interested in examining a social topic than it is in exploring characters, and in that way it feels ahead of its time, even if its sophistication doesn't fully sink in until after you've had some time to think about the movie. For a 1937 film, it's extremely unsentimental when it might have been downright maudlin. The parents move about with a resigned air, and the film doesn't pander for sympathy. As one of the extra features on the DVD points out, audiences aren't interested in movies about old people even now, let alone then. And we haven't gotten much better at the way we view and treat the elderly in the 70+ years since "Make Way for Tomorrow" debuted. One of the things I liked best about the movie -- and that makes it still incredibly relevant -- is that it shows how dismissive younger generations are about older people, and how children seem to think their parents don't have lives outside of them. As portrayed brilliantly by Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore in the film, these two doddery folk have a rich history together; they had a life before children and they have a life after; they have things to teach, wisdom to impart, and they're very sharp and astute about what's going on around them. One of the biggest tragedies in the film is something that goes almost unspoken, and that's the disappointment they feel in their children but won't let their children see.
The final sequence of the movie is downright magical, when Bondi and Moore blow off their children to revisit the haunts of their honeymoon. It's funny, sad and almost unbearably poignant without being schmaltzy, thanks partly to the low-key direction of Leo McCarey but mostly to the wonderful performances of the two actors.
A lovely film.
Grade: A
Superb, heartbreakingly realistic and personal film about aging in economic hard times.
cka2nd24 September 2006
I've also taped this movie off of TV (Thank you, Turner Classic Movies!) but would love to see it on DVD. The restraint with which this story is told is really quite impressive, but the ultimate result is devastating. As the arrangements with their adult children unravel, even a surprisingly pleasant and romantic day on the town for our elderly couple fails to give us any hope for a happy ending. The performances are uniformly fine, with lovely work done both vocally and with facial expressions; for instance, keep an eye out for Faye Bainter's last look at her mother-in-law. Bainter became one of my favorite character actors after I saw her work as a sympathetic daughter-in-law with troubles of her own.
I'm not being nearly eloquent enough, so let me just say that if you ever get a chance to catch this film, watch it!
I'm not being nearly eloquent enough, so let me just say that if you ever get a chance to catch this film, watch it!
Hollywood, doing a sensitive and subtle tale of old age? Believe it.
OldAle119 November 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I first heard of this film when reading Jonathan Rosenbaum's short take on Sarah Polley's "Away from Her"; that film was my favorite of this year (2007) so far, and Rosenbaum saying that it was "within hailing distance" of this Leo McCarey film meant I had to track this down. I'm glad I did; though the 5 Minutes to Live DVD was of fairly low quality, the essential genius of the film shows through: this is, as Rosenbaum and a few other perceptive critics have noted, one of the greatest films ever made about aging and the conflicts between the desires of children leading their own lives, and their responsibilities towards their own parents. Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore are the parents of five grown children, including Thomas Mitchell as the eldest, who have lost their home; the children grudgingly offer to take them in, but none is willing to take both parents. One of the amazingly simple points that the film makes in a beautifully understated manner is that the kids simply don't understand, or care about the importance of the parents' relationship with each other; they can only focus on the parent-child situation. All the performances are fine, but Bondi's is one for the ages; the scene where she receives a call from her husband, the mingled sorrow and joy in her voice as time stops around her, disrupting the bridge class that her daughter-in-law is conducting, is heartbreaking. The last 15 minutes or so, the couple reuniting for one last time, could so easily be schmaltzy or maudlin, but McCarey doesn't create heroes or villains, he doesn't offer easy outs or artificial obstacles, he just lets them be old people, disappointed and lost...
Little known 30's drama of aging parents still powerful today
mlraymond9 November 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This is one of the most amazing movies I have ever seen. I had never heard of it until two or three years ago, when it popped up on Turner Classic Movies. The chemistry between Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore as the old couple is believable and touching. The film is sentimental without overdoing it. I think the best scene in the picture is the sequence of the bridge lesson in the home of one of the couple's daughters. SPOILERS AHEAD: The daughter has assembled a group of well dressed guests, who are seated at tables, watching her illustrate on a chalkboard how to play bridge. As she lectures, her old mother comes in, after spending the evening at the movies. She sits in her favorite chair and begins to regale the polite guests with the story of the movie she has seen. The daughter has a brittle smile, and the guests are clearly a bit uncomfortable, and then gradually, the old lady realizes she's interrupting the game ,and apologizes. Everything goes back to the bridge lesson, but then the phone rings and Ma takes a long distance call from Pa, loud enough that no one can help overhearing her every word.What begins as idle sounding chit chat becomes more and more serious and emotional, as the old woman urges her husband to remember to dress warmly and take good care of himself, and the love she has for her husband is so real, it's impossible for the viewer not to bust out crying The guests look moved, and perhaps a little ashamed for finding her a nuisance shortly before. This is one of the most powerful, tender scenes I have ever seen on film. The reactions of every person, from the old lady, to the daughter, to the bridge players, are all superbly registered and poignantly believable.This movie deserves to be seen by anyone who loves old movies and enjoys the kind of compassionate dramas Hollywood used to turn out in its golden age.
