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''Looking Forward'' is a 1933 American Pre-Code drama film starring Lionel Barrymore and Lewis Stone. Based on the Dodie Smith play ''Service'', it depicts the desperate struggle of a London department store owner to save his business during the Great Depression. ==Plot== With his upscale department store steadily losing money, Gabriel Service, Sr. (Lewis Stone) is forced to discharge some of his employees, including an unenterprising but loyal and long-serving Tim Benton (Lionel Barrymore). Then Service returns home to his mansion to inform his family of their own financial straits; he has kept the 200-year-old family firm afloat with his own money in recent times. Neither his young adult children, Caroline and Michael, nor their stepmother Isobel take him very seriously at first, despite his repeated warnings over the past few months. Isobel has also been seeing another man behind her oblivious husband's back. The situation becomes so dire that Philip Bendicott, one of Service's business partners, strongly urges him to sell out to Stoner, whose store chain is one of the few thriving businesses, serving a lower class clientele. Service loathes the idea, but decides he has no choice. Gossip soon spreads, especially when Stoner himself comes to inspect the department store. When he breaks the news to his family, they are all appalled. The next day, when he returns home, Caroline informs him that Isobel has run off with her lover. Caroline and Michael urge their father to keep the firm and fight on. Though gratified by their spirit and unexpected concern for the store, Service rejects their proposal. Meanwhile, Benton has started a very successful business in his own home, with his wife Lil baking delectable pastries and cakes and their offspring, Willie and Elsie, pitching in. On the day that Service is to go to the solicitors and sign away his store, he runs into Benton. Benton tries to get him to change his mind. When Service reads in the newspaper that the deal is already done, he is so outraged at Stoner's impudence that he does cancel the sale. Michael shows him his designs of striking furniture, which he believes could be manufactured and sold by the department store. Caroline insists on working in the store and living on her earnings. This latter development is welcomed by Geoffrey Fielding, Service's assistant and Caroline's admirer, as it lessens the social gulf between them. Together, the Services look forward to the future with optimism. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Looking Forward (film)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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