User reviews

"It Happened Tomorrow" could have stood a better beginning - the choice to introduce the story with elderly Dick Powell and Linda Darnell (as Larry and Sylvia Smith) celebrating 50 years of wedded bliss sacrifices the story's surprises. The film does possess the light touch required to make the framing sequence charming. But, director René Clair and Mr. Powell build an unexpectedly good level of suspense regarding Powell's courtship, and mortality. They are so good, you can almost forget how much the opening gives away…

Watch for a thoroughly delightful (and unfortunately rare) performance by sagely John Philliber (as "Pop" Benson). He plays the keeper of the "Evening News" "morgue" (a place where newspapers keep obituaries and other files). Possibly, Mr. Philliber had read his own notice; he died in 1944. Powell was also able to read the writing on the wall, and saved his fledgling career by pursuing more interesting roles (like this one). Jackie Oakie and Edgar Kennedy are also on board. This is a subtle celebration of life, and its mysteries.

******** It Happened Tomorrow (5/28/44) René Clair ~ Dick Powell, Linda Darnell, John Philliber, Jackie Oakie

In the beginning of the Twentieth Century, Lawrence 'Larry' Stevens (Dick Powell) is an ambitious reporter of The Evening News. One day, he is celebrating with his colleagues and he tells his friend Pop Benson (John Philliber) that he would like to know the news in advance before it happens. While they are walking on the street, they see a poster of the clairvoyant Cigolini (Jack Oakie) and his gorgeous niece Sylvia Smith (Linda Darnell) and they decide to go to a theater to see the show.

Larry flirts with Sylvia and on his way back home, he overhears Pop on the street and the old man tells that he is waiting for him and gives a newspaper to him. Larry does not give much attention and puts the newspaper in the pocket of his jacket. On the next morning, he finds that the newspaper is an edition of the next day. Larry uses the information to scoop about a hold up in the opera house, becoming the prime suspect of Inspector Mulrooney (Edgar Kennedy). Larry dates Sylvia and Pop gives another edition of The Evening News of the next day. Larry becomes a successful reporter and is promoted and has a raise on his job. He plans to marry Sylvia and decides to find the winners of the horse race. But soon he also learns that he will die on the next day. Now he questions whether the future can be changed.

"It Happened Tomorrow" is a delightful and fantastic romantic comedy by René Clair. The plot is very funny and entertaining with a perfect combination of romance and comedy. Linda Darnell and Dick Powell have a stunning chemistry, and Jack Oakie is hilarious. The sequence when the gossipers see Sylvia breaking in her room through the external window dressed like a man and believe that she is having an affair is one of the funniest moments of this great film. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Tempo é Uma Ilusão" ("The Time is an Illusion")

There were many 'screwball comedies' in the 1930s and 1940s, and this film could probably be described as 'a comic screwball ghost film'. The French director Rene Clair evidently found it more convenient to be in America during the Nazi occupation of France, and this was a film which he shot there in English. I saw the DVD in a French issue, and the French subtitles did no justice at all to the racy colloquial English spoken in the film. Dick Powell, with his quirky laconic humour tinged with despondency (one imagines him going home after shooting to a lonely Scotch), is perfectly cast as a young journalist who wants to know tomorrow's news today. The old codger who kept the archives for the newspaper, eerily played by John Philliber, dies and comes back as a ghost to hand Powell the next day's paper in advance, and he does so several times. This leads to wildly incalculable results, including Powell being accused of murder and trying to escape his own murder of which he has read the report. Powell falls for the glamorous Linda Darnell, jealously protected by her uncle Jack Oakie, and there is a big tussle over her. It is all very lively and very jolly, and although it is not sophisticated, the implications are profound, as the nature of time is under serious consideration, however light-hearted the story may be. The film is adapted from a play by Lord Dunsany.

I first saw this film in the year of it's release in 1944 when I was 14 years old. I haven't seen it since I was in my early thirties and I am now in my middle seventies so perhaps I am viewing it through a rosy glow. I enjoyed Dick Powell as an actor once he got rid of playing in those silly musical films (42nd St type, etc)and rate this one a good comedy to compare at the side of his tougher vehicles like "Farewell My Lovely". His early death robbed the screen of an actor who hadn't yet fulfilled his potential. A pity there aren't more films like this one instead of the constant cycle of sex and violence with which the film industry is now preoccupied.

