When Tomorrow Dies
“A genuine cinematic gem… groundbreaking.”
– Piers Handling, TIFF
When Tomorrow Dies (1965)
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.
Special features
• Newly scanned and restored in 4K from the original 16mm A/B negatives by Canadian International Pictures with sound transferred from the original 16mm magnetic final mix
• New audio commentary featuring film historian and author Samm Deighan
• Archival audio commentary featuring film professor Peter Rist
• New introduction to When Tomorrow Dies by Larry Kent
• Tomorrow Lives (2024, 9 min.) – New interview with Kent
• Independent Evolution (2024, 18 min.) – New interview with film professor David Douglas
• New audio interview with Heather Whitehead, daughter of star Patricia Gage (2024, 9 min.)
• Talking to Larry Kent (2005, 19 min.) – Archival conversation featuring Kent and Rist
• Kent on Kent (1965-1967, 20 min.) – Archival audio interviews with Kent
• Mothers and Daughters (1993, 85 min.) – Little-seen Kent feature exploring some of the same themes as When Tomorrow Dies
• New introduction to Mothers and Daughters by Douglas
• Booklet featuring a new essay by film critic and professor Tom McSorley
• Reversible cover artwork
• English SDH subtitles
Canadian International Pictures
From arthouse to Canuxploitation, Canadian International Pictures (CIP) is devoted to resurrecting vital, distinctive, and overlooked triumphs of Canadian cinema. We are focused on the country’s original cinematic boom years – spanning the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s – occasionally venturing past that period (and the country’s borders) to highlight the films of Canada’s most inspired actors and filmmakers.
