When Tomorrow Dies

When Tomorrow Dies (4K Restoration)

Canadian International Pictures

Frustrated housewife Gwen James (Rabid’s Patricia Gage) feels like little more than a servant to her accountant husband (Strange Brew’s Douglas Campbell) and two daughters. Devoting all her time to their needs – and the demands of her cantankerous father – she feels her sense of self-worth slipping. As Gwen wrestles with increasingly despairing thoughts, she escapes into a world of glamorous fantasy and eventually finds a new sense of purpose by enrolling in a university course, where she strikes up a special bond with her young professor (American Nightmare’s Neil Dainard). But as Gwen reverts to a more youthful, carefree state, her family descends into chaos.

Arriving on the heels of The Bitter Ash and Sweet Substitute, When Tomorrow Dies concluded Larry Kent’s Vancouver Trilogy with a vivid new sense of style and daring. Working with a larger budget and a more seasoned crew, the director fused elements of film noir and the Hollywood melodrama to deliver a lurid – yet compassionate – investigation of the housewife psyche. Applying Kent’s preoccupation with youthful disaffection to an older generation, When Tomorrow Dies brought new depth to his approach and cemented his reputation as a maverick of Canadian independent filmmaking.