UNDER EIGHTEEN
(director: Archie Mayo; screenwriter: Charles Kenyon, story Sky Life by Agnes C. Johnston & Frank Mitchell Dazey; cinematographer: Barney McGill; editor: George Marks; music: Leo F. Forbstein; cast: Marian Marsh (Marge Evans), Anita Page (Sophie), Regis Toomey (Jimmy Slocum), Warren William (Raymond Harding), Norman Foster (Alf), Joyce Compton (Sybil), J. Farrell MacDonald (Pop Evans), Claire Dodd (Babsy), Clarence Wilson (A.J. Dietrich), Paul Porcasi (Francois), Maude Eburne (Mrs. McCarthy), Emma Dunn (Mrs. Evans); Runtime: 80; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: ; Warner Bros./TCM; 1932-B/W)
“Pleasing class conscious Depression-era dramedy.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Studio director Archie Mayo’s (“The Petrified Forest”/”Charley’s Aunt”) pleasing class conscious Depression-era dramedy is set in Manhattan. It’s written by Charles Kenyon with sympathy for the struggling lower-class. The film is based on the story Sky Life by Agnes C. Johnston & Frank Mitchell Dazey.
Marge Evans (Marian Marsh) is an innocent teenager who lives in a Manhattan slum and supports her widowed mom (Emma Dunn) by working as a seamstress in a dress fashion house. She’s romantically involved with an ambitious grocery delivery man, Jimmie (Regis Toomey). At work, Marge gushes over the models who date wealthy guys who give them expensive gifts.
One day her older sister Marge (Anita Page) and her loudmouth hubby Alf (Norman Foster) and their baby seek shelter in her flat because he lost his Newark Pool Hall and they’re broke. Locked into a spat-filled marriage, Marge cautions sis about falling for a guy who can’t support her and won’t try to get work–telling her love is not enough.
Marge is willing to take out a loan to hire a lawyer so her unhappy sister can get a divorce. She also calls off her marriage to nice guy Jimmie because her sister’s bad marriage upsets her. But none of the models or the dress shop owner (Paul Porcasi) or Jimmie will give her a loan. So she goes to the penthouse apartment of the swinging playboy Broadway producer Harding (Warren William), who she met at the dress shop, toask for a loan. At first he thinks of seducing her, but is taken in by her innocence and agrees to help her with no strings attached.
In a corny contrived ending: Alf wins a pool tournament and comes into the prize money, he then reconciles with Sophie. Jimmie punches out Harding for trying to steal his gal, and Marge runs off with him bolting from the penthouse.
The motto of the story is ‘you not only need love but money to support a good marriage.’
This is probably the way people saw things during the Great Depression and I’m not going to come down on them for thinking like that, but I come from the generation that says ‘all you need is love.’
REVIEWED ON 1/27/2025 GRADE: B-
dennisschwartzreviews.com