When Tomorrow Dies (Blu-ray)

“A genuine cinematic gem… groundbreaking.” – Piers Handling, TIFF

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’s Kent 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. • Newly scanned and restored in 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