Young in Heart The (1938) – full review!

Young in Heart The (1938) – full review!

Produced by David O. Selznick directed by Richard Wallace adapted by Charles Bennett (Foreign Correspondent (1940)) with a screenplay by Paul Osborn this above average comedy drama features Janet Gaynor’s last role and Richard Carlson’s screen debut. It received Academy Award nominations for Cinematography (Leon Shamroy’s first of many) and Best Music Original Score & Scoring (Franz Waxman’s first two of so many). The cast is excellent including Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Paulette Goddard Roland Young & Billie Burke (playing husband & wife again as they did in Topper (1937)) Minnie Dupree and Henry Stephenson.

A family of con artists having just been thrown out of one country for their fraudulent activities meets an elderly wealthy widow (Dupree) on their train trip back to England. These Carletons whose passage had been purchased by the authorities in the "exporting" country are hungry penniless and seemingly skill-less none of them having ever worked an honest day in their lives. Unfortunately for George-Anne Carleton (Gaynor) she actually fell in love with her rich prey Duncan (Carlson) from her family’s previous scam (Lucile Watson was also one of the intended victims). However she is the first to recognize their newest target the lonely (and aptly named) widow Miss Ellen Fortune. Her father who pretends to be a Colonel "Sahib" Carleton (Young) ditzy mother (Burke) and too handsome brother Richard (Fairbanks Jr.) quickly latch on to Miss Fortune and after their train (quite literally) wrecks become her permanent house guests. Miss Fortune’s lawyer Felix (Stephenson) is initially indifferent to the arrangement until he learns about the Carletons’ real & storied past. Eily Malyon & Tom Ricketts play two of Miss Fortune’s servants.

The Carletons decide to do all they can to please Miss Fortune while they’re living with her hoping that she’ll update her will to leave her estate to them before she dies. To demonstrate their best intentions George-Anne decides that her father and brother should look for work. Because he can’t live without her Duncan returns to George-Anne though he quickly (and correctly) assesses and disapproves of what he sees that she and her family are doing at Miss Fortune’s. Because of her denials to his accusation he calls her bluff and arranges a job for her father as a car salesman for the revolutionary "Flying Wombat". Funeral procession music plays in the background as Sahib approaches gainful employment for the first time in his life. Richard too finds clerical work at an engineering firm; he is hired by Leslie Saunders (Goddard) who’s no doubt more impressed with his appearance than his non-existent credentials.

Through the course of the film one by one the Carletons gain a sense of self respect as they begin to earn their own keep. Duncan continues to pursue George-Anne while a growing (towards romantic) relationship develops between Richard and Leslie who sees him as a work in progress after he’d revealed his family’s original intent regarding Miss Fortune. When Felix informs Miss Fortune of the Carleton’s family history she better understands her earlier interactions with them but insists that they are good people and refuses to throw them out or let on that she knows any different. Of course it turns out that Miss Fortune was right about the Carletons who are given a chance in the end to return the favor.

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