Serpents Teeth Sharpened While You Wait
writers_reign19 January 2011
Warning: Spoilers
In his wisdom - and/or cynicism - the Chief Programmer at the NFT elected to screen this stark tale of a couple marking fifty years of marriage by being evicted from first their own, secondly their children's home and doomed to spend the rest of their lives separated by 3,000 miles as a 'Seniors Matinée'. Nice one, Geoff. McCary is on record as citing this as his favorite of all his films and give that he shot The Awful Truth the same year that's quite a testament. In the land of 'there are only seven basic plots' this is McCarey's take on King Lear albeit a tad more subtle than, say, Broken Lance, which merely substituted a cattle baron for a King and three sons for three daughters. Here Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi have five children and far from dividing their kingdom between the kids they haven't got change of a match, indeed as the film opens they have, after fifty years together, just two days to leave their home before the bank forecloses. What we have, of course, is not one Lear but two and reluctantly two of their selfish kids, one son, one daughter, agree to take them in. It is, of course, only a matter of time, weeks rather than months, before the kids say enough already leaving Moore to be shipped to the fifth child, a third daughter, in California, and Bondi shunted into a Retirement Home. Okay, Shakespeare did it better but Vina Delmar (who also scripted The Awful Truth for McCary) is not all that far behind the Bard and is a dab hand at substituting visual poetry for the Shakespeare's exquisite blank verse. What makes it more memorable is the lack of high profile 'stars'. It's indisputable that Moore, Bondi, Thomas Mitchell, Fay Bainter and Porter Hall were in the first rank of 'character' and/or 'supporting' actors with faces if not names familiar to every film-goer in the 30s and 40s but the bulk of the 50 plus strong cast - Elisabeth Risdon, Minna Gombell, Louise Beavers, Louis Jean Heydt etc - registered as half-familiar faces rather than names yet all deliver fine performances. For 1937 this is exceptional 'rock the boat' filmmaking.
love this movie
mbguinsler21 June 2007
This is one of my favorite movies. I have watched it twice on the old movie channel, but would love to have my own copy. Ms Bondi's acting is wonderful and Mr. Moore has such a gallant attitude with her. I love the little poem she recites in the movie and would like to have someone give me its title if known. Every married couple should watch this movie. After my second viewing of this movie I researched Ms. Bondi on this site and was astonished how young she was at the time of the shooting of this film. I then went on to rent as many of her films as I could find. What an great talent she was. It saddens me to know that so many of these marvelous old films will be lost. If anyone can tell me where I can get a copy of this movie on tape or DVD please contact me. Thanks
Ordinary Story - Extraordinary Writing & Performances
jeurorotten27 January 2006
I first saw 'Make Way For Tomorrow' in the early 80's. Being very young at the time, I didn't think I'd get into this film from the way the host of the movie show (TVOntario - Canada) briefly outlined it - minus the ending, of course.
Well, what can I say? It's been over 20 years since I've seen this superlative American 30's film, and I still feel haunted by the overwhelming sadness and hopelesness of the two lead, elderly characters. Beulah Bondi gave an extraordinary performance, as did all the cast. This was a brutal, brutal film which refused to compromise in regards to a typical Hollywood happy ever after ending. And for that, this film earned my utmost respect.
I also believe it is precisely because of the literally tear-jerking ending (understatement) why this film remains so memorable, and dear God, haunting.
'Make Way For Tomorrow' may be a product of the American 1930's; however, its story is one that is played out today the world over.
Well, what can I say? It's been over 20 years since I've seen this superlative American 30's film, and I still feel haunted by the overwhelming sadness and hopelesness of the two lead, elderly characters. Beulah Bondi gave an extraordinary performance, as did all the cast. This was a brutal, brutal film which refused to compromise in regards to a typical Hollywood happy ever after ending. And for that, this film earned my utmost respect.
