Heartbreaking, acted to the hilt, visually incomparable, There's Always Tomorrow qualifies as "one of Sirk's greatest, most fully-realized accomplishments . . . in the front rank of Sirk masterpieces" (Cineaste). Fred MacMurray plays Clifford Groves, a prosperous toy factory owner who thinks his wife and children take him for granted, and whose last chance at happiness arrives when he encounters his old flame Norma Miller Vale (Barbara Stanwyck at her finest). As in Sirk's great All That Heaven Allows, it's the selfish children who militate against their parent's single lease on life, proving tragically wrong the hope that there is always another tomorrow. In this hermetically sealed world, "the staples of the middle-class life — handsome houses, lavish decors, fast cars, busy social lives, spoiled, demanding children &emdash; [are] the bars of the prison. The mirrors and frames that are Sirk's visual trademark, reflect, among other things, both the frozen, artificial quality and the illusory nature of these creature comforts" (Molly Haskell). "In no other movie does the claustrophobia of domestic rigidity become so shattering as in this Greek drama of a complacent, insulted man becoming aware" (Warren Sonbert).