Modern audiences are used to horror films in which the dark side of the afterlife comes back to haunt houses and torment people. A few films deal with love and redemption, and some have been comedies. But, in the first three-fourths of the 20th century, films about the afterlife most often were stories with a deeper look at what happens after we die. These usually touched on Judeo-Christian beliefs in heaven and hell. Such is "Beyond Christmas" (aka, "Beyond Tomorrow"), a 1940 RKO movie that purposely did not have a cast with top stars. Indeed, the cast includes half a dozen actors who share the lead. Among them are some very new faces and some very old ones. The latter – including the three male leads by top supporting actors of Hollywood, are one very good reason to watch this movie. Charles Winninger as Michael O'Brien, C. Aubrey Smith as Allan Chadwik, and Harry Carey as George Melton give excellent performances. These three gents played some of the finest supporting roles in major films of the Hollywood golden years. Then, add Russian-born supporting actors Maria Ouspenskaya and Alex Melesh, and one has a film with real talent appeal. I agree with other reviewers about the poor quality of this film. However, I watched the colorized version and enjoyed it as well. I also watched the deleted scenes at the end, and agree with those who think the film was too choppy and loosely connected. Inclusion of a couple of those scenes would have helped greatly. I can't understand why they were cut in the first place. A quotation from Benjamin Franklin at the start of the film sets the stage for the audience to understand that the film would involve the afterlife, faith and belief in God. That quotation reads, "I believe … that the soul of man is immortal and will be treated with justice in another life, respecting its conduct in this." Indeed, that is an aspect of eternity that plays heavily in the film, especially with the character of George, who apparently killed a person in the past. A couple of very good lines stand out. At one point, George says, "To be born innocent is natural, but to die pure of heart – that's a gift." Michael says to James, "Sometimes we have to go through the darkness alone, before we can see the light." At times, Christian beliefs seem muddled. Michael says to George, "George, no matter what you did, if you're sorry for it, no power of darkness can touch you. If you'll only say you're sorry, George." George replies, "While I didn't mean to do it, I have no remorse. I never did have. And, I'd be a hypocrite to say I'm sorry now." In this scene, he goes off into the darkness. In the afterlife, Michael is called last to heaven. But he wants to remain and try to help reunite the young couple, James and Jean, played by Richard Carlson and Jean Parker. Christian belief from the earliest times is that the dead in purgatory and heaven can and do pray for those still on earth. Just as living people ask one another to pray for them in illness, or personal or family problems, Catholics and others pray to ask deceased parents, friends and other loved ones to pray for them. The Catholic belief on this, with Biblical sources, is referred to as the communion of saints. Toward the end of the film, Michael quotes scripture when he says, "There's more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repented …" (Luke 15: 7, 10). My DVD also has some bonus materials that I found interesting and enjoyed watching. One is a video of Bob Hope promoting the use of Christmas Seals. I remember very well that we used to buy these at Christmas time to help fight tuberculosis. Another is a video of Bette Davis urging people to buy war bonds as Christmas gifts for older children. In addition, last, there is a video segment with Christmas drawings and a band and chorus singing some religious Christmas carols.

I find myself watching this over and over again around Christmas time. It's an oldie, older than "It's a Wonderful Life", but has yet to become a Christmas classic. A few years ago there was an official DVD release, which changes the title from "Beyond Tomorrow" to "Beyond Christmas", no doubt to make it more marketable as a holiday movie. It shows the original B&W version and a colorized version. In this release they show "deleted" scenes as a special feature, but these scenes are included as part of the feature in almost every other DVD compilation which features it, as well as TV airings, so the makers of this DVD distort the meaning of the term "deleted scenes".Three aging, well-to-do engineers are spending Christmas Eve in the spacious NY mansion which they apparently share, and also work out of. Also living there is a kindly former Russian countess, Madame Tanya (Maria Ouspenskaya) who, like Josef the butler (Alex Melesh), was exiled after the Bolshevik revolution. The three men are bored and lonely after their expected guests cancel, so Michael O'Brien (Charles Winninger), the jolly Irishman, comes up with a scheme to deliberately toss out their wallets, each containing ten dollars (a fair sum in 1940), to see if anyone brings the wallets back. The two that are returned belong to Michael and Allen "Chad" Chadwick (C. Aubrey Smith), the friendly Englishman. The other wallet that was not returned is found and kept by a woman, a starlet named Arlene Terry (Helen Vinson), who later emerges as something of a villainess. Appropriately enough, that wallet belonged to the melancholy Oklahoman George Vale Melton (veteran screen star Harry Carey), perhaps the most interesting character. More on that later.Michael's and Chad's wallets are returned, respectively, by a Texan named (what else?) James Houston (Richard Carlson, whose singing here is far better than his otherwise fine acting, assuming that's really him singing), and a lady from New Hampshire, Jean Lawrence (Jean Parker). They all become instant friends, and Jimmy and Jean become instant lovers. A few months later, a plane crash, apparently foreseen by Madame Tanya, takes the lives of the three engineers, who return as ghosts in an effort to help James and Jean, and to keep James from being led astray by the duplicitous Arlene Terry as he pursues a singing career. Along the way, George is summoned to the darkness by an ominous voice. In life, he was in fact a good-hearted soul, but tried his best to hide it, as witnessed in the Christmas Eve scene where he delights in the walking stick given him by Michael, until Chad sees him, then George changes his expression and calls it "A lotta childish nonsense!". He is haunted by an incident from his past, the nature of which is not made entirely clear, but there are a few clues . Earlier, he suspects that the Christmas Eve guests who cancelled on them did so because of him and this incident, the Shreve (sp?) case, "acquitted". As he is summoned by this voice, he says he did what needed doing, and has no regrets. Later Madame Tanya provides another clue when she tells Jimmy that George lost everything over a woman like Arlene. Chad, too, is called, in his case to heaven to be with his wife and son, who preceded him in death. When Michael is called, he chooses to remain on Earth to help lead Jimmy on the right path and back to Jean, even though he is told that he will wander the earth forever. Of course, after a near-tragedy, he eventually succeeds in his mission, and as a result of some prodding by his late mother, he is called home again, and is joined by George, who has returned from the darkness after working out all of his issues.A little hokey? Maybe, but how realistic can portrayals of the afterlife be expected to look? That there is an afterlife appears to be a central theme of the movie, as witnessed by the Benjamin Franklin quote that appears after the opening credits, and that gives this review its title. A feel-good movie that deserves to be a holiday classic.