I also believe it is precisely because of the literally tear-jerking ending (understatement) why this film remains so memorable, and dear God, haunting.
'Make Way For Tomorrow' may be a product of the American 1930's; however, its story is one that is played out today the world over.
Make Way for Tomorrow
jboothmillard25 October 2015
Warning: Spoilers
This black and white film is one I found listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, it had good ratings and was obviously included in this reference, I hoped for something good, directed by Loe McCarey (Duck Soup, The Awful Truth, An Affair to Remember). Basically elderly couple Barkley "Bark" (Victor Moore) and Lucy Cooper (Beulah Bondi) lose their home after the bank forecloses on the mortgage, they now need a place to live, and they turn to their five adult children. However none of the children will take both them in and they are forced to live separately, this arrangement was supposed to be temporary for three months or until something more permanent can be arranged by the children. Lucy, aka "Ma", goes to live with her son George (Thomas Mitchell), but she always seems to in the way of him and especially his wife Anita Cooper (Fay Bainter) when she is trying to teach her bridge class. Barkley, aka "Pa", goes to live with his daughter Cora Payne (Elisabeth Risdon), but she obviously resents his very presence and arranges for him to go and live with another of his children in California. While all this is going on Lucy and Barkley do their best to maintain their dignity, in the end the couple are parted when Barkley leaves to find a job in California, he says he will send for Lucy, each make a heartfelt statement and reaffirm their lifelong love, but it seems this is almost certainly their final moment together as the train departs. Also starring Porter Hall as Harvey Chase, Barbara Read as Rhoda Cooper and Maurice Moscovitch as Max Rubens. The leading stars as the old and retired married couple who are chucked out their home and slowly broken up are likable, you believe their affection for each other with dances together and stuff, I have to admit I did find myself laughing all that much, there is supposed to be lightness with the sad stuff going on, it is certainly more tearjerking than funny, but that's not a bad thing, I didn't fully get into perhaps, but it is a worthwhile enough comedy drama. Good!
McCarey's neglected masterpiece.
coop-1615 April 1999
Only three things need be said about this exquisite film. Orson Welles said it could make a stone cry. Jean Renoir said that it proved that McCarey was one of the few directors who really understood people. Finally, Robin Wood-gay Marxist atheist- praised it as one of the few good films about old people.( The only other ones I can think of are Scorsese's short documentary about his parents, and- strange to say- Lynch's forthcoming film about the old fellow who drove a John Deere tractor 275 miles to visit his dying brother.) Wood also praised its Marxist critique of the capitalist system. However, its not so much "Marxist' as it is rooted in the best traditions of Catholic socialism, traditions that, judging by some of his later films, McCarey may not have fully understood. P.S. I just thought of two other fairly good films about the aged-Wrestling Ernest Hemingway and The Whales of August.
An Uncomfortable Film Classic - Make Way for Tomorrow
arthur_tafero20 March 2022
There are very few films in the history of cinema that make audiences almost universally uncomfortable, and yet deliver an essential truth about life at the same time. Eskimos used to put the elderly on floating icebergs with food and water for a week or so. Other older cultures use to send their elderly into the mountains with the same intent. In modern society, icebergs and mountains have been replaced by old age homes, conveniently called senior residences. These places are arguably no better than the icebergs or mountains. This story touches all of us. We all have or will have elderly parents, and we, ourselves will become the elderly parents. Do unto others etc? Ideally, we would like our elderly parents to live with us until the end, but well over 90% of all elderly people do not live with their offspring; it is just a fact of modern life. Though a relentlessly depressing film, it nevertheless hits the target of what it aims for; how we will adjust to our aging parents. An uncomfortable must-see film for all ages.
Same story told better elsewhere
NJeagle18 January 2012
I was disappointed, which I realize is way out of line with most reviews, both here and elsewhere. The main problem for me is that the story is drenched in Hollywood melodrama and sentimentality. The effect (for me at least) is that the subject matter -- an aging couple and their relationship with their grown children -- loses much of its poignancy. A very similar story is told without the Hollywood treatment, and to much greater effect, in the great Japanese film Tokyo Story. That film is also superior in just about every other way -- acting and cinematography, especially, come immediately to mind -- and this movie suffers greatly by comparison.
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