Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)

My Review

“Make Way for Tomorrow” is a drama film about an elderly couple who lose their home to bank foreclosure. With none of their five children able to house both parents, the couple is forced to separate and live with different children. The heavy drama proceeds from there, well directed by Leo McCarey (“Duck Soup” 1933) from a screenplay by Vina Delmar. It was adapted from the 1934 novel “The Years Are So Long” by Josephine Lawrence.

The cast includes Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter, Thomas Mitchell, Porter Hall, Barbara Read, Maurice Moscovitch, Elisabeth Risdon, Minna Gombell, Louise Beavers, Ellen Drew, and Gene Lockhart. The fine, but bleak, melodrama “Make Way for Tomorrow” flopped at the box office for Paramount Pictures, as people favored escapist fare during the Depression. It was primarily filmed at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, with some cover shots in New York City, where the film is set.