A crazy-quilt of drama and emotions, initially with a holiday theme, about three elderly New York businessmen, workaholics who have unintentionally become hermits, finding themselves friendless on Christmas Eve; after throwing their wallets out into the street, they are greeted with two honest souls (a soft-spoken, singing cowboy and a kindergarten teacher) who eventually fall in love...and that's just the beginning of the story! The narrative takes on a bundle of different themes (unexpected death, youthful romance, the cause and effect of success, after-life fantasy), yet the end results are fairly smooth (although, after the forty-minute mark, the picture becomes almost a different movie altogether). Perhaps it wouldn't work so well if not for Charles Winninger's lovely performance as the twinkling Irishman who brings the young folks together. Winninger has a moment late in the proceedings, talking to the heavens, that is both blissfully serene and fraught with emotion--honest emotion, the kind Hollywood sometimes has trouble creating. The film's message is clear--if you give unto others, you're sure to receive--and if that strikes some viewers as corny, so be it. However, the filmmakers do wonders with several ideas which have since become old-hat, and the three codgers are fabulous characters who transcend some of the more obvious plot-developments. In fact, the movie is such a surprise, I would imagine more TV-airings might turn it into a holiday perennial. *** from ****

***SPOILERS*** Sentimental little Christmas movie involving three life long friends who in trying to pep up their somewhat lonely Christmas Eve get together in roping in two young strangers who make their holiday season a lot better and far more rewarding. So much better that they just refuse to go back to their maker, and heaven, after they ended up dying in a tragic plane crash.The three old guys Irish Michael O'Brien, Charles Winninger, British Allan "Chad" Chadwick, A.Aubrey Smith, and American businessman George Melton, Harry Carey,end up bonding with their unexpected Christmas guests Texas cowboy James Huston,Richard Carlson, and children clinic volunteer Jean Lawrence, Jean Parker, who end up becoming their lifelong,and even beyond life, friends.Becoming almost inseparable both James and Jean drift apart when their three old benefactors, with Michael leaving James a cache of money to continue his fledging singing career, unexpectedly perish in a plane crash. Being stung by success, as the new American Idol, James gets hooked up with Broadway singing sensation Arlene Terry,Helen Vinson, who's just nuts about the handsome but shy Texas cowboy. This has Michael, who's stuck in the world between life and death, try to somehow show the love sick James what a mistake he made in tossing his one and only true love, on earth and beyond, Jean away for the manipulated and scheming Arlene. Both Chad and George also hang out in what seems to be the Astral World, an existence between life and death,for a short time until they finally get their bearings straight and ascend to heaver. Chad ends up going to heaven with his dead son David, William Bakewell, who was killed in the Great War or WWI. The cranky and penny pinching George finally found out, after his death, that money isn't everything if your in a place, the world in between life and death, where its not worth the paper that it's printed on and also sees the light, heaven, by the time the film is over.Only Michael gets involved with the world of the living in his attempt to save James from a fate worse then death in both losing Jean as well as his life by getting himself involved with Arlene. James in fact does see the light after he's shot and killed by Arlene's drunk and jealous ex-husband-Mr. Terry I presume-and is given a second chance to return back to earth, and life, to reunite with the girl that he left behind Jean.Nothing really new here even though the movie predates the far more popular and very similar Frank Capra Christmas Classic "It's a Wonderful Life" by some six years. The film "Beyond Tomorrow" nevertheless still packs quite a wallop in movies about life after death and what it's, our very meager existence, really all about in the grand scheme of things.There's also in the film the two Czarist Russian survivors of the Commnist Revolution Madame Tanya, Maria Ouspenskay, who's the only one in the movie who can see or sense the three dead plane crash victims and her stuffy and stoned faced butler Josef, Alex Melesh. It's Josef who at times when his face was frozen stiff looked like the newest member, even though he never was a US President, of Mount Rushmore.