Tomorrow, the World!

I watch a lot of Turner Classic Movies. I Tivo pretty much anything that falls into the following categories: classics I haven't seen; movies starring any of the cast members of The Best Years of Our Lives; movies with Joseph Cotten; movies about divorce or war marriage post-1940; screwball comedies; adaptations of my favorite childhood books; etc. Weird things catch my eye. Today was no exception.

Today I watched the oddest movie ever--1944's Tomorrow, the World! which falls into the movies starring any of the cast members of The Best Years of Our Lives. Frederic March stars as a scientist engaged to a "Jewess" who takes in his orphaned nephew. The nephew Emil, played by Skippy Homeier with the worst German accent in creation, is a former member of the Hitler Youth. I can't say this movie was entertaining in the movie sense, but it was entertaining in the sense that it pulled off WWII philosophy to a T. 1) Skippy demonstrated how fucked up he was by first showing his bad gender politics. Frederic March has a daughter Pat who calls her father by his first name, loves her cousin before she sees him, and is the only person able to handle Skippy. From the get-go, Skippy is repulsed by Pat's independence and tries to put her in her place. He later challenges a Polish kid who is doing laundry for his mom who works in a war plant. Damn those Nazis! At any rate, it's interesting to see that the current vein of villifying your enemies through their gender politics is hardly new. 2) Americans All: Skippy was more obviously a problem because he couldn't accept Frederic March's Jewish fiancee. His crimes against her included writing grafitti calling her a Jewish tramp on school grounds and plotting with Frederic March's overprotective semi-incestuous sister to break up the engagement, which succeeds. 3) Skippy is immediately drawn to the Asian kid in his class, only later realizing he's Chinese rather than Japanese. 4) Pop psychology on a global scale abounds! Skippy eventually attacks Pat with a fire poker when she catches him trying to steal scientific information. So Frederic March who had been all about reforming Skippy as a means of practice at reforming the entire country of Germany, gives up. That is until a bandaged Pat forgives him, and the Jewess helps Skippy break down realizing that the Nazis had tortured him as a young child. Now all is well! I took this image from an article by Jennifer Fay called "Germany Is a Boy in Trouble." I have not read it but it looks good . . .

**1/2