Beyond Tomorrow ( 1940 )

One New York Christmas Eve, three elderly gentlemen - a wild Irishman, Michael O´Brien (Charles Winninger), a gruff merchant banker, George Melton (Harry Carey), and a retired colonel, Allan Chadwick (C. Aubrey Smith) - discuss the immortality of the soul of man. Upstairs, displaced Russian aristocrat and mystic, Madame Tanya (The Wolf Man´s legendary Maria Ouspenskaya) toils as a housekeeper.

The gentlemen decide to prove the inherent goodness of the soul by throwing three wallets, with ten dollars in each, out into the snow to see if and how they are returned. The first wallet is picked up by vain actress, Arlene Terry (Helen Vinson), who appropriates the money and discards the billfold. The other two wallets are picked up and returned by Texan, Jimmy Houston (Richard Carlson), and Jean Lawrence (Jean Parker, star of Edgar G. Ulmer´s Bluebeard). Over the next few weeks the fivesome are inseparable and romance blooms between Jimmy and Jean as he croons lyrical love songs into her ear.

Tragedy strikes when the three gentlemen die in an airplane crash. Fearing that his life is passing him by, Jimmy decides to try his luck on the stage and is an overnight sensation. The naive singing cowboy is seduced by the glitter of nightlife, excessive consumption of liquor and curvy Arlene Terry. Jean waits for him at home and cries over a pile of telegrams breaking dates and finally their engagement. Unknown to all, except for psychic Madame Tanya, the three gentlemen return from beyond in an attempt to set things right.

Produced by cinematographer Lee Garmes, Beyond Tomorrow features several splendid montage sequences and clever, dazzling, abstract special effects.

One of the most peculiar, warm and wise fantasy films ever made, ace journeyman director A. Edward Sutherland´s Beyond Tomorrow is an eerie holiday classic ripe for rediscovery.

Upplagd i sortimentet: 17 Juni, 2006