I watched this film just after watching director Rene Clair's previous Hollywood outing "I Married A Witch" and enjoyed this one too. It's also a fantasy production, with Dick Powell the hungry news-hound who thanks to "Pop", the old caretaker of the newspaper who he's befriended, gets a copy of the next day's paper in advance, hence the title of the film.

It won't take you long to ascertain the status of old "Pop" and why his sayings are so cryptic , but it's the prelude to a couple of days of impending headlines and deadlines which see Powell variously lose and recover, (with a raise!) his reporter job at the paper, witness a bank robbery as it happens and then be on the scene when the police catch said crooks the next day, save his new girlfriend from drowning, win and lose $60000 on the racetrack and lastly, inescapably it seems, be present at his own reported death.

All that stuff is lovely and engaging but the film gets dragged down somehow by some poor editorial choices by the director. For one thing the movie is framed by a pointless 50-years-after sequence which effectively tells you Powell's fate well in advance and secondly, too much time and space is given to Jack Oakie the magician father of Linda Darnell, for whom she acts as his mind-reading assistant in the act and with whom Powell becomes smitten at one of their shows. His personality is as loud as his outfits and he brings too much vaudeville slapstick to bear on proceedings. I think the film would have played a lot better if done more in the style of say, "It's A Wonderful Life' than "Arsenic And Old Lace" to borrow two titles from the master of the fantasy feature, Frank Capra.

I liked Powell and Darnell as the leads and especially John Philliber as the venerable, mysterious Pop, who himself ironically died within a year of the film's release but not Oakie or George Cleveland for the same reason, as the excitable newspaper editor, Mr Gordon.

Director Clair has a pleasingly light touch which this material requires but just seems to have become confused as to the best approach to adopt to make for a fully satisfying outcome.

The end result still pleases but with better oversight this could have been on a par with the best of this genre of movie, maybe even rivalling the charm of some of Capra's premier features.

Dick Powell plays a reporter who is given a newspaper that correctly predicts the headline for the following day, allowing him to get the scoop on all the big news stories. This brings him more problems than he bargained for. Interesting, charming, sometimes funny fantasy that falls short of greatness because it lacks some 'kick.' I'm not sure why it was necessary to make the story take place at the turn of the 20th century. I think it would have worked better in a contemporary setting, particularly given the things going on in the world at the time. Still, it's enjoyable with a good cast. Powell is always likable and Linda Darnell is lovely. I even liked Jack Oakie and I'm not always a fan. As others have pointed out, the '90s TV series Early Edition used a similar premise. Not set in the same time period, of course.

Reporter Dick Powell in the gaslight era of 1896 big city America would like to have the knowledge of the future. Well, think of all the scoops he could have on his job. Later on that evening another staffer on the paper John Philliber gives him a copy of tomorrow's evening addition. And for the next three days Powell's life is turned topsy turvy trying to take advantage of this most inside of information.

At this point in Dick Powell's career he was looking desperately to rejuvenate his career. His musical days were over, he left Warner Brothers, signed with Paramount looking for some straight acting parts, but Paramount mostly put him musicals and not as good as the ones he did with Warner Brothers.

Powell had scored some success in Preston Sturges's Christmas in July with no songs and he grabbed this one. He did well in the role here, but soon he'd change his screen image for all time later that year in Murder, My Sweet.

Exiled Rene Clair helmed this whimsical tale and got good results from his cast. Linda Darnell is as lovely as ever with her uncle Jack Oakie as a mind reading carnival act. And Edgar Kennedy does his patented slow burn as a police inspector who suspects the worst when Powell is scooping the police on some crime stories.

The plot has quite a few twists and turns and it would be a sin to give even one of them away. Powell and Darnell learn a most valuable lesson to take the future as it comes day by day. A little knowledge can indeed be a dangerous thing.

Dick Powell stars as a newspaper obituaries writer in 1899 who moves up to the valued reporters position after a wily old co-worker gives him a future edition; now, he's "predicting" the news and betting on the horses, but can he prevent his own reported demise? Director René Clair has wobbly timing; he's adept at molding certain sequences for a somewhat surreal, ghostly-romantic effect, but only his smaller touches really hit home. Clair falters when it comes to comedic bits or big slapstick scenes, allowing some of his actors (such as Jack Oakie) to overplay painfully while keeping others (like Linda Darnell) exasperatingly in check. Darnell is so enervated, she doesn't even react after new hubby Powell has been robbed--and when the crook runs right passed her, she doesn't even try to stop him. Powell's easy panache holds the flimsy premise together; the construction of the plot is interesting, yet it keeps promising to deliver a better movie, one that we ultimately don't get. **1/2 from ****

