Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 7-September-08
Spoiler Rating: Medium

The Young in Heart (1938)

I decided after watching The Young in Heart that my sense of having been born into the wrong (read late) time does not explain why I succumb to sappy movies from the 1930s when sappy anything from today makes me retch. The fact is, the sentimentality which marks this movie and others like it (e.g., much of Frank Capra's oeuvre) plays better for having been spawned in another age. First, there is the justifying harshness of the Great Depression and subsequent war. Second, older movies have superior dialogue and characters than modern ones, which helps to get the sugar down. Third, Hollywood's early stars were able to show a softer side without losing an ounce of class and without seeming to mock or pander. This leads to the final and most important factor, the relative indelicacy of our current age. People nowadays are embarrassed by "weak" emotions; consequently, sentiment is dumbed down with humor or exaggeration as if to prepare the excuse of being tongue-in-cheek or of targeting Christian grandmas for some, probably capitalistic reason. Today's sappy movies are as apt to make one feel insulted or alienated as warm and fuzzy.

The Young in Heart brazenly uses product placement and a passel of puppies for effect, but it has plenty else to offer. It follows a family of con artists who call themselves the Carletons. The father (Roland Young) is an easygoing card sharp; the mother (Billie Burke) is a kindly airhead; the son (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) is a dashing Romeo; and the daughter (Janet Gaynor) is the only one who questions their life and thus becomes the centerpiece of the show. After being drummed out of the Riviera for attempting to snare an heiress, the foursome meets a rich old woman ironically named Miss Fortune (Minnie Dupree) who is as corny as the day is long. Miss Fortune learned about loneliness the hard way, so now, in her waning years, she is only too eager to take a nice family like the Carletons to her bosom.

The scam is perfect: the charlatans occupy the old lady's mansion and enjoy her hospitality while waiting for her to write them into her will. The charm of the picture is such that you do not despise them as they deserve. The daughter's pricks of conscience facilitate this, particularly as they result from a romance with a penniless Scotsman (Richard Carlson) who sees her for what she is and loves her to the core. Her brother takes longer to come around, having been raised not to comprehend the need or purpose of employment. (He shares a marvelous moment with his father in which they behave like befuddled tourists when viewing a construction site.) But he too finds inspiration in romance. Fairbanks enjoys an impossible amount of chemistry with Paulette Goddard as an office manager who prods him to tap a neglected talent and elevate himself above the level of feckless sponge. "I rhumba like the angel Gabriel" he coos in one yowza scene, and you forgive him his sins as you cheer on his motivator.

The title of the movie refers to people who, regardless of the moral or practical lapses of their past, are still susceptible enough to blossom into something finer. This includes the junior and senior Carletons alike, who remain affectionate and simple despite a life of deception and recurrent poverty. The Carletons are fantasies, perhaps, but they represent an era quite different from ours when misanthropy had not vanquished decency and stories of redemption might exhort people to indulge their better natures.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.