Today We Live

Released Apr 14, 1933

1h 50m

War

List

20%

5 Reviews

Tomatometer

27%

50+ Ratings

Audience Score

Ann (Joan Crawford), a young British aristocrat, bids farewell to her brother, Ronnie (Franchot Tone), and neighbor, Claude (Robert Young), who are both about to join England's naval forces in World War I. Claude has proposed to Ann, and she agreed to get married when he returns. However, an American, Richard (Gary Cooper), soon arrives, having bought her estate. Ann and Richard, who has also enlisted to be a pilot, quickly fall in love, but she still wants to keep her promise to Claude.

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Steve D

Loses steam every time it leaves Crawford.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/03/24

Full Review

Murty C

A bad, melodramatic, WWI plot, with people dying so that Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford can live happily ever after. Oops, didn't mean to be a spoiler.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

06/05/22

Full Review

Audience Member

Panned for the plot. Worthy of a Carol Burnett Show satire, even if it was written by William Faulkner. But what is great are (1) the aerial scenes, filmed using early 1930's era US Army Air Corp bombers - note the biplane configuration, the flight controls, and the gunners using the scarf ring mounting system; noting that the film incorporates footage from "Wings" (1927); and (2) the naval scenes - which employ a British Coastal Motor Boat (CMB) - how did they get that to California? Again it appears a mix of film footage and news reels, and lots of spray!

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Tom M

Unfortunate nonsense that went on and on. Young's character acted as an eight year child would the entire movie (his death was a relief!). The only way to get Cooper and Crawford together was to kill everyone else off.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/27/21

Full Review

Audience Member

The film starts off in England in 1916. An American right off the bat purchases the home of a soldier who lost his life at battle. It is it interesting film in that the first half of the film takes place on the home front and is based upon the woman's perspective of the film. The film usually shows the reactions of what had happened on War front and is after the reactions people at home have to the news coming from Battle. It is unusual in that that could not be done today. This film was insightful to me because it had me think about things like sugar being rationed. I was surprised by people wanting roaches to use to do roach fights and people actively going after catching roaches for fights or having a funeral for the roach. I have never seen that in a WWI film before. I have never heard of speed boats releasing the torpedo and the boat moving out of the way of the torpedo was news to me. I like how the film and lighting were done in this film. Joan Crawford I think does a great job in this film in that the film has her most powerful stuff not from her dialog but relies heavily on her reactions to what others say or actions. The outfits stood out to me as well but I hated the first outfit that Joan Crawford is wearing because it looks like she has a shark tail fine sticking out off of her dress in a terrible looking way. I like how the bicycle shot is filmed in the beginning of this film. You can tell that Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford are driving their bikes very slow but visually it looks very appealing. I thought it was very interesting that in the second half of the film we finally get the chance to see what is happening from the men's perspective and see what is happening both on air and at sea. The sea was the most insightful aspect because I was completely unaware of that aspect of the war of small speedboats being used to sink German boats the way this film was showing. I also was not aware of some of the struggles a WWI bomber would have like difficulties hearing due to wind and airplane sounds. I liked how some of the models look in this film as far as the explosions in this film. This film can be very boating but the film relies mostly on dialog and reactions rather than on action so unless you know the time period you may loose context of what is happening in the film. The film has a dumb ending. I did not feel satisfied by the ending.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/18/18

Full Review

ashley h

Today We Live is an excellent film. It is about two officers, one a pilot and the other in the navy, compete for the same beautiful young woman. Joan Crawford and Gary Cooper give amazing performances. The screenplay is well written. Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson did great jobs directing this movie. I enjoyed watching this motion picture because of the drama and romance. Today We Live is a must see.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Howard Hawks

Director

Joan Crawford

Diana

Gary Cooper

Bogard

Franchot Tone

Ronnie

Louise Closser Hale

Applegate

Rollo Lloyd

Major

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Mordaunt Hall

New York Times

As a drama of the war it is not precisely convincing, for coincidences play an important part in its arrangement. It is also anachronistic.

Apr 20, 2020

Full Review

Hollywood Reporter

Aided by some beautiful writing and excellent acting, the picture will probably go down as one of the best directed in many a day; particularly in love scenes and the hair-raising scenes of battle, both in the air and on the water.

Apr 14, 2018

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

A stilted WWI love triangle story set in England.

Rated: C+

Apr 20, 2020

Full Review

Pare Lorentz

Vanity Fair

Lacking even a journalistic, contemporary quality, Today We Live is a flimsy business.

Jun 14, 2019

Full Review

TV Guide Staff

TV Guide

A star cast, a great director, and William Faulkner's original story fail to raise this above an ordinary triangle love story set against WW I.

Rated: 2.5/5

Sep 18, 2013

Full Review

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Synopsis

Ann (Joan Crawford), a young British aristocrat, bids farewell to her brother, Ronnie (Franchot Tone), and neighbor, Claude (Robert Young), who are both about to join England's naval forces in World War I. Claude has proposed to Ann, and she agreed to get married when he returns. However, an American, Richard (Gary Cooper), soon arrives, having bought her estate. Ann and Richard, who has also enlisted to be a pilot, quickly fall in love, but she still wants to keep her promise to Claude.

Director: Howard Hawks
Screenwriter: Edith Fitzgerald, Dwight Taylor
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Production Co: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Genre: War
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 14, 1933, Original
Release Date (DVD): Sep 1, 2009
Runtime: 1h 50m