Introduced by Scott McGee, TCM’s Director of Original Productions
An American pilot (Ray Milland) carrying a crucial message behind enemy lines is shot down in the proximity of a convent in occupied France. A young novice (Barbara Britton, in a role initially imagined for Ingrid Bergman) finds herself compelled to help him escape from the German soldiers that are hunting him. Lesser known than Frank Borzage’s more widely available melodramas such as Farewell to Arms and A Man’s Castle, this adaptation of Alfred Murray’s unpublished play, Tomorrow’s Harvest is — according to biographer Hervé Dumont — “the most underestimated jewel in Borzage’s filmography.” Beautifully photographed by German cinematographer Theodor Sparkhul (an expert of expressionistic chiaroscuro who had worked with Ernst Lubitsch in the 1920s), the film combines Borzage’s pursuit for an aesthetic representation of spirituality with recurring themes found in his work such as his faith in the transcendent power of love and his anti-Nazi sentiment.
Restored in 4K by Universal Pictures and The Film Foundation at StudioPost a NBCUniversal Company, from the Original 35mm Nitrate Negative, a 35mm Composite Fine Grain and the 35mm Optical Sound Track Negative Nitrate. Special thanks to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.
Courtesy of Universal Pictures