blanche-2 Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Joan Bennett star in "There's Always Tomorrow," directed by Douglas Sirk and featuring William Reynolds, Gigi Perreau, Judy Nugent, and Pat Crowley as the young people.MacMurray is a successful toy developer, Clifford Groves, married to Marion (Bennett), and they have three children (Reynolds, Perreau, and Nugent). Marion is preoccupied with the kids and the household, while MacMurray is longing for some alone time with her and to do something different - take a weekend off, go to the theater -- but something always happens that prevents it.When Marion can't make a theater performance because of their daughter's dance recital, Cliff stays home alone. A woman who once worked for him, Norma Vale (Stanwyck) comes over to say hello. She's now a successful dress designer in from New York. He takes her to the theater instead, and then she asks to see his office.When a planned weekend in the desert with Marion doesn't work out because one of the girls breaks her ankle, Marion insists that Clifford go without her and relax. There, he runs into Norma again. Unfortunately, his son (Reynolds) shows up and thinks Cliff and Norma are involved. He and his friends leave without making their presence known to his dad. Without realizing what's happening, Cliff is falling for Norma; and he doesn't know that she's always been in love with him.This is a midlife crisis, '50s style, with the underpinning of the grass is always greener. That wasn't the original intention, of course - the original intention of the film is that Norma is lonely and would give up her wonderful career to have a family like Marion and Cliff have. People still feel this way, but today, it's more because of the road not taken, not so much because of dissatisfaction. Nothing's perfect, as the film shows us. Cliff sees Norma's freedom, the attention she pays him, her interest in his work. He feels in fourth place behind the kids to Marion. He's sick of being like the robot that is his latest toy. You wind him up, he works, he comes home, he has dinner, he goes to bed. With Norma he sees an opportunity for something different. Youth. To be put first. Endless possibility.What a lovely movie, and I thought I was sitting down to some second feature. Instead, it has Sirk's magic touch and his sly criticism of the picture-perfect '50s American life. Frankly, I could have slapped the kids and Marion for not seeing what's in front of their faces, but to be fair, kids are self-involved, and Marion is completely committed to doing what she thinks is important for Cliff and their family.Wonderful acting, with MacMurray as the frustrated Everyman, Bennett as an attractive, disciplined woman, and Stanwyck has someone who has earned wisdom the hard way, through hard work and disappointment.Highly recommended.

JohnHowardReid SYNOPSIS: Fred MacMurray does his best to compel audience sympathy while he is torn between the homey security offered by Joan Bennett and the more colorfully vampish allure of Barbara Stanwyck.COMMENT: Here's a movie that captured little more than moderate interest from connoisseurs, critics and fans on its original release, but was elevated to cult status in the 1960s. Admittedly, it's beautifully dressed (albeit in black-and-white), and its lush Ross Hunter assets are effectively put across by director Sirk and photographer Metty in long, fluid takes. But aside from this gorgeous mounting, the movie offers hardly a single redeeming feature. The script is dime-store True Romance, while the acting follows the finest traditions of genteel soap opera. All the dialogue is neatly mouthed with just the right amount of synthetic facial quivering that does little to disturb the actors' impeccable make-up and grooming. These characters are not real people but artificial poseurs in a synthetic world of high-hat romance.Frankly, "There's Always Tomorrow" is the sort of yesterday's picture that gives 1950s' Hollywood a bad name. True, for sold-out fans of its three stars , the movie offers predictable entertainment. And it's always a pleasure to see Pat Crowley, Myrna Hansen and Jane Darwell. But an auteur masterpiece, it is most definitely not!

Patricio García Martinez In her review, at the time on the top of this movie's reviews, lora64 says: "As for first impressions, I have the feeling it's an idealist's wished-for 'dream of a perfect world and perfect people' that never quite comes true, unfortunately, for many in real life. " I think my dearest lora64 misunderstood the film. ANd I think many people misunderstands it. Because the one thing important nobody seems to see. I mean the robot. Unlike conservative Noel Coward's "Brief Encunter",this is the story of a little talking robot living a little idiotic life with his little idiotic family, as he LONGS for escape. Just see the many takes of the robot walking towards the camera. Douglas Sirk was trying to say something there.This film is bitterness and acidity combined in such a masterful way, and finely enough that a lot of people still think they're watching a 'dream of a perfect world and perfect people'.

Dustin Luke Nelson Virtually unknown among Sirk's catalog, which is reasonably when you consider his classic films like 'All That Heaven Allows' and 'Imitation of Life.' But for a film this good to have not seen a DVD release is criminal. I had the good fortune of being able to see this gem at a public screening this week. This is easily one of the best films to come out of the studio era. The film concerns Clifford Grove (Fred MacMurray) a toy developer, whose family neglects him. His wife bails out on their plans constantly, for the children, and the children pay no attention to their loving father. Clifford runs into an old flame, who is back in town and begins to innocently spend some time with her while she's in town. But his sneaky children become suspicious of his activities and start to follow him, his son begins to convince his siblings that their father is having in affair. Their begin to psychological torment their father and ultimately drive him to desire leaving his family. It's painfully dark, and Fred MacMurray is brilliant. The psychological effect on the viewer is tremendous. It's dark and hopeless. If children were shown this on the advent of puberty, no one would ever get married. The stark black and white cinematography is always telling more than the story, with sneaky, sweeping pans and dollies the film keeps you guessing the duration. It's the kind of backhanded studio film, that was rarely produced, where the director gives the audience only ambiguities for resolution, cyclical images void of hope for Clifford, but ambiguous enough to get by censors at the studio, enough to imply that maybe things turned out for old Clifford. This is studio-era cinema at it's best. If you get a chance to catch a screening of it on the new 35mm that is, supposedly, circulating art-house cinemas around the U.S., go. It's a shame that it is not more widely available, a radiant film from the 50s (though troubled and moderately sexist, symptomatic of the time period, but not so blatant that it can't be overlooked in the same way that critics can overlook the racism in 'Birth of a Nation').