The film begins as a 50th anniversary celebration is about to begin. The husband (Dick Powell) and wife (Linda Darnell) are arguing, as he wants to tell all the assembled guests his big secret. What follows is a flashback showing his reasons for success.Decades before, Powell is a struggling young reporter celebrating his promotion at the newspaper. He'll no longer be writing obituaries but feature stories. As he and his co-workers celebrate, he begins talking about what he'd be willing to give if he could see into the future. Well, oddly, the old man in charge of the paper's morgue (where they keep records and back issues) tells him he can. A bit later, the old guy gives him a paper--a paper that ends up being for tomorrow! And, naturally, the things in the paper all later come true that day! Each day, the old man shows up with the following day's paper and gives it to Powell--who naturally becomes a sensation on the paper.This is a dark side to all this, however. Because he has inside information the police think that he's a crook--he just knows too much. Also, the old man tells Powell that no matter how wonderful this new gift is, it WON'T bring him happiness. Well, Powell doesn't seem to care and continues taking the papers--until he sees his own death in the next day's paper!! What is poor 'ol Powell to do?! This is especially troubling because he's planned on winning a fortune at the race track---but you can't enjoy the money if you are dead! There's a lot more to the story, but I'll leave that for you to see for yourself.So is the film worth seeing? Yup. It's fun and quite clever. Sure it isn't very deep, but sometimes it's nice to see a light comedy that has such modest pretensions. Well worth seeing.By the way, this film was expertly directed by the famous French director, René Clair. During the occupation of France and the Nazi years, several directors (including Clair and Fritz Lang) came to Hollywood to continue making films. In addition, if you love silent comedies look closely at one of the gamblers late in the film--one of them is Snub Pollard and sporting a very different sort of mustache.

A newspaper reporter gets a copy of the next day's paper from a mysterious old man, leading to complications and hilarity (not). It's an intriguing premise for both sci-fi and comedy, but this film fails to deliver on either front. The script is uninspired and the pacing is uneven. Even the narrative structure is problematic; the hero's life is endangered but there's no suspense because he's relating the story in a flashback. Powell tries hard to breathe some life into it, but it rarely rises above the level of mild amusement. Darnell is little more than a pretty face here. One good thing is that it wraps up in less than 90 minutes.

I went on the message board for one of my favorite TV shows, "Early Edition" and discovered that this movie may have been the inspiration for that it. I went in trying to find the parallels between the two and instead wound up just going along for the ride. This movie worked on all levels. I wasn't expecting it to be the comedy that it was. The male lead was hysterical, sometimes just getting laughs from his facial expressions and the female lead was luminous. I always enjoy it when there's a movie that has multi-generational appeal. I watched it with my mom, who was 9 when the movie came out, and my daughter who was born the year "Early Edition" aired and all of us got a kick out of the movie. My daughter even said that she enjoyed the movie better than the show! I was worried that my daughter would be bored because b/w movies are much more talky than today's movies and lack the special effects now available but she cracked up out loud on several parts. For my mom, it was trip down memory lane seeing familiar actors from her past.

Dick Powell gets himself in a trouble with tomorrow's newspaper in "It Happened Tomorrow," a 1944 film also starring Linda Darnell and Jack Oakie. Powell plays Larry Stevens, an ambitious reporter who is given the next day's newspaper by an old man, Pop Benson, who works at the paper. Benson, and Powell have a discussion about knowing the news in advance, and Pop shows up the next day with an advanced newspaper issue showing what is going to happen. Larry is able to write a robbery story in advance and have it ready to go as soon as the event occurs, which puts him under suspicion with the police. Then he reads about his own death.Interesting premise that will sound familiar to those who watched the TV series "Early Edition." The beautiful Linda Darnell, Stevens' love interest, plays half of a mind-reading act, the other half being her uncle (Jack Oakie).Rene Clair was an odd duck who was attracted to this type of story. It isn't paced well, but Powell's performance manages to hold the thing together.The film begins with a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, and the husband wanting to tell the guests a story of something that happened to him. You won't have any trouble figuring out who they are.The plot sounds serious, but it's delivered with a light touch.