Waste of time

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The ghosts of three elderly industrialists killed in an airplane crash return to Earth to help reunite a young couple whom they initially brought together.Structured as a B film, the production did not engage any stars who would receive billing above the title, relying instead on a quartet of veteran characters actors, Charles Winninger, Maria Ouspenskaya, C. Aubrey Smith and Harry Carey, second-tier young leads Richard Carlson and Jean Parker as well as "other woman" Helen Vinson, a minor lead/second lead during early and mid thirties, here approaching the end of her career. All seven actors received a "Featuring" billing after the title. The remaining supporting cast included Rod La Rocque, a top leading man of the silent era, now reduced to playing minor supporting roles.In retrospect, the movie is interesting for its cast, but never really rises above a B-movie. It is a bit too melodramatic, and doesn't stand out as a great film in its own right and not a great Christmas film. I have read that some people have made this a Christmas tradition, but I just can't imagine doing this. With the dozens of great Christmas movies, I wouldn't put this in the top 50.

Director A. Edward Sutherland's "Beyond Tomorrow" is a fantasy romance melodrama with a Christmas setting. This heavy-handed pabulum about second chances and voices from Heaven that can be influenced by grieving mothers is for folks who crave happy endings. Predictable, dull, and tear-stained with sketchy characters and contrived situations, this modest movie probably appealed to misty-eyed romantics during its initial release. Three eccentric business partners in their sixties who are idle widowers decide on a whim to enliven their lives with a bit of Christmas cheer. They slip $10 into separate wallets with their business cards and throw them out of their window of their New York City mansion into the street. The idea is that nobody is a stranger on Christmas Eve. The cynical member of the trio, George Melton (Harry Carey of "Angel and the Badman"), argues that nobody will return their wallets. The optimistic one, Michael O'Brien (Charles Winninger of "Destry Rides Again"), contends that someone will bring back the wallets. O'Brien challenges Melton to a wager with the loser buying dinner at their club if any of the wallets are returned. Meantime, the last member of the threesome, Allan Chadwick (C. Aubrey Smith of "Trader Horn"), watches his two companions with genuine amusement while he puffs on his pipe. They fling their wallets into the snow-swept evening on the sidewalk. One recipient gives her $10 to a chauffeur, while the remaining two show-up to return the loot. The first one is a woebegone Texan in a Stetson, James Houston (Richard Carlson of "The Howards of Virginia"), whose western drawl is as thick as his boots are threadbare, but he can warble his heart out given the chance. The second is a young lady, Jean Lawrence (Jean Parker of "Zenobia"), and she grills Chadwick about the contents of the wallet. You see, poor old Chadwick suffers from terrible vision, but O'Brien helps him out. These three old gents and the young couple are joined for supper by an expatriate Russian aristocratic dame, Madam Tanya (Maria Ouspenskaya of "The Wolf Man"), who is happy that she is no longer oppressed by her once abundant wealth. They have a blast, and later the trio of entrepreneurs catches a plane to attend to their business affairs. Madam Tanya senses that they won't get off the plane, and they don't, dying in a mountain crash. They show up at their old haunt, but now they are really haunting it as ghosts. None of them experiences any former pains and they can see through each other. The last to hear about their tragic disaster are the happy, carefree, young couple.Miraculously, Madam Tanya knows what she must do. She takes the young couple into the library and presents with an envelope containing bonds that the trio entrusted to them. While this is transpiring, a newspaperman interviews the couple about the three engineers and the story falls into the hands of a radio station whose manager invites the duo to their studios. Jean wants Jimmy to go to the interview because she is certain that his singing will land them in the big time. Madam Tanya asks them to stick around in the mansion so that the butler and she will have someone to take care of since the trio has died. Jimmy auditions at WRC Radio and they schedule him to sing that evening. While he is at WRC, he runs into a celebrity singer Arlene Terry (Helen Vinson of "Broadway Bill") who is a little older than he is. Naturally, impressionable Jimmy is impressed with the lady. Not only does she like what she sees when they meet but she also urges him to phone her when he sings on the air. Terry and her producer Phil Hubert (Rod La Rocque of "The Shadow Strikes") both approve of his warbling, and they sign him up to join their show. Jimmy reaps so much success that he no longer makes time to spend with Jean, and their romance grows languishes as they grow apart from each other. Melton moves on into thunder and lightning, and later Chadwick joins his son David (William Bakewell) in their dream of dreams India. This leaves the unhappy O'Brien behind. O'Brien is sad now because Jimmy has taken up with Terry and forgotten about Jean. Another vocalist, Jace Taylor (James Bush of "Hangmen Also Die!"), who once shared the spotlight with Terry before he turned into a drunken, struggles to patch up their relationship, but Terry wants nothing to do with him. Instead, she wants to spend some time relaxing with Jimmy. O'Brien's ghost tries to get Jimmy to reunite with Jean, but the grasping Terry sidetracks Jimmy and he drives off with her in a convertible into the country. O'Brien catches a ride in the backseat and then he notices headlights following them and whisks off to the other car. He discovers that Jace is steering the other car and has a revolver with him. While Jace has the attendant fuel up his jalopy at the gas station, he goes for a drink. Jimmy and Terry are dining in a restaurant when they are recognized by the band leader. About that time, Jace staggers in, brandishes his revolver, and shoots them both. Terry dies immediately while Jimmy makes it to the operating table at the hospital. Heaven shines down on O'Brien and summons him for the last time. O'Brien cannot stand the thought of leaving Jimmy behind until the young man joins him. Heaven comes back for O'Brien because his long-suffering mom intervened on his behalf. O'Brien entreats Heaven to give Jimmy another chance. Jean hears the good news that Jimmy survived surgery. O'Brien is further gladdened by the appearance of Melton who has repented and joins his old friend as they march toward the celestial lights."Beyond Tomorrow" would like us to believe that Jimmy and Jean got the chance to share their dreams.

