Tomorrow Is Too Late

The posters outside the Beacon Hill theatre put a puzzling question to the moviegoer. "Should a girl confide her innermost secrets--dare she?" Intrigued by this and stimulated by suggestive captions on equally suggestive publicity photos, he buys a ticket to Tomorrow Is Too Late. But the moviegoer's illusions about seeing another Silvana Mangano in action fizzle rapidly when he discovers that the film is dedicated "to children and to adults who forget they were once children." Despite these handicaps, Tomorrow Is Too Late is an entertaining movie.

It is also a mixture of themes, and unless mixed with perfection some ingredient in the final product is bound to suffer. Such is the case with Tomorrow Is Too Late, which tells a tender love story and juxtaposes it with a bombastic crusade for reform. The story is well told, but the crusade leaves one with a negative impression.

The story is of two adolescents emerging from the gawkiness of childhood to discover that they are possessed with emotions. Coming from families who never taught them the facts of life, Franco and Mirella find themselves at a loss either to explain or to channel these new-found emotions. How they resolve their conflicts in the face of hostile parents and a bigoted school system is an enthralling and delicately-done tale.

Unfortunately, the producers decided to link young love with a concerted campaign for better and earlier sex education. There is some connection between the two, but here too much of a contrast for the latter to create much of an effect. With some drastic editing and more perceptive direction the two themes might well have come to a better understanding. At it is, when the picture ends happily for the young couple, one still does not know what will happen to sex in the Italian schools.

The continuity is shoddy in spots and the photography only average for such a highly-touted foreign film. But Pier Angeli and Gino Leurini head a well-acting cast with their sensitive portrayals of the young lovers.