Rent And Now Tomorrow (1944)

Of Truth and Serum - And Now Tomorrow review by CH

Although the fine music score for And Now Tomorrow (1944) is by Victor Young, the film brings to mind Haydn and Mozart. Both of these found themselves smitten with a woman only, in each case, to marry the sister. Its plot, from a novel by Rachel Field - in a screenplay co-written by Raymond Chandler - turns around a small town dominated by the Blair family, one of whom, Emily (Loretta Young) is engaged to Barry (Jeff Stoddard) when she finds herself blighted by deafness brought on after an arrack of meningitis.

She spends much of the family money in seeking a cure around the world, all of which is to no avail; on returning home, she does not realise that her fiancé has fallen for her sister (Susan Hayward); one of the first to know, however, is the bright local doctor (Alan Ladd) who, born the other side of the tracks from the Blairs’ home, is engaged to develop a serum which might just help.

Medical matters are often a driving force in the plots of soap, and there is no denying that there is more than element of it here, but the tension between Ladd and her is well done, augmented by the contrasting settings of dark tenements and a house which opens - as so often in films at this time - upon a wide staircase which curves to an equally ample landing. Directed by Irving Pichel, perhaps best known for The Moon is Down and They Won’t Believe Me, it has a pace which involves one in these betrayals as they come to light in a shadowy world, one which is not as dark as the territory usually associated with Chandler.