THERE’S ALWAYS TOMORROW (1956)
70TH ANNIVERSARY PRESENTATION
Although best remembered for lush Technicolor melodramas like Magnificent Obsession (1954) and Imitation of Life (1959), producer Ross Hunter and German-born director Douglas Sirk also teamed for some more intimate black-and-white films in the same genre. Seventy years ago, they made one of their best, reuniting Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray for a rarity—a film targeted at female audiences but focusing on a man. MacMurray’s a toy manufacturer whose wife (Joan Bennett) never seems to have time for him. When former employee Stanwyck comes to visit, the two are drawn to each other and start to move toward an affair. Sirk gives MacMurray an elaborate home with a room divided by wooden posts for a cage-like effect. This is one of Sirk’s most cynical films, enlivened by riveting performances by the three stars.
d. Douglas Sirk, 85m, 35mm
35mm print courtesy of Universal Pictures.