It Happened Tomorrow

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.

"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

If you are a fan of the TV show "Early Edition" it should be noteworthy that it was based on the film "It Happened Tomorrow," director Rene Clair's 1944 fantasy follow-up to his own "I Married a Witch."

This early "Early Edition" is a classic film whose story is like one of the great "Twilight Zone" episodes complete with twists, irony and a lesson to be learned. In comparison to contemporary offerings it is nice to see a film that is both fun and intelligent. Though technically a drama, this film has plenty of comedy too.

One of my favorite actresses, Lynda Darnell ("Forever Amber"), co-stars along side Dick Powell and one of the great comedic side-kick actors of all time Jack Oakie. Comedy film buffs watch for Eddie Acuff (the mailman in the Blondie series) in an uncredited role.

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.

It seems that this is a much sought after and rarely diffused film - and it is now available on DVD. Picture quality not bad at all considering the time it was made and plot generally quite lighthearted if not unduly mystifying. I was expecting something a little more spicy with a bit of time-travel involved - but was not too disappointed in the end as the actors' performances are good and the subject matter is quite original. I would therefore recommend it to all who love comedy fantasiies but without going over the top about it .