Beyond Tomorrow (1940)

Three wealthy old businessmen, who apparently live together, have no plans for Christmas dinner, so they each decide to throw a wallet into the street containing their business card and ten dollars. Whomever returns the wallets will be invited to stay for dinner. Pretty Jean (Jean) and folksy Jim Houston (Richard Carlson) do the right thing, aw shucks. Jim Houston is from Texas, because of course he is. I sure hope those two fall in love.

Old friends will remember Richard Carlson from Creature from the Black Lagoon and It Came from Outer Space (at a deadly pace), and quite a few other films. Pretty young Jean Parker had a minor career playing pretty young women. Also here is enigmatic Maria Ouspenskaya (ten thousand points in scrabble). Need an eastern European gypsy or Russian countess? Maria was your woman.

What started with a fair enough premise degrades into a bit of a mess of a film. Cloyingly saccharine, we see our two love birds drift apart after the rich cronies (ahem) exit the scene. Jimbo becomes a famous singer and is pursued by a soulless harpy. That never ends well. Of course we have a happy enough of an ending thanks to Deus ex Machina, but I had already lost interest. This is another case of accidentally caught the movie at the beginning and decided to sit it out, but with lesser success. The film was touted by TCM because it was included in a book they are hard-selling. When asked what movie didn’t make the cut the author mentions It Happened on Fifth Avenue, which is far superior. That’s just insulting.

Cheap looking sets, mediocre acting, and muddled story, Beyond Tomorrow is skippable. AMRU 2.5.