Almost the entire movie is told in flashback, as the reminiscences of a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Flashing back to the late 1800s, we see Dick Powell as a young reporter who comes into possession of a few newspapers that have tomorrow's news a day early. He uses this advance knowledge to become a success and woo his girl (Linda Darnell). They have several hair-raising adventures, and the girl's father, a stage illusionist who uses his daughter in a fake clairvoyance demonstration, at first does not approve of the relationship. But Dick Powell's character wins the day, and fortunately, the news of his untimely death proves to be a reporting error. (You know this from the outset, since the story is told in flashback, but it's still quite exciting.)

I think the movie would have been more interesting (to me) if the story had NOT been told in flashback and had been set in modern times. Without the opening scenes from the present time, letting us know that the main characters survived, the ending would have been more suspenseful. I wonder if the writers/producers had a possible sequel in mind, since they left the first half of the 20th century open to play with in a subsequent film. It would have been a fun history exercise to choose the most interesting day to gain advance knowledge of. On the other hand, this movie was made in 1944, and there was a lot of war news at that time that no one would want a day early. Maybe the 19th century setting made the story comfortably far from those grim events.

René Clair directed this, and I found it similar in many ways to his previous film, I Married a Witch--both films make use of a supernatural element, madcap adventures, broadly drawn characters, and a light touch. However, many people consider I Married a Witch to be a screwball comedy, but I don't see how one could squeeze It Happened Tomorrow into that category.

Dick Powell gets himself in a trouble with tomorrow's newspaper in "It Happened Tomorrow," a 1944 film also starring Linda Darnell and Jack Oakie. Powell plays Larry Stevens, an ambitious reporter who is given the next day's newspaper by an old man, Pop Benson, who works at the paper. Benson, and Powell have a discussion about knowing the news in advance, and Pop shows up the next day with an advanced newspaper issue showing what is going to happen. Larry is able to write a robbery story in advance and have it ready to go as soon as the event occurs, which puts him under suspicion with the police. Then he reads about his own death.

Interesting premise that will sound familiar to those who watched the TV series "Early Edition." The beautiful Linda Darnell, Stevens' love interest, plays half of a mind-reading act, the other half being her uncle (Jack Oakie).

Rene Clair was an odd duck who was attracted to this type of story. It isn't paced well, but Powell's performance manages to hold the thing together.

The film begins with a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, and the husband wanting to tell the guests a story of something that happened to him. You won't have any trouble figuring out who they are.

The plot sounds serious, but it's delivered with a light touch.

An interesting enough premise, which has an old guy in a newsroom pointing out rather philosophically that today was once the unknown future, and positing that "time is only an illusion." He backs up his words by providing a newsman (Dick Powell) with tomorrow's edition, and away we go. Unfortunately, the film doesn't do enough with the actual time stuff, getting muddled up in silly dialogue and action sequences like a chase and shootout. Linda Darnell is alluring and there are a couple of nice romantic moments, but for the most part she isn't given enough to do either. It's all a bit of jumble, hard to hate really because it's so lighthearted, but at same time, hard to like.

Reporter Stevens (Powell) is tipped off to tomorrow's headlines by mysterious Pop Benson (Philliber) before the events happen. At the same time, Stevens is romancing lovely Sylvia (Darnell) who is part with her uncle (Oakie) of a phony occult stage act.

It's Twilight Zone material given a humorously light touch by the masterful Rene Clair, (And Then There Were None {1945}). Considering the final screenplay comes from as many as 7(!) writers, it's surprising the result holds together as well as it does.

A key point is watching such a spooky, noirish premise treated humorously, at times even bordering on the farcical. But the gimmick works surprisingly well, thanks also to a number of plausibly intelligent twists. Then too, Powell gets into the swing with a lively, engaging performance. And what a slice of eye candy is the sweetly innocent Darnell, a long way from her usual tough cookie specialty.

The premise amounts to an imaginative twist on the old concept of fate. The suspense comes from waiting to see how fate will play out. If you think about it, you see why the portent had to be couched as a newspaper headline. Otherwise the ending would have to be quite different.

Anyway, it's an entertaining movie, unusual for the unorthodox treatment. Still, it's that light touch that separates the material from the sci-fi pack for our post-Twilight Zone era.

