Young at Heart (1954)

Pretty Good

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The acting in this movie is really good.

An odd combination of pop musical and heavy drama, but it works, and how!The performances are memorable by all concerned, with a gem of a performance by an ageing Ethel Barrymore, who steals all her scenes in a minor role.The music and the songs, with one exception, fit easily into the plot and don't detract from the continuity of the action.All, who were associated with this movie deserve an award.Even the reported tension on the set between Sinatra, Day, and the producers seem to add a touch of reality to the on screen relationships. This crooner from Hoboken is entirely believable as the ultimate "outsider" to a happy suburban picket fence household.In a subtext, one of the last depictions of the 50s ideal American suburbia, this film portended the new age of disaffection and rebellion against the status quo.The Tuttle family were a sharp reminder of this suburban paradise lost!

There was a total of 4 present and future Oscar winners in this film. By 1954, Frank Sinatra and Ethel Barrymore had won and within 2 years Dorothy Malone would be running down the Oscar aisle. Gig Young would follow 13 years after that.This is a highly entertaining film and the singing by Frank and Doris will just woo you to no end. The flaws have to be that no one in her right mind would accept Frank as a husband here. As Barney Sloane, he depicted an embittered, brooding person who blamed society for everything that went awry in his life. Secondly, after jilting him at the altar on their wedding day,how could Gig Young subsequently show up at the family's house for Christmas? This was rather tacky.Amazing that all 3 sisters fell for Mr. Young, but no one wound up with him.Note that David Keith would co-star with Doris Day the following year, as Barney Loomis, family friend in the fantastic "Love Me or Leave Me," and then co-star with Dorothy Malone, as her father again, in Malone's Oscar winning "Written on the Wind." Of course, Malone wasn't as sweet there; she ultimately caused his demise. (Remember the staircase scene with the loud music blaring?)Aunt Jesse, played by the venerable Ethel Barrymore, was too sweet here. She looked more like Wistler's Mother in the scene on the beach with that huge hat.

A musicalization of a classic “woman’s picture” is about as unappetizing a prospect as can get for me film-wise, but the polished Hollywood expertise here wins out in the end and makes for a refreshing and appealing movie that I had long underestimated (it was shown several times on Italian TV but I never bothered with it).Doris Day and, especially, Frank Sinatra are well-matched as star-crossed lovers in small-town America; Day comes from a classically-trained musical family headed by Robert Keith and including Dorothy Malone (with spinster aunt Ethel Barrymore watching maternally from the sidelines). Amiable popular music composer Gig Young bursts in on their quiet, happy family life (all the girls naturally fall for his charms) but this is further exacerbated by the belated introduction of his arranger pal, embittered long-time loser Frank Sinatra. The film’s narrative is largely made up of the romantic entanglements of the trio of girls (two of whom are engaged to local guys but pine for Young) while Day is longed for by Young but is immediately drawn to outsider Sinatra. Robert Keith is really no match for Claude Rains – who had played the father in Michael Curtiz’s original FOUR DAUGHTERS (1938) – but Sinatra does manage to make John Garfield’s star-making, Oscar-nominated turn his own.Curiously enough, the screenwriters of YOUNG AT HEART – Julius J. Epstein and Lenore Coffee – were the very same duo who had earlier adapted FOUR DAUGHTERS to the screen; however, as is already apparent, the original movie had four daughters instead of three, the character names were also altered and the remake was even given a schmaltzy, happy ending! Naturally, both Day and Sinatra get to sing in the film but they only have a modest duo of sorts at the very end; incidentally, I was let down by the finale not just because of its improbable “all’s well that ends well” qualities but also because, after Sinatra is seen toiling at his magnum opus throughout the whole movie, the result is just a corny love song! At the very least, I was expecting the classic title tune to be it (which he does get to sing over the opening credits). Incidentally, he seems to have had a good working relationship with director Gordon Douglas – since they would reteam three more times in the next 14 years.

This isn't meant to be a musical (there's certainly no dance routines), it is a drama featuring some songs. Basically Alex Burke (Gig Young) enters the lives of the Tuttle family, led by father Gregory (Robert Keith) with his three daughters Fran (Dorothy Malone), Amy (Elisabeth Fraser), and Laurie (Doris Day). Laurie and Alex seem to be made for each other, and become engaged, but things change when his friend, musical arranger Barney Sloan (Frank Sinatra) comes along. Laurie realises she has grown to have stronger feelings for Barney, and she also realises the mistake she would be making when she sees one of her sister's crying about the marriage, she loves Alex. So Laurie marries Barney, but he is convinced that his wife may still have feelings for Alex, and towards the end attempts suicide, and this is the night Laurie would announce she is pregnant, thank goodness there is a happy ending when all the family are together. Also starring Ethel Barrymore as Aunt Jessie Tuttle, Alan Hale Jr. as Robert Neary, Lonny Chapman as Ernest Nichols and Frank Ferguson as Bartell. Day offers a warm and sensitive performance with some great singing (they call her the Warner Brothers goldmine), Sinatra (also worked at Columbia records with Day) has his moments, even though he said he hated the soppy plot. You can almost agree with Sinatra concerning the ending, but you can't see it going any other way, so this is certainly a film to try and enjoy for songs, including one or two Day and Sinatra duets. Good!