Young in Heart [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

In "Young in Heart" Miss Ellen Fortune (Minnie Dupree) is a painfully lonely elderly woman, traveling on a European train. She meets the rather roguish, wholly unusual Carlton family; George-Anne (Janet Gaynor), Richard (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), Leslie (Paulette Goddard), Col. Anthony (Roland Young) and Marmy (Billie Burke); a rambunctious pack of congenial connivers. Recently deposed from their perch on the Riviera, the Carlton's decide that Ellen is just such a wealthy fop, ripe for their picking. Ellen, however, is not as easily cajoled out of her savings. Forced to regroup their efforts, the con-artists are delivered into unfamiliar territory before getting their way; they're going to have to work for it! Richard Wallace's direction allows for just the right amount of is sensitivity and humor to prevail in a film that provides heart-warming results. After an unfavorable preview, "Young at Heart" had its downtrodden ending revamped: the result; two Academy Award nominations and a fun-loving frolic for all time.

MGM's DVD is rather impressive. The B&W picture exhibits a very nicely balanced gray scale with smooth, solid blacks and very clean whites. Age related artifacts are present throughout but do not distract. Some minor edge enhancement crops up but pixelization is kept to a minimum. Overall the picture will surely not disappoint. The audio is mono but more than adequate for a film of this vintage. There are no extras.

This warm and delightful charmer might just be the best classic film you've probably never seen. Richard Wallace helmed this hilarious film based on the story "The Gay Banditti" by I.A.R. Wylie about a "family" of shallow scoundrels who find that pretending to be decent isn't really all that difficult. A sharp and funny screenplay by Paul Osborne and a playful score from Franz Waxman make this one of David O. Selznick's best productions. A 1930's cast that dreams are made of includes Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Janet Gaynor, Paulette Goddard, Richard Carlson, Roland Young, Billie Burke, Henry Stephenson, and Minnie Dupree as Miss Fortune.

Our group of rascals are on the French Riviera about to get rich when they are politely asked to get out of town by the police. Rick (Douglass Fairbanks Jr.) was about to marry rich and put the family in the black for life. His "sister" George-Anne (Janet Gaynor) had just discovered too late that her mark, Duncan Macrae (Richard Carlson), wasn't wealthy at all. He did give her a ring that has been held in his family for years, but she can't understand why thinking about him makes her cry. Rick is wide-eyed at her musings about people who actually marry for love, and in an hilarious moment in which she is trying to understand her melancholy, she tells Rick: "How can I be in love with him? He hasn't any money!"

Roland Young is the father, Sahib, who poses as a former Bengal Lancer, and Billie Burke is the mother, "Marmy." She can barely keep up with her husband's yarns of India, and at one point in the film tells a group that Rick and George-Anne were born there but she's never been, but would like to go one day!

Given train tickets to London just to get them off the Riviera, George-Anne is shocked to discover that Duncan, despite having been made aware of what they were doing, has followed her. He thinks she's not like the rest of her family and can be "cured" and she tries to convince him for the rest of the film that she's just as worthless as they are! Trying to lose him, George-Anne meets a kind, sweethearted but lonely old lady named, appropriately enough, Miss Fortune. She is looking for a family to love and when they discover she is wealthy, they warm up to her in a big hurry.

George-Anne and Rick save her life when the train wrecks and soon they are all staying in her huge home, "working" her until she changes her will and they are set for life. George-Anne has gone a bit soft though, and as the others take--gulp--jobs, so they can pretend to be normal people, they slowly discover that they really want to be what the kind Miss Fortune (Minnie Dupree) thinks they are.

Duncan, still trying to win over George-Anne, gets Sahib a job selling cars. He tries to refuse it in a very funny scene but George-Anne forces him to accept the offer. Since it's pretty much the same thing as a con, he is so successful at it he becomes the head of the London branch! The very fast car he sells is called The Flying Wombat!

Rick, meanwhile, discovers the pretty Leslie Saunders (Paulette Goddard) and charms her into giving him a job as a mail sorter. She begins to wear on him and he starts reading about engineering. When he is honest with her about what he and his family are doing, she is disturbed by his seeming lack of regret for how they are using Miss Fortune. Leslie isn't quite sure it's all an act, however, and she may be right.

Miss Fortune has grown on all of them and Rick begins to wonder if they've actually become decent people and are no longer just pretending. When Miss Fortune has a serious spell and it is discovered she may not have her wealth anymore, the truth might just come out.

Fairbanks and Gaynor are wonderful here, and would stand out even more were it not for the equally endearing performances from the rest of the cast. This is a fabulous classic with a very special mood. It is sweet, hilarious, sentimental, and full to the brim with charm. I can't recommend this film any higher or I would. This is not a rental. This is a sparkling diamond every film buff must own, so it will be close at hand to watch over and over.

A wonderfully told story has Dupree (as Miss Fortune!) playing an elderly woman who is painfully lonely. While traveling on a European train, she meets a rather unusual family of charming connivers. They've just been kicked out of the Riviera, and see this rich, lonely old woman as their next meal ticket...Dupree, however, isn't the easy pushover the con artists were hoping for, and they learn about a little thing called w-o-r-k. The story is told with sensitivity and the right amount of humour: the results are charming & heart-warming. The original ending had Miss Fortune dying, but this proved unfavourable to preview audiences, so the cast was called back to film a more upbeat, happier ending. The photography and music are both excellent and garnered AA nominations.