NEW MORALS FOR OLD

US, 1932, 75 minutes. Black and white.
Robert Young, Margaret Perry, Lewis Stone, Laura Hope Crewes, Myrna Loy.
Directed by Charles Brabin.

New Morals for Old sounds far more daring than it is. The film is a curiosity item from 1932 (rather the opposite from the same year’s Unashamed, also starring Robert Young, which actually ventures into controversial territory in terms of murder, the law, the end justifying the means).

This is a much more simple story, based on a play by John Van Druten (writer of such plays/films as The Voice of the Turtle, I Am a Camera, Bell Book and Candle.)It was directed by Charles Brabin, British director of many silent films who married Theda Bara, married to her for thirty-four years.

Robert Young and Margaret Perry (who made only four films during the 1930s, appearing on stage, and was the daughter of Antoinette Perry for whom the Broadway Tonys are named) are the younger generation at the beginning of the 1930s. Lewis Stone and Laura Hope Crewes are the older generation. This is a rather gentle comedy about the old worried about how daring and different the younger generation is and keeping an eye on them and their discipline. Needless to say, the younger generation are in a rebellious frame of mind – which provides for some very, very light comedy. Myrna Loy appears briefly as Robert Young’s girlfriend.

However, as the film goes on, people settle down, marry – and, after all, the young woman becomes a mother and is concerned about her family in exactly the same way as her mother was. So rather than new morals for old and a complete change of values, this is rather a reinforcement that every generation is the same, despite itself, rebellious when young, caring for their children when older.