Married and together for fifty years, Barkley and Lucy Cooper (Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi) are forced to separate when, after Barkley loses his job, the bank forecloses on their home and none of their adult children are willing to take both of them in. 

Lucy moves in with son George (Thomas Mitchell) and his family (Fay Bainter, Barbara Reed), while three hundred miles away, Barkley is forced to sleep on daughter Cora’s (Elisabeth Risdon) sofa.  Neither living arrangement is ideal and, eventually, the children seek ways to move their parents out altogether.  Because of his health, Barkley will go live with another daughter in California and Lucy will live out her days in an old age home.

CRITIQUE

Make Way For Tomorrow is one of the most heart-breaking movies that you will ever see.

It is also one of the finest films to come out of Hollywood’s Golden Era.

Director Leo McCarey’s distressing story, though set during The Great Depression, could just as easily (and does) take place today. Elderly parents, no longer able to care for themselves, can and do become burdens to their offspring who are living their own lives.  The way that the younger generation in this picture deals with the situation may be disturbing, but it is not atypical of what happens in real life.

At its core, Make Way For Tomorrow is a love story between two people who have shared the vicissitudes of life together.  Now, economic conditions and the whims of their children have required them to part.

Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi are magnificent as the parents who are forced upon their children, and Thomas Mitchell and Fay Painter are equally fine as the couple who take in Bondi.

There are many unforgettable, touching scenes in this 1937 release, such as the phone call that Bondi gets from her husband, which she must take while her daughter-in-law’s “sophisticated” Bridge Club can’t help but listen.

Also poignant is the scene in which Bondi anticipates Mitchell’s announcement that she can no longer stay with his family.  Before he can speak, she makes his task easier by suggesting that she should go to an old age home.

Mitchell is certainly the most sympathetic of the adult children, and his wife (Bainter) is not a villain either.  McCarey makes us understand their frustration and pain about the impossible situation in which they find themselves.

The other siblings, however, are selfish, cruel and rather inhuman.

Or, maybe they are “human,” and that’s the tragedy.

I dare you not to weep during the final moments of this masterpiece.

THE VIDEO

The restored Full Screen picture is crisp, sharp with no apparent flaws.

THE AUDIO

The Mono soundtrack has been re-mastered.  Age-related distortions have been removed.

THE EXTRAS

The DVD contains two excellent on-camera interviews, one with filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich and another with critic Gary Giddens.  Both men discuss the career of director Leo McCarey and the problems he encountered during the production of Make Way For Tomorrow.

The set also contains a large booklet with several critical essays about the film.

FINAL THOUGHT

This is one of the finest, albeit heart-breaking, movies from Hollywood’s Golden Era.