12 Days of Criterion Christmas
December 23, 2011
Film Info
- United States
- 1937
- 92 minutes
- Black and White
- 1.33:1
- English
- Spine #505
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.
Cast
| Barkley Cooper | Victor Moore |
| Lucy Cooper | Beulah Bondi |
| Anita Cooper | Fay Bainter |
| George Cooper | Thomas Mitchell |
| Harvey Chase | Porter Hall |
| Rhoda Cooper | Barbara Read |
| Max Rubens | Maurice Moscovitch |
| Cora Payne | Elisabeth Risdon |
| Nellie Chase | Minna Gombell |
| Robert Cooper | Ray Mayer |
| Bill Payne | Ralph Remley |
| Mamie | Louise Beavers |
Credits
| Director | Leo McCarey |
| Producer | Leo McCarey and Adolph Zukor |
| Screenplay | Viña Delmar |
| Based on a novel by | Josephine Lawrence |
| And a play by | Helen and Nolan Leary |
| Cinematography | William C. Mellor |
| Special photographic effects | Gordon Jennings |
| Art direction | Hans Dreier and Bernard Herzbrun |
| Editing | LeRoy Stone |
| Sound | Walter Oberst and Don Johnson |
| Interior decorations | A. E. Freudeman |
| Music | Victor Young and George Antheil |
| Musical direction | Boris Morros |
Disc Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Tomorrow, Yesterday, and Today, a new video interview featuring filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich discussing the career of Leo McCarey and Make Way for Tomorrow
- New video interview with critic Gary Giddins in which he talks about McCarey’s artistry and the political and social context of the film
- PLUS: A booklet featuring new 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’”
New cover by Seth
Current Posts
Photo Galleries
Film Essays
Make Way for Tomorrow: We Laugh, and Our Hearts Ache
By February 23, 2010
Like many other French cinephiles, I discovered Make Way for Tomorrow relatively late, . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Make Way for Lucy . . .
By February 23, 2010
D-day, June 6, 1944. John Ford was there. It was the most vivid experience of his life, he . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Make Way for Tomorrow: We Laugh, and Our Hearts Ache
By February 23, 2010
Like many other French cinephiles, I discovered Make Way for Tomorrow relatively late, . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Make Way for Lucy . . .
By February 23, 2010
D-day, June 6, 1944. John Ford was there. It was the most vivid experience of his life, he . . . Read more »
Photo Galleries
Book Notes
The Legacy Continues
December 22, 2011
Last year, we told you about Daniel Eagan’s rigorous, informative, and very entertaining book . . . Read more »
Press Notes
Press Notes: L’enfance nue
August 31, 2010
In a review for the Los Angeles Times, Dennis Lim provides some context for the work of . . . Read more »
Press Notes
Press Notes: Make Way for Tomorrow
March 02, 2010
Let’s start out with Dave Kehr in the New York Times: “There are few American films as subtle, . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Make Way for Tomorrow: We Laugh, and Our Hearts Ache
By February 23, 2010
Like many other French cinephiles, I discovered Make Way for Tomorrow relatively late, . . . Read more »
Film Essays
Make Way for Lucy . . .
By February 23, 2010
D-day, June 6, 1944. John Ford was there. It was the most vivid experience of his life, he . . . Read more »
Clippings
Make Way for a “Great Movie”
February 17, 2010
<!--StartFragment--Hollywood craftsman Leo McCarey’s long unsung masterwork Make Way for . . . Read more »
