MartinHafer The film begins as a 50th anniversary celebration is about to begin. The husband (Dick Powell) and wife (Linda Darnell) are arguing, as he wants to tell all the assembled guests his big secret. What follows is a flashback showing his reasons for success.Decades before, Powell is a struggling young reporter celebrating his promotion at the newspaper. He'll no longer be writing obituaries but feature stories. As he and his co-workers celebrate, he begins talking about what he'd be willing to give if he could see into the future. Well, oddly, the old man in charge of the paper's morgue (where they keep records and back issues) tells him he can. A bit later, the old guy gives him a paper--a paper that ends up being for tomorrow! And, naturally, the things in the paper all later come true that day! Each day, the old man shows up with the following day's paper and gives it to Powell--who naturally becomes a sensation on the paper.This is a dark side to all this, however. Because he has inside information the police think that he's a crook--he just knows too much. Also, the old man tells Powell that no matter how wonderful this new gift is, it WON'T bring him happiness. Well, Powell doesn't seem to care and continues taking the papers--until he sees his own death in the next day's paper!! What is poor 'ol Powell to do?! This is especially troubling because he's planned on winning a fortune at the race track---but you can't enjoy the money if you are dead! There's a lot more to the story, but I'll leave that for you to see for yourself.So is the film worth seeing? Yup. It's fun and quite clever. Sure it isn't very deep, but sometimes it's nice to see a light comedy that has such modest pretensions. Well worth seeing.By the way, this film was expertly directed by the famous French director, René Clair. During the occupation of France and the Nazi years, several directors (including Clair and Fritz Lang) came to Hollywood to continue making films. In addition, if you love silent comedies look closely at one of the gamblers late in the film--one of them is Snub Pollard and sporting a very different sort of mustache.

Alex da Silva Larry Stevens (Dick Powell) is a reporter who is mysteriously given the following day's newspapers by Pop Benson (John Philliber). At the same time, he begins to date Sylvia (Linda Darnell) who works as part of a stage act with Cigolini (Jack Oakie). Larry and Sylvia turn up to events that are yet to happen. What happens when Larry reads about his own death....?..The film has a good story and Dick Powell is funny as the reporter who knows it all. There are some funny scenes, eg, at the racetrack where he predicts all the winners, and when he is resigned to his own death and just has to accept it. Jack Oakie can be generally irritating but he is not so bad in this film. The cast all do well and the film is a slice of fun with a couple of twists at the end.

brunchie I went on the message board for one of my favorite TV shows, "Early Edition" and discovered that this movie may have been the inspiration for that it. I went in trying to find the parallels between the two and instead wound up just going along for the ride. This movie worked on all levels. I wasn't expecting it to be the comedy that it was. The male lead was hysterical, sometimes just getting laughs from his facial expressions and the female lead was luminous. I always enjoy it when there's a movie that has multi-generational appeal. I watched it with my mom, who was 9 when the movie came out, and my daughter who was born the year "Early Edition" aired and all of us got a kick out of the movie. My daughter even said that she enjoyed the movie better than the show! I was worried that my daughter would be bored because b/w movies are much more talky than today's movies and lack the special effects now available but she cracked up out loud on several parts. For my mom, it was trip down memory lane seeing familiar actors from her past.

mojo2004 I bought the DVD and watched this film because I am a huge fan of the TV show "Early Edition" not "Evening Edition" as mentioned in an earlier post.I mention that show because the idea for it came from this wonderful movie and I'm surprised no where on any website for the show do the creators mention this movie as the inspiration for the show.Dick Powell and Linda Darnell star along with Jack Oakie.I will combine both and let the reader be the judge.*spoiler info comparing "It Happened Tomorrow" and "Early Edition"Larry(in movie) and Gary(TV show) both start getting tomorrow's newspaper. Larry gets his from the old man who also works at the paper(he's dead but Larry doesn't know it). Gary gets his from the cat who belonged to the old man who worked at the newspaper who's long dead but will visit Gary and talk to him in later shows. Both use the paper to get a large sum of money quick by betting at the track. Both have 2 companions(a man & woman) who know about the paper. Both save people from accidents after reading in the paper about their deaths.Both read their own obituary in the paper and have to change the headline. Both have a noted connection to a hotel in town.Lastly both the movie and the show have someone answer a want-ad that's in tomorrow's paper for an opening that doesn't exist/but an employee gets fired right in front of them,the boss then says to put an ad in tomorrow's paper which Larry/Garry have already read.Mojo2004 Wash DC