At his son's expensive New York apartment, Bark develops a cold while sleeping on the sofa. A doctor is called, and his daughter in law quickly moves him into the couple's bedroom, tucking him in so the doctor won't learn the truth. He receives a visit from the only friend he's made, an old Jewish store owner (Maurice Moscovitch) who sizes up the situation and whose reaction is perfectly summarized by McCarey in one significant gesture only Bark can see.
The fact is, old people don't fit in the modern lifestyle. The fault is with the lifestyle, but there you have it. In traditional societies, families often lived in the same house, children taking over as their parents passed on. In my life and in my family I've seen this, but you don't see it much anymore. "Seniors" in TV ads are tanned, fit and sexy, playing golf, happy they planned for their futures. If they're not struck by lightning on the golf course, they'll grow old and sick, health costs will melt away their savings, and they'll end up living in a "home," whether it's on the county or not. The happy stars of the Seniors ads from the 1990s aren't so photogenic today.
Yet the movie plays fair, if you can call it that. When Lucy unsettles the students in the bridge class, Bondi doesn't make her cute or lovable. We catch ourselves thinking she reallyisa nuisance. She might get on our nerves, too. Of course we always identify ourselves with the children, not the parents. In our society we think it proper that children move out on their own, and we say empty nesters are at last free to enjoy their golden years. But what kind of a life is it is when every nest is empty? Don't old ears need to hear chirps?
The great final arc of "Make Way for Tomorrow" is beautiful and heartbreaking. It's easy to imagine it being sentimentalized by a studio executive, being made more upbeat for the audience. That's not McCarey. What happens is wonderful and very sad. Everything depends on the performances. Beulah Bondi was not yet 50 when she played Lucy (with makeup by Wally Westmore) and Victor Moore was 61. In appearance, movement and performance, they are very convincingly old. In the film they're around 70. That was thought a much older age in 1937 than it seems today.
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