John M. Stahl's When Tomorrow Comes

Stahl was the Douglas Sirk of the 30's, though his irony was much further beneath the surface than Sirk's, whose remakes of Stahl's films --including Imitation of Life and Magnificent Obsession --reflect the more repressive 50's.   Stahl had the good fortune to have the luminous Irene Dunne in several of his films, including Back Street (1932) and Magnificent Obsession (1935) as well as When Tomorrow Comes (1939).

"Soap opera" and "melodrama" are words often used to dismiss films, though not by me, for me the only question is whether it is genuine sentiment or meretricious sentimentality; to dismiss melodrama and soap opera is to dismiss most great directors, from D. W. Griffith to Kenji Mizoguchi  In When Tomorrow Comes Stahl goes out of his way to establish Dunne as a passionately independent woman, before she meets and falls in love with Charles Boyer.  She is working as a waitress in a restaurant and takes a lead in organizing a union, for her independence and that of her co-workers, so they don't have to accept that "the customer is always right, no matter how fresh he's been with you."  She meets Boyer, they hit it off and go out together.  The only problem is that Boyer has a sickly wife,  for whom he feels responsible.  Dunne discovers this when she visits Boyer's opulent county house and also discovers he is a famous pianist. She insists on going back to New York that night because she has to picket the restaurant in the morning.  Dunne and Boyer get caught in a flash flood and spend the night together in a church, sleeping propped up against each other.  She gets back to New York in a car with Boyer's wife and his wife's mother.  Dunne is uncomfortable and even more so later in the day when Boyer's wife visits her and tells her "there are plenty of men for you" and Dunne agrees to leave Boyer alone, telling his wife "you win because you're helpless."  Boyer sees Dunne one last time and urges her to come to Paris with him.  She declines and Boyer leaves, with the last shot of Dunne showing conflicting emotions with minimalist expression.

Dwight Taylor wrote the film (he did brilliant scripts for several Astaire/Rogers films) and John J. Mescall did the straightforward cinematography (he also did Stahl's Magnificent Obsession).  Stahl effectively conveys the uncertainty and vulnerability both Dunne and Boyer feel about their relationship, leaving it open for one to wonder if they will ever get back together again.