MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW

US, 1937, 94 minutes, Black and white.
Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Thomas Mitchell, Fay Bainter, Porter Hall, Barbara Read, Elizabeth Risdon, Gene Lockhart.
Directed by Leo Mc Carey.

Make Way for Tomorrow is a strong drama about old age. It seems to have had a strong impact in its time. However, the style of film-making, acting and the treatment of issues make it seem dated. However, the problems of an elderly couple, financial difficulties and their treatment by their children is still very relevant.

The film was directed by Leo Mc Carey, a veteran of comedies and dramas, who was to make such award winners as The Awful Truth and Going My Way. He gets excellent performances from Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore as the elderly couple. The supporting cast is led by Thomas Mitchell as their son George and Fay Bainter as his wife, Anita.

The film presents the elderly couple as both lovable and crotchety. It presents the children as busy about their own lives, wanting to care for their parents - but too preoccupied with their own worries. There is a beautiful sequence at the end where the elderly couple have a day out in New York and revisit the hotel where they had their honeymoon 50 years earlier. The film is then strong as the couple bypass their children and go immediately to the railway station where they have to separate. The film ends there.

1.Emotional drama? Portrait of an elderly couple? Financial difficulties? The responsibilities of children and their handling them?

2.Black and white photography, Paramount production? The cast? The city locations? Studio work for New York and Central Park? The musical score?

3.The title, reference to elderly people, to their children?

4.The focus on Bark and Lucy? In their seventies? Their love for one another, their long marriage? Their financial difficulties, calling their children to see them, the explanation, the difficulties in time? Their response to their children?

5.Lucy and her going with George, their concern about her room, privacy, her being bored? Her room, relationship with them both, with Rhoda? The bridge classes and her coming out, talking, intruding? Anita sending her off to the movies? Rhoda and her deceiving her mother? The sending of shirts to the laundry, etc? Anita's reaction against her? Her trying to do well, trying to be unobtrusive, the phone call from Bark and the bridge-learners listening? The passing of time, her concern about Bark? Her future? Seeing the letter from the old people's home, her decision to go there, communicating it to George?

6.Bark, with his daughter, Cora and her severity? His friendship with the man in the shop, their chats together? His phone call to Lucy? His realisation about his children? Getting sick, the help from the doctor, Cora and her severity against the man from the shop? The need for him to go to California?

7.His arrival in New York, the happy day together, walking in Central Park, reminiscing about dates and visits, the offer of the ride in the limousine, their not being able to buy it? Their going to the hotel, the manager and his kindness, the drink, the meal, the changing times and manners, the dance? Their decision to bypass their children? Going immediately to the station? The separation - what future?

8.The portrait of the children: George and his concern, taking his mother, Anita and her aloofness, her family concerns, the servant, Rhoda and her dating? The bridge classes? Her angry reactions about house management? Wanting to do the best? Her anger about Rhoda's disappearance? The old people's home? George and his honesty but his inability to help? Cora and her severity with her father? The other children and their casual attitudes, not being able to take their parents, finding excuses, theatre tickets, etc?

9.Rhoda and her problems, relationship with her grandmother, the film, learning the plot from the usherette, going out with the older man? Her mother's reaction?

10.The portrait of love for a husband and wife? Over the years? The pain of age, financial difficulties and separation? Seeing the ingratitude of children?