Film diary: Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)

The phrase make way for tomorrow is a little deceptive. Consider the lyrics to the Jerome Kern song:

Let’s keep on singing,
“Make way for tomorrow!”
The sun is bringing a new day tomorrow

It can mean the promise of a new day, but ‘make way’ also means to move out of the way. Move and make room for the glorious future. There’s no room for you in this new day. That’s the premise of Leo McCarey’s devastating 1937 film.

Elderly couple Lucy and Barkley Cooper (Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore) are in the midst of a housing crisis. Their home has been foreclosed and they must live with their grown children. The couple is separated, with Lucy living with George (Thomas Mitchell), his wife Alice (Fay Bainter), and their daughter Rhoda (Barbara Reed). Bark stays with his son and daughter in law Cora (Elisabeth Risdon).

If there’s a glimmer of hope to be found at all in this film, it’s that love is everlasting. Lucy and Bark may be separated, but their devotion to one another is unwavering. They’ve been madly in love for fifty years.

Their children are severely disappointing. Lucy and Bark are aggravating, they ruin bridge night, are rude to doctors, just simply take up too much room. No one seems to care that their parents miss each other dearly and have no one to talk to. I was struck by how poorly they were treated, even if it wasn’t ever abusive. I couldn’t help but think of animated films where the elderly are not only cherished by their loved ones, but allowed their dignity too.

Gramma Tala in Moana is respected and adored, both wise and kooky. Mulan’s grandmother is much the same, and she’s also the only one who supports her granddaughter. Mama Coco is so old, wheelchair bound and losing her memory, but her energetic great grandson Miguel treats her like his friend. Then there’s Sophie in Howl’s Moving Castle, who summons the confidence long laying dormant when her hair turns silver and her back grows hunched. Widower Carl in Up defies authority and embarks on a fantastical adventure in his flying house.

Not once in Make Way for Tomorrow does Rhoda sit with Lucy and listen to her stories, of which I’m sure she’d be happy to share if anyone showed an interest. One of the things I love best about Coco is the elderly telling their stories. Mama Coco spins the tale of her childhood right when her memories are restored, holding her family in rapt attention. Miguel is immeasurably lucky for being able to actually meet the ancestors who died before his time, and hear his great-great grandmother’s story firsthand. But no one cares about what Lucy and Bark have to say.

There’s nothing happy in this film at all. It’s like a face lined with sorrow. There’s the one glimmer of hope in Lucy and Bark’s love and their one act of rebellion. Kindness still lives, in the conversations and actions of strangers. But they’re unwanted essentially, and will have to live apart. I want to imagine a happy ending for this film and a reunion between the two where they’re content with each other for the rest of their days. Maybe a world in which tomorrow makes room for them.