View source for From This Day Forward

{{short description|1946 film by John Berry}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = From This Day Forward
| image          = File:Joan Fontaine in 'From This Day Forward', 1946.jpg
| caption        =
| director       = [[John Berry (film director)|John Berry]]
| producer       = [[Jack J. Gross]] (executive producer)<br>[[William Pereira]] (producer)
| writer         = [[Garson Kanin]] (adaption)<br>[[Hugo Butler]] (screenplay)<br>[[Clifford Odets]] (uncredited)<ref name="Blacklisted page 79">Blacklisted:  The Film Lover's Guide to the Hollywood Blacklist, Paul Budle and Dave Wagner, page 79</ref>
| starring       = [[Joan Fontaine]]<br>[[Mark Stevens (actor)|Mark Stevens]]<br>[[Rosemary DeCamp]]<br>[[Harry Morgan]]
| music          = [[Leigh Harline]]
| cinematography = [[George Barnes (cinematographer)|George Barnes]]
| editing        = Frank Doyle
| studio = [[RKO Radio Pictures]]
| distributor    = RKO Radio Pictures
| released       = {{Film date|1946|3|27| Premiere-San Francisco|1946|4|19|U.S.|ref1=<ref name="From This Day Forward: Detail View">{{cite web | url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=24786| title=From This Day Forward: Detail View | publisher=American Film Institute | access-date=April 29, 2014}}</ref>|ref2=<ref name="From This Day Forward: Detail View">{{cite web | url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=24786| title=From This Day Forward: Detail View | publisher=American Film Institute | access-date=April 29, 2014}}</ref>}}
| runtime        = 95 minutes
|budget = $650,000<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/variety159-1945-09#page/n55/mode/1up ''Variety'' 12 September 1945 p 12]</ref>
| country        = United States
| language       = English
}}
'''''From This Day Forward''''' is a 1946 American [[drama]] film directed by [[John Berry (film director)|John Berry]] and starring [[Joan Fontaine]], [[Mark Stevens (actor)|Mark Stevens]] and [[Rosemary DeCamp]]. It was produced and distributed by [[RKO Pictures]].
==Plot==
Army sergeant Bill Cummings ([[Mark Stevens (actor)|Mark Stevens]]) is about to be discharged after service in World War II. He was a blue collar worker in civilian life and is seeking employment. As he fills out forms and speaks to personnel at the [[United States Employment Service]], he thinks back on the life events that brought him to this point.
[[Flashback (narrative)|Flashbacks]] show him at various times in his prewar life. He is shown meeting and marrying his wife Susan ([[Joan Fontaine]]) in 1938. Other flashbacks describe their hardscrabble life in a poor neighborhood of New York City during the [[Great Depression]]. He and various relatives are shown as frequently unemployed and having difficulty making a living.
At the conclusion of the film, he is shown being referred to a badly needed job interview, and we learn that Susan is pregnant.
