Sirk’s Switcheroo in ‘There’s Always Tomorrow’ 1956

Barbara Stanwyck & Fred MacMurray, as a designer & toy maker, who are also old flames in 1956's "There's Always Tomorrow."

Director Douglas Sirk literally flipped the script with 1956's There's Always Tomorrow. Typically, Sirk's cinema forte was slick but subversive soap operas that starred 40-sh femme film divas that faced life's adversity and society's disapproval.

"There's Always Tomorrow" may look like another Ross Hunter produced soap with  veteran stars, but Douglas Sirk's critical take on post-war life cuts through the suds.

There's Always Tomorrow is like a male version of All That Heaven Allows, which Sirk directed the year before. Instead of a likeable but increasingly miserable female character like Jane Wyman's small town widow, this time it's Fred MacMurray as a faithful husband and father who feels trapped by his middle-class existence. Whereas Wyman's widow unwittingly creates strife with an affair with a younger man, Fred's toy creator causes suspicion among his older children when an old flame comes to town on business. In both cases, their children react with self-centeredness and self-righteousness. And in both films, the privileged, overbearing son is played by William Reynolds! In Heaven, he’s Ned; in Tomorrow, he’s Vinnie. In both roles, he’s perfect, because Reynolds’ characters behave so badly you'll want to throw something at your screen.

Like Jane Wyman in "All That Heaven Allows," director Douglas Sirk casts another likable star, Fred MacMurray, as a character not content with their lot in life.

While there is an attraction between both MacMurray's unhappy Cliff Groves and Norma Vale, she is more realistic, as an affair would wreck his happy family. Norma is played by Fred's frequent co-star, Barbara Stanwyck.

Cliff seems to enjoy his career, though he jumps through a lot of hoops to please his boss and clients; at home he's feeling restless. While he loves his wife and family, Cliff feels second best. There’s Always Tomorrow seems to mock the '50s sitcom-style family, where they seem insufferable at times, while Fred is suffering from a lack of attention. Wife Marion is played by lovely Joan Bennett. While I'm sure she was directed to behave this way, Joan’s Marion comes off like a posh parody of the glamorous and saintly sitcom wife of '50s TV. She’s the most chic of Stepford Wives, with pat answers for her husband’s complaints, treating him like a child, insisting he take a hot bath after a rough day, or that he not stay out in the cool night air, lest he catch cold!

Joan Bennett, cast as the perfect wife, Marion Groves, in "There's Always Tomorrow."

Vinnie is a clean cut, crew cut bully, who lords it over his sisters, snaps at his girlfriend, and takes verbal jabs at his father. Ellen, the middle sister, is played by Gigi Perreau as a typical precocious ‘50s teen, girlish with adult pretensions. The youngest daughter, Frances, seems to need all her mother's attention and is truly annoying. These actors as the Groves offspring certainly perform as Sirk directed. In the showdown scene, when the two older children confront Stanwyck's visiting ex-flame, Perreau has an outburst begging Stanwyck that's quite striking.

Gigi Perreau has an emotional moment as the daughter, in 1956's "There's Always Tomorrow."

Of course, this is Sirk's sly criticism of post-war perfect families, as seen on television and film. In fact, the movie doesn't judge the father for considering an affair at all. By the film's finale, the family finally seems to realize the father needs a little TLC, yet Cliff still seems melancholy as he sees Norma’s plane depart in the evening sky. She is shown brushing away tears in her plane seat.

Fred MacMurray's Cliff feels re-ignited after reuniting with old flame Norma, played by Barbara Stanwyck, in 1956's "There's Always Tomorrow."

Fred MacMurray, typically bland to me, is well-cast as the ideal film father. In less than five years, Fred would be star in the TV fave, My Three Sons, where he always looked half asleep. Here, he's not afraid to be unlikable. While Cliff is a good man, it's never definitively declared whether he has every right to be irritable at his home life, or is this a faulty perception? I took it that he sees his family situation clearly. Did he miss an opportunity to change his life for more happiness? Or was he about to make a big mistake, over a dull patch in his life? Fred has an in-depth character to play and he does so with authority. 

Barbara Stanwyck as Norma Vale in 1956's "There's Always Tomorrow." This is one of Barbara's best middle-aged roles, as the warmly sympathetic ex-flame.

As for Barbara Stanwyck, this role in this film was a change of pace for her. Like her friend and contemporary, Joan Crawford, Stanwyck played a lot of tough cookies from mid-career onward. Unlike Joan, Barbara didn't become a caricature. The same year that Joan had one of her best roles and films with Autumn Leaves, Stanwyck had the same as Norma Vale in There's Always Tomorrow. Barbara's character is genuinely warm and charming, realistic and makes no apologies for being a career woman. She's genuinely interested in Cliff's life and is finally realistic about their attraction going any further. Like Crawford, Stanwyck was nearly 50 here. Barbara presents herself as a stylish woman, but not afraid to look her age.

And like Crawford in Autumn Leaves, Stanwyck gets a big scene in There’s Always Tomorrow to tear into! When Cliff’s children come to confront her, Stanwyck’s Norma doesn't grovel for their forgiveness, which would have been typical of the era. Instead, the would-be “other woman” rails at the ingrates for taking their father for granted. Barbara is quite convincing in her fury!

Barbara Stanwyck's "other woman" schools her ex-flame's kiddies on respecting their neglected dad, in 1956's "There's Always Tomorrow."

There are a number of scenes where Douglas Sirk creates mood and emotion with camera set ups, symbolism, and more. The one that stunned me was when Norma visits Cliff at work, breaking off the possibility of an affair. When she leaves, his latest creation, Rex the Robot is bumped and starts mechanically walking, right off the screen!

"There's Always Tomorrow" benefits greatly from having two of the golden era's  most naturalistic stars, Fred MacMurray & Barbara Stanwyck, as the mature leads.

Maybe the reason this film is lesser known is because it was not one of Sirk's splashy Technicolor ‘50s extravaganzas. Why wasn't it filmed in color—because it wasn't about wealthy folks, wearing a parade of Jean Louis costumes? Was it because there wasn't a photogenic young co-star, like Rock Hudson? Whatever the case, There’s Always Tomorrow is a beautifully drawn black and white film, instead of a vivid movie oil painting, directed by Douglas Sirk. Like Sirk's other work, there are some forward thinking observations about mid-century American life.

William Reynolds, who so ably played the surly son in both "There's Always Tomorrow" AND "All That Heaven Allows."

Here’s my look at one of Sirk’s best, All That Heaven Allows, with Jane Wyman & Rock Hudson:

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