The Young in Heart

CinemaSerfJun 2022

3.5

The suitably grandly named Carleton family spend much of their time fleecing wealthy people on the Côte D'Azur. When one of their scams backfires, they are politely asked to quit the country. As they board the train, serendipity gives them one last chance as they encounter the elderly, and fabulously wealthy "Miss Fortune" (Minnie Dupree). There seems to have been a spate of films made in the late 1930s involving derailed trains, and here is another one: this time they rescue the old lady and she invites them to take up lodgings with her. Janet Gaynor ("George-Anne") and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. ("Richard") decide to play this straight for a change, hopeful that despite the suspicions of her savvy attorney "Mr. Anstruther" (Henry Stephenson) they will encourage the old spinster to leave them her estate. It's a gentle tale of redemption this, well cast and adapted from the original Ida Wylie novel. Paulette Goddard provides some mischievous love interest for Fairbanks, and Billie Burke again delightfully emulates a porcelain doll in this last on-screen performance for an agreeably on-form Gaynor. It is not, perhaps, a film that you will remember for long - but it is a well constructed, engaging drama with solid - not great - performances all round.