==Cast==
* [[Joan Fontaine]] as Susan Cummings
* [[Mark Stevens (actor)|Mark Stevens]] as Bill Cummings
* [[Rosemary DeCamp]] as Martha Beesley
* [[Harry Morgan]] as Hank Beesley
* [[Wally Brown]] as Jake Beesley
* [[Arline Judge]] as Margie Beesley
* Renny McEvoy as Charlie Beesley
* [[Bobby Driscoll]] as Timmy Beesley
* [[Mary Treen]] as Alice Beesley
* [[Queenie Smith]] as Mrs. Beesley
* Doreen McCann as Barbara Beesley
* [[Erskine Sanford]] as Mr. Higgler
* unbilled players include [[Ellen Corby]], [[Ralph Dunn]], [[Blake Edwards]], [[Milton Kibbee]], [[Tommy Noonan]] and [[Moroni Olsen]]
==Political context==
Called "the most expressively optimistic film of the postwar Left" and "literally working-class cinema",<ref name="Blacklisted page 79"/> the screenplay was adapted from the 1936 novel "All Brides are Beautiful" by working-class immigrant novelist [[Thomas Bell (novelist)|Thomas Bell]].  Director Berry and screenwriter [[Hugo Butler]] would both be caught in the [[Hollywood blacklist]], and the uncredited writer Odets appeared as a [[House Un-American Activities Committee|HUAC]] friendly witness.<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE7DF1E3FF932A35751C1A96F958260|title=John Berry, 82, Stage and Film Director Who Exiled Himself During Blacklisting of 1950s|access-date=2013-01-12|last=Blumenthal|first=Ralph|work=[[The New York Times]] | date=December 1, 1999}}</ref>
==Reception==
The ''New York Times'' reviewer called the film "a plotless succession of episodes," and said "there may be some purpose in all this but we couldn't quite make it out—unless it is simply to demonstrate that unemployment is a very bad thing." The critic said that Fontaine's performance as a Bronx housewife was unconvincing.<ref name="Crowther">{{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E0CE7D8153FE23BBC4851DFB266838D659EDE|title=MOVIE REVIEWTHE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'From This Day Forward,' RKO Film Starring Joan Fontaine, Has Premiere at the Palace|last=Crowther|first=Bosley|date=20 April 1946|work=The New York Times|access-date=January 13, 2013}}</ref>
''Variety'' said the flashbacks make "it sometimes difficult to follow as a whole, but there can be no quarrel with the merit of presentation and acting of the individual sequences."<ref name="Variety">{{cite news|url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117791145/?refCatId=31|title=From This Day Forward|date=31 December 1945|work=Variety|access-date=January 13, 2013}}</ref>
A ''[[Cincinnati Enquirer]]'' reviewer praised the performances and the film's "extraordinarily realistic touches," though he noted a "somewhat involved story-telling method."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Radcliffe |first1=E.B. |title=From This Day Forward review |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/41053416/from_this_day_forward_review/ |access-date=25 December 2019 |work=The Cincinnati Enquirer|via=[[Newspapers.com]] {{Open access}}|date=28 March 1946 |pages=17}}</ref>
''Time Out Film Guide'' said that "such strands as post-war optimism, the impact of neo-realism, the socialist convictions of director and chief writer (Butler), both blacklist-bound, can easily be picked out. But as ever when Hollywood tried to engage with everyday realities, the trade off came in glamourisation - syrupy music, Fontaine (as Stevens' wife) never looking less than a film star, and an idea of poverty that must have irritated many audiences on home ground, never mind in Europe."<ref name="Time Out">{{cite news|url=https://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/67130/from_this_day_forward.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130216221834/http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/67130/from_this_day_forward.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 16, 2013|title=From This Day Forward Review. Movie Reviews|work=Time Out Film Guide|access-date=January 13, 2013}}</ref>
===Reception===
The film made a profit of $362,000.<ref name="uni">Richard B. Jewell, ''Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures'', Uni of California, 2016</ref>
==Radio adaptation==
''From This Day Forward'' was presented on ''[[Lux Radio Theatre]]'' October 28, 1946. Fontaine and Stevens reprised their roles in the adaptation.<ref>{{cite news|title=LRT Guest|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3323305/harrisburg_telegraph/|agency=Harrisburg Telegraph|date=October 26, 1946|page=21|via = [[Newspapers.com]]|access-date = September 29, 2015}} {{Open access}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* {{IMDb title|id=0038537}}
* [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3235/From-This-Day-Forward/ Turner Classic Movies page]
{{John Berry (film director)}}
{{Garson Kanin}}
[[Category:1946 films]]
[[Category:Films directed by John Berry]]
[[Category:RKO Pictures films]]
[[Category:Films based on American novels]]
[[Category:Films set in the Bronx]]
[[Category:Films scored by Leigh Harline]]
[[Category:American drama films]]
[[Category:1946 drama films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:1940s American films]]