''Next Time We Love'' is a 1936 American melodrama film directed by

Edward H. Griffith Edward H. Griffith (August 23, 1888 – March 3, 1975)F ...

and starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart and Ray Milland. The adapted screenplay was by Melville Baker, with an uncredited

Preston Sturges Preston Sturges (; born Edmund Preston Biden; August 29, 1898 – August 6, 1959) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. In 1941, he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film '' The Great McGinty'' (1940), h ...

and

Doris Anderson Doris Hilda Anderson, (November 10, 1921 – March 2, 2007) was a Canadian author, journalist and women's rights activist. She is best known as the editor of the women's magazine '' Chatelaine'', mixing traditional content (recipes, décor) ...

, based on

Ursula Parrott Ursula Parrott (March 26, 1899Radcliffe College, Yearbook' (1920): 67. via Hathi Trust – September 1957), was a commercially successful American writer of romantic fiction novels. Her first book, ''Ex-Wife'' (1929), was a best seller, and was ad ...

's 1935 novel ''Next Time We Live'', which was serialized before publication as ''Say Goodbye Again''. The film is also known as ''Next Time We Live'' in the

U.K. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Plot

Aspiring actress Cicely Tyler ( Margaret Sullavan) marries ambitious newsman Christopher Tyler ( James Stewart), but their life together is interrupted when he is assigned to a good position in his newspaper's Rome bureau, and she stays behind, confiding to her rich secret admirer, Tommy Abbott ( Ray Milland), that she is pregnant. Separations, reunions and reconciliations follow as Cicely and Christopher struggle to balance their romance and their careers.Erickson, Ha
Plot synopsis (Allmovie)
/ref>

Cast

* Margaret Sullavan as Cicely Hunt Tyler * James Stewart as Christopher Tyler * Ray Milland as Tommy Abbott (as Raymond Milland) * Grant Mitchell as Michael Jennings *

Robert McWade Robert McWade (January 25, 1872 – January 19, 1938), was an American stage and film actor. McWade was born in Buffalo, New York. He was the third actor named Robert McWade, after his father and grandfather. In 1902, McWade debuted on stag ...

as Frank Carteret * Anna Demetrio as Madame Donato * Ronnie Cosby as Kit (as Ronald Cosbey)

Production

Ursula Parrott was a popular novelist of the time, several of whose novels were turned into films, most prominently ''Ex-Wife'' which became the 1930 movie ''

The Divorcee ''The Divorcee'' is a 1930 American pre-Code drama film written by Nick Grindé, John Meehan, and Zelda Sears, based on the 1929 novel ''Ex-Wife'' by Ursula Parrott. It was directed by Robert Z. Leonard, who was nominated for the Academy ...

''. The story which provided the source material for ''Next Time We Love'' was first serialized as ''Say Goodbye Again'' in ''

McCall's ''McCall's'' was a monthly American women's magazine, published by the McCall Corporation, that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-f ...

'' from December 1934 to April 1935, and was then published as a novel called ''Next Time We Live'', which was also the working title of the film. There was debate about what to call the movie, with studio executives concerned that a motion picture entitled ''Next Time We Live'' might be misinterpreted as being about reincarnation, while director Edward H. Griffith wanted to avoid losing the publicity value of using the novel's title. Although the film was released as ''Next Time We Love'', the alternate title ''Next Time We Live'' was used for its British release.TC
Notes
/ref>

Francis Lederer Francis Lederer (November 6, 1899 Prague – May 25, 2000) was an Austro-Hungarian Empire-born American film and stage actor with a successful career, first in Europe, then in the United States. His original name was Franz (Czech František) Le ...

was originally cast for the part of Christopher Tyler, but was unavailable. Margaret Sullavan was responsible for suggesting her friend James Stewart might be borrowed from

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

for the part. Production on the film was delayed because Sullavan was shooting retakes for '' So Red the Rose'', but it began on 21 October 1935 and continued through 30 December.TC
Overview
/ref> Shooting began with only half the script written by Melville Baker, so three weeks into production, the studio put

on the project as well. Some scenes in the film were directed in San Francisco by assistant director Ralph Slosser using doubles, and Slosser also directed some studio scenes as well. ''Next Time We Love'' was released at the end of January 1936.

Accolades

The film was nominated for the American Film Institute's 2002 list AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions.

References

External links

* * * {{Preston Sturges 1936 films American romantic drama films American black-and-white films Universal Pictures films 1936 romantic drama films Films scored by Franz Waxman Films directed by Edward H. Griffith Films based on American novels Films based on works by Ursula Parrott Melodrama films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films