Tomorrow is Forever (1946)

Stars: Orson Welles and Claudette Colbert
Plot: After their Honeymoon, a husband goes off to war in 1917 and is supposedly killed in action. In 1939 a crippled stranger returns to America and meets the remarried widowed wife. Is it the same man? If so, what next?

One of Welles more obscure films, only briefly mentioned in his biographies. Its a preposterous but strangely effective soaper, released the same year as Welles' "The Stranger". Both movies are silly, contain WW2 Propaganda points, and require a suspension of disbelief.

However, I found TIF much more enjoyable than the Stranger primarily due to the acting of Welles and Colbert. Welles is much better in TIF, although he uses the same dodgy "German" accent. In "the Stranger" Welles hams it up and can't convincingly portray menace or evil. In TIF script plays to his strengths, he was always good at playing older men and being a weakened cripple requires him to underplay (to the extent he ever could) the role. Colbert meanwhile gives it her all and is wonderful in the part.

The biggest drawback of TIF is the WW2 Propaganda which tries to convince us that only childish "Selfish" women try to keep their menfolk from going off to war and getting themselves killed and there's quite a bit of dated "Internationalist vs. Isolationist" talk.

Tomorrow is Forever seems to draw a mixed response. The New York Times (Crowther) hated it and many of the external reviewers at IMDB feel the same, however its rated a 7.2 and a small group find it very effecting. I was ready to write it off, but got drawn in by the performances.