Make Way for Tomorrow is a powerful and sentimental heart-tugging drama from 1937. Directed by Leo McCarey and starring Beulah Bondi, Victor Moore, Thomas Mitchell, and Fay Bainter, it explores the plight of older couples whose children can't (or don't want to) take care of them. I first saw this movie about a year and a half ago through Net Flix, and I waited a very long time for it...it had been in my queue in some sort of wait status ("very long," "long," and finally "short") for several months, and when it was finally sent, it was from a facility clear across the country from where I live. But the wait was definitely worth it.
Bark and Lucy Cooper (Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi) are a 50-year married couple of about 70 years of age. As the film begins, they have called their adult children home for a family meeting. Four of their five children attend the meeting; their other daughter lives in California and cannot be there. Because Bart had been out of work for four years and was unable to make the house payments, the bank has taken possession of the house, and Bart and Lucy need to move out.
Since none of their kids have room for both of them, it is decided that Lucy will live with son George (Thomas Mitchell) and his family, while Bark will live with one of their daughters. The separation is supposed to be for only three months, at which time, one of the other daughters will take them both. In the meantime, Bark and Lucy are living 300 miles apart and have to depend on the phone and letters to keep in touch. They miss each other desperately and can hardly wait until the time they are reunited. Adding to the pain of their separation is the fact that both of them are feeling unwanted and in the way where they are.
Make Way for Tomorrow is an incredibly powerful movie. After finally seeing it (and loving it!) through Net Flix, I was elated to catch this about a year ago when it had its TCM premiere. Robert Osborne said that Leo McCarey considered Make Way for Tomorrow to be his finest film. Also, the same year as this film, McCarey won the Academy Award for directing The Awful Truth, and, according to Osborne, he said in his acceptance speech that he got the award for the wrong film. McCarey's words speak volumes about the caliber of this movie.
Beulah Bondi is especially fabulous in her role, and it's amazing to think that she was 49 when she did it...playing a 70 year old woman. In fact, she was only four years older than Thomas Mitchell, who played her son in the film. The makeup artist did a fabulous job to age Beulah 20 years. Victor Moore was also stellar in his role as the aging father who sees more than his children think he sees.
The emotional tug of this movie makes it a bit painful to watch, but it's also quite beautiful...the couple's 50 year marital love is beyond touching. All of us yearn for such a faithful love. I must admit, though, I was surprised to find such a movie was made back in 1937...I didn't think people in that generation had that kind of an attitude toward their aging parents. (I thought such an attitude was more a product of the late 20th and 21st centuries.)
Anyhow, Make Way for Tomorrow, is an absolute must-see, if only because most of us at one time or other are going to be faced with the question of how to care for our aging parents. The film is available on DVD as well as through YouTube. (HERE) Definitely track it down...and expect your eyes to mist over as you watch it.
Happy viewing!!!
