If Tomorrow Comes

A touching story about a Caucasian American girl who falls in love with a Japanese American boy circa WWII. It is one of the few well done movies of the 1970s. This is one of those films everyone should watch. We are just people and love is love. I won't go into detail and spoil it.

This movie aired a week after the original Brian's Song movie in 1971. I remember I missed Brian's Song and everyone was talking about it at school the next day, how they cried etc. I thought this movie was a great consolation prize for having missed Brian's Song. It too was a tear jerker in some ways. I often wonder why can't they make TV movies like this any more. I was very moved by it. I watched it every time it was rerun in the 1970s. It's based on an old theme - Romeo and Juliet but that always seems to work well. Many years later I saw it again and now it seems like Westside Story, substituting Japanese for Puerto Rican, and cutting the music/dance numbers. Still a very good picture. An above average made for TV movie and I certainly recommend it. A few questionable details regarding some parts of the story. Why were they able to find a priest to marry them on a Sunday while her family was away at church? Wouldn't that priest have been saying mass at that time? Seems strange he'd be available to perform a shotgun wedding on a Sunday morning (Dec 7th 1941 of course) especially while everyone else was at church. Other interesting aspects that hint at the political correctness that was to come in the following decades: When Eileen happens upon the Japanese family who are holding their traditional observance, they are all dressed in Japanese garb, except of course for David who is dressed in a suit and tie. I wonder what ever happened to Frank Liu? He did a very good job in this picture. Despite these insignificant details it is still a very moving story with some very emotional scenes - the scene where Eileen (Patty Duke) is sitting alone crying in the arbor, not knowing why David has not shown up (Because "The Japanese aren't allowed out after 6 0'clock, now that's a brand new law" David is informed). It seems older TV movies are seldom aired but if you see it in your local listings, it is definitely worth watching. It's also possible to get it on DVD as it is included the 2005 compilation 'Women of Courage.'

I have enjoyed this movie and wish to recommend it to everyone. Sometimes the movies made for television are by far much better than movies shown in theaters. If Tomorrow Comes is a good example.

Underrated, and understated, this short (1 hour and 16 minutes) film says more in that length of time than many of today's bloated features do in twice the time.

One particularly funny (though it may not have been intentional) scene featured an "Okie" challenging a Nisei to a fight with a baseball bat. The Nisei said something like, "Ah, you know KENDO, Okie?" After that, you knew that the "Okie" had made a bad mistake...

This was an acting job like none other I've seen from Patty Duke. I remember the first time I saw the movie, it just blew me away. We need to keep these types of movies in circulation so that we as a people don't forget how bad prejudice is in time of war. The funny part, is it happens over and over again and we just don't learn the lesson. Would love to have a copy of this move. If you ever see it being shown on TV, by all means sit down and watch it from beginning to end.