THE YOUNG IN HEART
US, 1938, 91 minutes, Black and white.
Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, Janet Gaynor, Roland Young, Billie Burke, Paulette Goddard, Richard Carlson, Henry Stephenson.
Directed by Richard Wallace.
The Young In Heart is an attractive David Selznick production of the late ' 30s. Janet Gaynor, winner of the first Oscar in 1928, is an attractive lively heroine. Douglas Fairbanks Jnr. has his suave British charm. A young Paulette Goddard is the charming American. There are comic performances by Roland Young and Billie Burke in their usual style. The slight comedy is about a family of confidence tricksters who are befriended by a charming fairy godmother type character. In order to charm the old lady and get her to leave them all her money they make attempts to go straight - and are transformed. The film is full of sentiment, amusing light touches, '30s charm with screwball comedy traditions - and a touch of satire in musical jokes with Mendelssohn, Wagner etc. An inconsequentially pleasant example of '30s comedy.
1. The appeal of the '30s screwball comedy? Light touch, humour, sentiment? The importance of style?
2. David Selznick's productions: the Riviera settings, English settings, atmosphere, stars? Black and white photography? The musical score - and the musical jokes with allusions and quotations?
3. The blend of humour, wit and satire? The traditions of the screwball comedy? Outrageous situations, behaviour, niceness? Sentiment and sentimentality? The importance of charm? The basic fairytale and the fairy godmother? The moral fable?
4. The family and its confidence trickster style? Their background, theatre, India, England? Their clever approach to their tricks? Card sharps, calculations? Their hard-boiled surface? George- Anne and Richard and their flirtations? Their stories and leading people on? Their being exposed and having to move on?
5. The chance encounter with Miss Fortune: the nice old lady. George- Anne and her friendship, the family imposing on her, her story and her wanting to do something with her money, her love for companionship? The train crash and their help? Their manoeuvring themselves into her house? Her willingly having them? Living in the house, their enjoyment, giving her gifts? The plan about the will? Miss Fortune and her feeling sorry for confidence tricksters? The advice of her lawyer? Her illness and their change of heart? Her reviving, being penniless, the new home and their all living happily together? Miss Fortune's sense of humour e.g. in her buying of the car and going for a spin? Her appearance, age - the fairy godmother style?
6. Sahib and Marmy: Roland Young and Billie Burke and their comic styles? Theatre and the taking of the name. the stories about India and Marmy making mistakes? Their poses? Their alleged hard-heartedness? Sahib and his unwillingness to get a job, he and Richard going to watch work? His becoming a car salesman, his style, going for rides? His success and promotion? Their continuing with their plan - but its being broken? Their repentance?
7. George- Anne as heroine - seemingly hard, tenderness inside? The encounter with Duncan and his Scots style? His saying "once and for all"? George- Anne and her wanting the family to change, her friendship with Miss Fortune, her trying to get the rest of the family to change? Her disappointment about the gift of the dog, Richard and his work, the Sahib and his job? Taking Miss Fortune out. her collapse? The possibility of her death? Her bitterness about achieving success with the Will? The final reconciliation with Duncan?
8. Richard and his suave style, the humour of his flirting with the southern belle? His not wanting to work? Going with Sahib? Going into the engineering office, the encounter with Leslie? Flirting? The buying of the dog, bike-riding? Being drunk and being brought home by Duncan? His studying and the growth of the love for Leslie?
9. Anstruther and his investigations? Suspicion of the family?
10. A pre-World War Two Utopia? The blend of reality and fantasy, sentiment and values? Heart and conscience in the right place?
