curiousFred MacMurray made four films with Carole Lombard, and even more with Claudette Colbert, but you can argue his best cinematic leading lady was Barbara Stanwyck. They had great chemistry on screen, so much so that they could excel in films wholly different from each other. Their work in the classic 1944 film noir "Double Indemnity" has been justly praised for decades, and in recent years they've gained recognition for the fine comedy-drama they made four years earlier, the Christmas-themed "Remember The Night."
However, these weren't their only pairings. They reunited in 1956 for a film that's been rather neglected over the years, but is now being made available on DVD. It's...
"There's Always Tomorrow," directed by Douglas Sirk and released by Universal in early 1956. MacMurray plays a California executive bored with his suburban routine who falls into the arms of Stanwyck, his flame from 20 years earlier, much to the dismay of current wife Joan Bennett.
Sirk was renowned for such dramas examining the underbelly of 1950s conformity, but this received relatively little push from the studio. MacMurray and Stanwyck still had some star power, but they were increasingly deemed from an earlier generation. The studio put more effort into promoting the nearly concurrent "All That Heaven Allows."
The good news: "There's Always Tomorrow" is available as part of a six-film Stanwyck set being offered by Universal. The bad news: It apparently has been poorly cropped from its original 1.85-to-1 ratio, put into a full-screen format that doesn't do the film justice. And what's worse is that the movie has been placed in wide screen for a European DVD issue, so Universal really had no excuse for this (http://greenbriarpictureshows.blogspot.com/2010/04/theres-always-tomorrow-limps-onto-dvd.html).
I've never seen "There's Always Tomorrow" -- frankly, I'm not sure I was even aware of its existence -- but seeing MacMurray and Stanwyck on screen together is always a pleasure. Spread the word.
