jjnxn-1 Charming if odd fantasy quasi holiday film. For something supposedly designed to be heartwarming there are an awful lot of dark edges to this film. What it does have going for it is three terrific actors, C. Aubrey Smith, Harry Carey and Charles Winninger front and center in the sort of spotlight roles that character actors were afforded back then in B movies of this type. The general story is hokum but played with an infectious twinkle in the eye by the three gentlemen and earnestness by the two young leads. Keep in mine while watching this is a low budget affair because any special effects used are rudimentary at best but it still takes you along thanks to the skillful performances of the players.

Michael_Elliott Beyond Tomorrow (1940) ** (out of 4) Three elderly rich men (C. Aubry Smith, Harry Carey, Charles Winninger) die in a plane crash but their spirits come back to help a young couple (Jean Parker, Richard Carlson) that they knew in life. BEYOND TOMORROW isn't a bad movie but it just didn't work for me, although I can certainly understand why some people might love it. The film features some very good performances but sadly they're wasted with a screenplay that's all over the place and even worse is that it's constantly trying to make the viewer cry. I don't mind sentimental movies but I can't stand a movie that has way too much sugar on it and it constantly tries to be powerful, touching and dramatic. There are just too many scenes here that appear to be happening for no reason other than to make the viewer cry. Not only do you have one sweet scene after another but each of them features someone crying. The story of death can be said, there's no question about that, but at the same time do we need tears every step of the way? The screenplay also offers countless twists that really aren't needed and I also didn't care too much for the way this couple "seperated." Still, there's no question that the performances are quite good with Smith and Carey really standing out. Parker and Carlson also make for a nice couple and we even get Maria Ouspenskaya in a supporting bit.

Jay Raskin I agree with those who enjoyed the first 1/3 of the movie. It is rather sweet with three old men accidentally bringing together two lonely young people on Christmas eve.From there the story starts to dull. The comedy is replaced with melancholia over death. The last 1/3 of the film are just ghosts waiting in purgatory for judgment and fretting over a rather unconvincing separation of the two young people introduced previously. The movie takes its preachy message of "avoid adultery at all costs" and "sex equals death" much too seriously. I think even in 1940, it would only have appealed to devoutly religious audiences looking to reinforce their own prejudices.The fact that this is six years before "A Wonderful Life" and may have had some influence on it, is a point in the film's favor. It is also six year's before Abbott and Costello's wonderful and underrated ghost tale "Time of Their Lives." However, it is also three years after "Topper" and two years after "Topper Takes a Trip" So the endearing ghost motif was not all that new. "the Ghost and Mrs Muir" (1947) "Beetle Juice," (1988),"Heaven Can Wait" (both 1943 and 1978) are much better ghost stories with far less prudery.

trails369 We begin with three old business men on Christmas Eve. George Melton of Oklahoma, played by Harry Carey, is in "bah humbug" Scrooge mode absorbed with business planning. C.Aubrey Smith's "Chad" is from Britain, and is not yet particularly keen about the holiday. But in comes spunky Irishman Michael O'Brien played by Charles Winninger loaded with gifts and Christmas Spirit. This first scene gradually develops into complete joy. The gentlemen wager on a game that tests honesty which brings in the young couple destined to be lovers. The huge surprise is young Richard Carlson's voice! (I want to see/listen to the four other singing films Carlson made about this period.) He beautifully sings "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" to Actress Jean Parker who plays Jean Lawrence, before we hear Jingle Bells sung in a variety of languages. You will be totally into the Christmas Spirit when the first act ends. Then, rather slowly, with a lack of suspense but an overload of charm we enter the world of fantasy and Hollywood mystic theology. How are all the old guys going to die? We have to have a plot device that gets rid of them all at once. You won't have much trouble guessing what is going happen next when actress Maria Ouspenskaya pleads with them to take the train and not the plane. Mercifully you won't have long to wait to see if you guessed correctly."Beyond Tomorrow" switches gears as we move into the meaning of the title. There will be ghosts. The lad with the heart of gold and the golden voice will be tempted, lured toward purgatory. Mystic fantasy visuals will effectively dazzle, even though low budget. The mood the story needs is achieved perfectly and you'll be glad the film was made sixty-eight years ago and not today. Welcome to drama in an imagined dimension no-one who can read this has yet entered.I founded this DVD at a dollar store!