The low rating is due largely to the bad print that I watched on TCM, choppy and dark enough to qualify as film noir.But it's easy to see why this one has slipped through the cracks over the years. It's a little too simplistic, too sentimental and has a rather silly story to tell that could only have been made in the '40s when the world was on the verge of falling in love with IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.Three wise old fools become the guardians (from beyond) of two people they helped meet and fall in love. Not bad for the outline of a story, but the way it's fleshed out here is less than convincing from start to finish.At least the performers aren't to blame for the bland script. CHARLES WINNINGER does nicely as the man who thinks up the idea of tossing his wallet and business card into the snow to see if anyone will return it (on Christmas Eve of course) and thereby be invited to spend time in the luxurious suite he shares with SIR C. AUBREY SMITH and HARRY CAREY, SR. Two lonely people do return the wallet--JEAN PARKER and RICHARD CARLSON--and stay for dinner and immediately fall in love.To tell any more would be to give away what little remains of the plot, but let's just say it struggles to be "warm and cozy" while at the same time falling apart once the kindly gentlemen disappear into the beyond.The story gets a brief lift from the presence of MARIA OUSPENSKAYA as a wistful housekeeper who senses the presence of the ill-fated men who want to act as guardians from beyond.A viewer should be aware that staying awake for this one may be a problem. A better print may have made the whole thing more bearable.

***SPOILERS*** Sentimental little Christmas movie involving three life long friends who in trying to pep up their somewhat lonely Christmas Eve get together in roping in two young strangers who make their holiday season a lot better and far more rewarding. So much better that they just refuse to go back to their maker, and heaven, after they ended up dying in a tragic plane crash.The three old guys Irish Michael O'Brien, Charles Winninger, British Allan "Chad" Chadwick, A.Aubrey Smith, and American businessman George Melton, Harry Carey,end up bonding with their unexpected Christmas guests Texas cowboy James Huston,Richard Carlson, and children clinic volunteer Jean Lawrence, Jean Parker, who end up becoming their lifelong,and even beyond life, friends.Becoming almost inseparable both James and Jean drift apart when their three old benefactors, with Michael leaving James a cache of money to continue his fledging singing career, unexpectedly perish in a plane crash. Being stung by success, as the new American Idol, James gets hooked up with Broadway singing sensation Arlene Terry,Helen Vinson, who's just nuts about the handsome but shy Texas cowboy. This has Michael, who's stuck in the world between life and death, try to somehow show the love sick James what a mistake he made in tossing his one and only true love, on earth and beyond, Jean away for the manipulated and scheming Arlene. Both Chad and George also hang out in what seems to be the Astral World, an existence between life and death,for a short time until they finally get their bearings straight and ascend to heaver. Chad ends up going to heaven with his dead son David, William Bakewell, who was killed in the Great War or WWI. The cranky and penny pinching George finally found out, after his death, that money isn't everything if your in a place, the world in between life and death, where its not worth the paper that it's printed on and also sees the light, heaven, by the time the film is over.Only Michael gets involved with the world of the living in his attempt to save James from a fate worse then death in both losing Jean as well as his life by getting himself involved with Arlene. James in fact does see the light after he's shot and killed by Arlene's drunk and jealous ex-husband-Mr. Terry I presume-and is given a second chance to return back to earth, and life, to reunite with the girl that he left behind Jean.Nothing really new here even though the movie predates the far more popular and very similar Frank Capra Christmas Classic "It's a Wonderful Life" by some six years. The film "Beyond Tomorrow" nevertheless still packs quite a wallop in movies about life after death and what it's, our very meager existence, really all about in the grand scheme of things.There's also in the film the two Czarist Russian survivors of the Commnist Revolution Madame Tanya, Maria Ouspenskay, who's the only one in the movie who can see or sense the three dead plane crash victims and her stuffy and stoned faced butler Josef, Alex Melesh. It's Josef who at times when his face was frozen stiff looked like the newest member, even though he never was a US President, of Mount Rushmore.