Adapted from a play, which in turn was adapted from a book by advice columnist Josephine Lawrence, Leo McCarey directed “Make Way for Tomorrow” tells the tale of an elderly couple forced to be separated after losing their house and with neither of their five children willing to take them both. The film was a critical success and nowadays it is held in very high esteem. Director Leo McCarey considered it his finest film. When he received the Academy Award that same year for a different film, “The Awful Truth”, he famously stated “Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture”. “Make Way for Tomorrow” follows the fates of Barkley (Victor Moore) and Lucy Cooper (Beulah Bondi), an elderly couple who lose their home to foreclosure. They gather four of their five children (one daughter lives a thousand miles away in California) to break the news and make plans on where they will live next. Neither of the children have enough room to put them both up, and they are forced to separate. Soon their children grow tired of them and try to find ways to send them off. Both parents learn of this, but understandingly chose to keep silent. Barkley is to go to his daughter in California, while Lucy is to enter a home for the elderly. On the day of Barkley’s departure to California, the aging couple spends one last day together walking around the city, reminiscing about their youth and reaffirming their affection for one another.
Jason Segel collects puppets