Larry Stevens (Dick Powell) is a reporter who is mysteriously given the following day's newspapers by Pop Benson (John Philliber). At the same time, he begins to date Sylvia (Linda Darnell) who works as part of a stage act with Cigolini (Jack Oakie). Larry and Sylvia turn up to events that are yet to happen. What happens when Larry reads about his own death....?..

The film has a good story and Dick Powell is funny as the reporter who knows it all. There are some funny scenes, eg, at the racetrack where he predicts all the winners, and when he is resigned to his own death and just has to accept it. Jack Oakie can be generally irritating but he is not so bad in this film. The cast all do well and the film is a slice of fun with a couple of twists at the end.

A newspaper reporter gets a copy of the next day's paper from a mysterious old man, leading to complications and hilarity (not). It's an intriguing premise for both sci-fi and comedy, but this film fails to deliver on either front. The script is uninspired and the pacing is uneven. Even the narrative structure is problematic; the hero's life is endangered but there's no suspense because he's relating the story in a flashback. Powell tries hard to breathe some life into it, but it rarely rises above the level of mild amusement. Darnell is little more than a pretty face here. One good thing is that it wraps up in less than 90 minutes.

A reporter (the always amusing Dick Powell) discovers that knowing tomorrow's news today is not the blessing that he thought that it would be. The film is like an extended 'Twilight Zone' episode - not a lot happens to fill almost 90 minutes and most of the somewhat repetitive second-half simply sets up the 'twist' ending (which is predictable but reasonably well-done). Like most stories involving time-travel (in this case, only of information), the plot is best not though about too carefully, so forget about predestination and causality and just enjoy some fun antics by Powell and co-stars Jack Okie and the gorgeous Linda Darnell. Directed by French ex-pat René Clair who made a number in romantic fantasies (such as 1924's silent 'Paris qui dort' and 1942's 'I Married a Witch'), the film is one of many 'supernatural-lite rom-coms' to come out of the war years, and although not among the best, remains an entertaining time-passer for fans of the era and the genre.

"It Happened Tomorrow." I love the title of this movie. The movie itself wasn't too shabby either.

A reporter named Lawrence "Larry" Stevens (Dick Powell) flippantly asked an older archivist for tomorrow's news because with that he could know and achieve a lot. The old archivist named Pop Benson (John Philliber) granted Larry's request, but with the warning that it would do him more harm than good. Larry wasn't all that serious about the request anyway because it was like wishing for a million dollars, or even more unlikely.

Once Larry got the first of a few tomorrow's papers, his life and his ideals were forever changed. The movie, a bit exaggeratedly, went into what a person's decision making would be like if he/she knew the future even one day ahead. A later movie called "Time Lapse" (2014) also explored the exact same idea. They became slaves to that future because they either wanted to make it happen or defy it, which only made them act unnaturally. Instead of simply living their lives and making decisions based upon whatever criteria they'd normally use, they were basing their decisions upon a future that they wanted to create or oppose.

"It Happened Tomorrow," as a predecessor, was the same as "Time Lapse" except funnier and less serious. Just in relation to a movie that was made 70 years later it was cool to see where the idea came from.

Rene Clair, the master of French Surrealist film, who collaborated with Francis Picabia, left France in the mid 1930's, and after a brief stop-over in he UK, came to Hollywood, where he made four films. This one is absolutely the best! Dick Powell is superb as the up-and-coming reporter who is given the chance to see tomorrow's headlines today (sounds like a bad TV show made in Chicago!)and Clair plays this (mis-)fortune out in excellent ways, combining whimsey, with pathos and humor, and bits of his old trademark, surrealism. Linda Darnell is also wonderful, and all fans of surrealism and sci-fi (after all, this is almost a form of time travel!) will enjoy this movie. Jack Oakie is also excellent, playing to his usual, funny and annoying character.

This Sometimes Charming Movie is Almost Ruined by the Bombastic, Over the Top Irritations by Jack Oakie. He is Insufferable Most of the Time and is Saved Only by the Beauty of Linda Darnell, Dick Powell's Engaging Performance, and a Good Story.

It's Been Done Quite Often, this "knowing the future will do you no good" Plot in Countless Books, TV Shows, and Movies, but it is Almost Always Intriguing. Just What Would You Do? Of Course, Those Lottery Numbers and Race Results are Surely Going to Bring in Lots of Cash Quickly and Just as Quickly...POOF!.

Overall, the Movie is Worth a Watch because it is Lively, Funny At Times, and Well Done. But Only if You Can Stand the Buffoonery and Over Ripe Slapstick and Yelling of One Jack Oakie.