Film of the Week: “Make Way for Tomorrow,” 1937

It would make a stone cry.

--Orson Welles on Make Way for Tomorrow

Director Leo McCarey was best known for his Depression-era comedies with stars such as The Marx Brothers, Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. He’s also affectionately remembered as the writer and director who brought us many sentimental favorites such as Love Affair, An Affair to Remember and The Bells of St. Mary’s.

However, one of his best films is one which has largely been forgotten until recently. 1937’s Make Way for Tomorrow seems to have been lost amongst McCarey’s other films in the historical record, yet it’s an excellent picture worthy of recognition.

The film concerns a couple in their seventies—Lucy and Barkley Cooper (played by Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore) who have lost their home to foreclosure and gather four of their five grown children at the house to explain the state of their affairs. The fifth child, a wealthy daughter, lives in California and isn’t able to join the others. The Cooper children make a half-hearted attempt to help their parents—none of them wanting to take both parents in, and none of them wishing to have their own lives disrupted. And, so, Lucy and Barkley are split up—each going to a different child’s home where they find themselves treated as unwelcome intrusions.

Lucy holds out hope that Barkley will find a job and that they will, one day, be together. However, their self-centered children use circumstances to further keep their parents apart—just for their own convenience, and devise a way to get each parent out of their homes.

I saw this film for the first time over Christmas. To be honest, at first, I didn’t like it. However, after awhile, I found that it was really quite an excellent film with a lot to say. The initial scenes of Lucy and Barkley irritated me because I felt as though neither of them was taking their situation seriously enough. At one point in the film this was explained when Lucy says to her granddaughter that at her age, the only enjoyment left to be had is, “pretendin’ that there ain’t any facts to face, so would you mind if I just kept pretendin’?” From that point on, I began to enjoy the picture and, especially, the performance of Beulah Bondi who was, once again, playing much older than her actual age.

Joining Moore and Bondi in the cast are the always-excellent Fay Bainter and Thomas Mitchell. This is a picture filled with excellent performances and clever writing, and I’m glad that it’s being recognized.

Make Way for Tomorrow was Leo McCarey’s favorite of the over two-hundred films that he directed. Also in 1937, McCarey directed the comedy, The Awful Truth—a film which won him an Academy Award for Best Director. When he accepted the Oscar, he stated, “Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture.”