Robert J. Maxwell Where do they get these generic titles from? "Another Dawn," "Tomorrow is Forever," "Guns of Darkness." This title, "Tomorrow Is Another Day," I would guess was ripped off from the last line of "Gone With The Wind." The producers reckoned that, by 1951, since "Gone With The Wind" had never been shown after its initial release, the last line, one of the most memorable, was buried somewhere in our collective unconscious. It probably rang the public's chimes but they couldn't identify the source.Actually, it's a rather nifty B movie with a couple of endearing qualities and it's worth watching.The writers did a good job of catching the tenuous quality of life on the run from the law. This isn't "They Live By Night" but it's in the same ballpark. Steve Cochran is an ex con and Ruth Roman becomes his moll. After an accidental but lethal shooting they leave New York and travel across the United States by stolen rides on boxcars and trucks, and by hitch hiking and walking. They come to earth in Salina, California at the start of the lettuce-picking season, and although the work is hard, they make a living and fall in love to the extent that they are married and Roman becomes pregnant. The experienced viewer of 1950s movies knows this mundane paradise can't last. The police finally catch up with them, but not to worry. It's not a tragedy.The budget was from hunger. Yet the writers have managed to capture a lot of quotidian details. The couple first take flight to the house of Roman's brother in New Jersey. He's willing to put them up but his wife argues heatedly against it. Later, desperate for a ride, they climb aboard one of those trucks carrying half a dozen cars on its trailer, and a suspenseful scene follows in which they try to get the keys and open one of the cars where they can lie down and sleep. The lettuce scenes are out of "The Grapes of Wrath" but the pay is better.It's not flawless. We first see Ruth Roman in a dime-a-dance place in New York, probably modeled on Roseland, where I once met a pretty girl ninety five years ago whose name I can still remember, Rose Brown. (Who could forget it?) Anyway, Roman is wearing a puffy platinum wig that's almost fluorescent. She speaks like a tart, or tries to. And she wheedles gifts and money out of poor Cochran, who doesn't know his way around because he's spent more than half his life in the Crowbar Hotel. She later reveals her brunettedness.Well, I'll tell you. Ruth Roman is rather a dull actress, whatever the part, but least of all is she suited to the kind of role that might fit Marie Windsor or Gloria Graham. She's bourgeois. No getting around it. She was bourgeois in "Strangers on a Train" and she will always be bourgeois, except that here she sound like a bourgeois trying desperately to mimic a cheap whore.And Steve Cochran -- a beacon for all of us who want to be Hollywood stars but lack talent. When he enters the frame, a gaping black hole appears and swallows up everything else.But there is a good deal of tension throughout the movie, once you get used to Roman as a dance hall girl and Cochran as a morose ex murderer. Given the strictures of the plot, the dialog at times shows a certain keenness. The holes in the plot can be overlooked.

dougdoepke An ex-con and a dance hall girl flee the cops and a wrongful murder charge.Catch that early scene in the tacky dance hall— it's a gem. I've seen a lot of cheap dives in movies, but none I think combines atmosphere and annoyance better than this one. Between the hard dames and the 1-minute buzzer, the guys better hold onto their wallets. Then too, the Warner Bros. production manages uncommon attention to detail. Note how taxi-dancer Cay (Roman) ends the dance hall scene by soliciting another customer. That way we know she's a real hard case no matter what she's said to poor Clark (Cochran).These touches continue throughout, as with the back-and-forth wristwatch mirroring Cay's and Clark's relationship, or the heart-stopping dropped keys that unlock the carry-all car. All in all, these are the kind of deft touches that turn a good film into a memorable one.However, despite the excellence of this noirish first half, I have to agree with reviewer Teller. The second half unfortunately collapses into unremarkable melodrama. Frankly, Cay's big turnaround from loose woman to wifely Madonna is simply too complete to be believable. That transformation is signaled in her change of hair color. There, Cay washes out the dance hall blonde for the darker natural color underneath, thereby releasing the real person redeemed now by true love. However, the problem remains-- the personality contrast between the "hard-case before" and the "all-sweetness after" is simply too strong and abrupt not to draw critical attention, regardless of how worthwhile the message.That's not to say the second part is wasted. Those clapboard shacks for the transient pickers are right out of Grapes of Wrath and just as realistic. Plus, Clark's personality remains volatile and believable, though undergoing the inevitable softening. I just wish the film had modulated Kay's change in a similarly subtle manner. Then we might have had a memorable whole instead of a memorable half.

madmonkmcghee The title sounds like a soap opera, and it kinda is, with some noirish touches. The first 30 minutes are familiar fare to any noir fan: ex-convict has troubles finding his way on the outside, meets a scheming blonde who only thinks of looking after Number One. At her place they run into her beau, who's none too pleased. Fists fly, and soon enough a shot is fired,hitting the boyfriend. We know it's the dame that did it, but since the ex-con was knocked out before the gun went off he doesn't know he's innocent. She doesn't clear things up for him, for obvious reasons. Fearing the worst, they hit the road together. From then on the melodrama takes over: she washes the bleach out of her hair, and becomes a reformed woman almost instantly. Love starts to bloom and they throw in their lot together. Will they ever find true happiness? At this point the movie lover who likes his noir hard-boiled might as well switch off. Those who sit out the rest of the movie either learn to care for the star-crossed couple or will feel cheated out of a good chase movie. I'm sort of on the fence about this one; both leads are engaging enough, but the story could have used more grit. Noir fans should try this one out, it has enough going for it, but be warned: Bonny And Clyde it ain't.

Don-94 This film screened at the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on April 7, 1999. It was described in the American Cinematheque schedule as follows:"TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY 1951, Warners, 90 min. Steve Cochran's an ex-con who's never been with a woman. Ruth Roman is a dime-a-dance dame with no use for sappy men. A hotel room, a dirty cop, a gunshot - the perfect jump-off for a fugitives-on-the-run love story. This virtually unknown noir is Felix Feist's masterwork, packed with revelatory set-pieces. Cochran was never more vulnerable, Roman never sexier. Imagine GUN CRAZY scripted by Steinbeck - it's that good."I just saw this film, and I agree with every word of the above description.