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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0089218433992
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC
Label: Alpha Video
Languages: EnglishOriginal Language
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Alpha Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: February 24, 2004
Running Time: 84 minutes
Studio: Alpha Video
Theatrical Release Date: May 10, 1940
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Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
AWESOME, I REFER TO WATCH IT IN BLACK & WHITE RATHER THAN COLOR. IT JUST MAKES THE MOVIE REALISTIC.
Rating:  -
You can't win them all. Amazon sells them, they don't produce them. This movie was very dull and boring. Candidate for the yard sale.
Rating:  -
Gray market discs such as this offer no commentary, deleted scenes or other bonus features. Dubs are "best available source" and can vary from very good to only fair.
BEYOND TOMORROW is a charming, yet nearly forgotten holiday movie that feaures spirits helping mortals several years before IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE or THE BISHOP'S WIFE. The main difference here is these ghosts, unlike angels sent to Earth in those later films, remain invisible to people they actually knew in life.
As described above, in "Beyond Tomorrow" three older men, business partners for years, spend a lonely Christmas Eve in their Manhattan mansion when dinner guests unexpectedly cancel on them. Allan (C. Aubrey Smith) and Michael (Charles Winninger) make a wager with curmudgeonly George (Harry Carey) that honest strangers will return found wallets containing ten dollars and one of their cards.
Three billfolds are tossed out a window onto a snowy sidewalk. George's is kept by a society dame, but the other two are soon returned by down-on-his-luck Texan James Houston (Richard Carlson) and Miss Jean Lawrence (Jean Parker). The young folks are treated to a sumptuous feast. Afterward, a band of wandering musicians is invited into the old gents' cozy den for an evening of festive song led by James, who has a lovely voice.
A strong bond is formed between hosts, guests and servants Madame Tanya (Maria Ouspenskaya), a former member of the Russian aristocracy, and Josef (Alan Melesh), who left Russia with her after the 1917 Revolution. Jean, Charles and the elders see each other often, they go bowling and do other fun things.
George, Allan and Michael are called out of town on business, and despite Madame's entreaties to travel by train, they fly out. Their plane crashes on a mountaintop in a storm. Soon after, the ghosts of the old fellows appear in their home. Madame feels their presence but can't see them.
In the second, more somber half of the story, our spiritual benefactors watch over their young friends as they marry and go through personal problems. The script throughout is sentimental without being saccharine, serious but never lugubrious. "Beyond Tomorrow" has a fine cast that deftly tells an interesting story. It's a moton picture that should be seen by all. Highly recommended!
Rating: -
I'd give the actual film - originally titled "Beyond Tomorrow" - 3-4 stars. It is a touching, sentimental, well-acted, well-directed, wonderfully scored little film about Life and Death and the bigger picture of both top priority topics. It even brought tears to my eyes. I highly recommend this film, although only the first fifth of it deals directly with the Christmas season. Despite, LEGEND's retitling it to "Beyond Christmas" it is still extremely worth watching - but NOT the version released by LEGEND.
Oh, the cover of the DVD is beautiful! The couple of "Vintage Holiday Film Rarities" are very brief appeals from Bob Hope and Bette Davis to buy Christmas seals to aid in the fight against TB and war bonds to aid in the World War Two war effort. That's about it. The trailers are for "A Christmas Wish" a.k.a. "The Great Rupert" and ....yes, "Beyond Christmas"! The inclusion of the "restored black and white version" of the main feature is totally pointless - and for this reason: LEGEND actually had the guts to clip out 5 minutes of the full "Beyond Tomorrow" and add those deleted scenes as extras and claim them as "Deleted Scenes." Yes - they were deleted from this print - by LEGEND itself! Why? Just so the buyer believes he/she is seeing things left on the cutting room floor in 1940. It just ain't so. And it is especially pitiful because the film looks good in color - but what a shame that LEGEND can colorize the film decently...yet then go and chop-cut it just to add extras.
Get the movie, but not this purposefully truncated version. I have the full film (84 minutes compared to LEGEND'S 79 minutes)as put out by Westlake Entertainment Group. Believe me, five minutes might not seem like much - but they are CRITICAL scenes to the flow of the story - and to have to watch them afterwards under the bogus claim that they are "Deleted Scenes" is a small crime. So before buying a version...make sure it runs 84 minutes.
LEGEND just ain't legendary...nor legit! They did the same thing with the Seymour Hick's version of "A Christmas Carol" which I have reviewed elsewhere. Shame on 'em!
Rating: -
To begin with, the one-star rating is for Legend, not the film. The film itself is great. After seeing the garbage they put out, I know to stay far away from anything they colorize. I only looked at this to see the so-called original B&W version they had supposedly restored. It was anything but original. It's bad enough they stuck their own name on the film and changed the title. Unbelievely, they actually edit scenes OUT of the film and call them deleted scenes. Even with the colorized version on the disc, this would have been acceptable if the B&W version had not been changed also. Colorization is a scourge which should be wiped off the face of the Earth. What Legend did to this film and others is a travesty. Get the VCI version for a complete film.
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