Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 10-July-11
Spoiler Rating: High

Tomorrow the World! (1944)

Among the oodles of topical movies made during and shortly after World War II, Tomorrow the World! is one of the few that can be called "creepy." It concerns the havoc wreaked by a pre-teen German boy named Emil (Skippy Homeier) who is brought to the United States by his uncle Mike (Fredric March) because he is an orphan. Mike, his family, and his community welcome the boy with open arms but soon discover that his mind has been saturated with Nazi prejudice and paranoia. From the moment Emil appears wearing a uniform with a swastika, the drama takes on elements of dark comedy and horror, specifically the type of film where decent people get stuck with a junior incarnation of Satan.

The unintended comedic element is a result of overstatement: from Homeier, who doesn't understand subtlety in evil (as perhaps children don't), and from director Leslie Fenton, who leans heavily on the picket-fence perfection of progressive America. But it's hard to laugh at the hamminess or propaganda when the plot is so disturbing. Eager to serve Hitler, Emil pries into his uncle's work for the defense department and pits his new acquaintances against each other. His nemesis is Mike's fiancée (Betty Field), who offends him by being a strong, intelligent, and Jewish female. He finds an ally of sorts in Mike's spinster sister (Agnes Moorehead), who is distressed over losing her place as lady of the house. At school Emil alienates all his classmates with the exception of his cousin (Joan Carroll), whose genial nature seems impervious to his conniving and general nastiness.

Emil's list of damaging acts grows until an alarming scene when it appears the film is finally committing to horror; then it pulls back from the brink. Ultimately the real horror is not that the child Nazi is capable of killing someone, but that everything that happens seems plausible despite the movie's slightly campy feel. If the ending is a battle cry for the U.S. (we're strong without being brutal!), what precedes it is a microcosmic sample of the challenges of facing fanaticism, e.g., how common sense can look threatening to the brainwashed, and how one fanatical person can bring out the worst in those around him. As Mike's fiancée says, multiply Emil by several million and then consider how the Allies are supposed to approach Germany as a whole. While the adult characters struggle with how to handle their little nightmare, viewers are likely to struggle with how to react to this unsettling depiction.

Copyright © 2011 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.