#505: McCAREY, Leo: Make Way For Tomorrow (1937)

McCAREY, Leo (United States)
Make Way For Tomorrow [1937]
Spine #505
DVD


Leo McCarey's Make Way for Tomorrow is one of the great unsung Hollywood masterpieces, an enormously moving Depression-era depiction of the frustrations of family, aging, and the generation gap. Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi headline a cast of incomparable character actors, starring as an elderly couple who must move in with their grown children after the bank takes their home, yet end up separated and subject to their offspring's selfish whims. An inspiration for Ozu's Tokyo Story, Make Way for Tomorrow is among American cinema's purest tearjerkers, all the way to its unflinching ending, which McCarey refused to change despite studio pressure.

92 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2009
Director/Writer


Based on a novel by Josephine Lawrence and a play by Helen and Nolan Leary.
Screenplay by Viña Delmar.
Leo McCarey was 41 when he directed Make Way For Tomorrow.

Other McCarey films in the Collection:

#917: The Awful Truth (1937)
#1114: Love Affair (1939)

The Film

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Thirty-two page booklet featuring essays by critic Tag Gallagher and filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier, and an excerpt from film scholar Robin Wood’s 1998 piece Leo McCarey and “Family Values.”

Commentary

None.

Tomorrow, Yesterday, and Today

A video interview featuring filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich discussing the career of McCarey and Make Way For Tomorrow.

Video interview

With critic Gary Giddins in which he talks about McCarey’s artistry and the political and social context of the film.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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