The story about a mature age person returning to college to get an education is evergreen - Hollywood does it every twenty years or so (Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School, Melissa McCarthy in Life of the Party, etc). This one has Bing Crosby giving it a go - he looks old, so that helps, and he is charming enough, I guess, though I've never been a big Crosby fan.
I like this film more than I did on first viewing. It has a bright colourful palate, and is about nice people - the only brats are Bing's selfish kids (who seem very real... though you can't help wondering he's probably a terrible dad), a pompous lecturer played by Gavin McLeod, and the odd heckling student.
Bing has a pleasant camaraderie with fellow students - Tuesday Weld, Fabian, Richard Beymer, and Patrick Adiarte as his close friends, but also Yvonne Craig as a journalism student he has a nice rapport with. He has a slow burn romance with French teacher Nicole Maurey.
The film goes for four years - freshman, sophomore, junior and senior - which is a long time span for a feature film. But it does give the movie a "passing of time" quality. The kids get to grow up and mature - well, Fabian learns to study and Weld settles down with one guy (because, marriage).
I didn't like Maurey much - she seems bored and she and Crosby don't have an over abundance of chemistry. The young kids are good though, and all have some character to play - Adiarte is an Indian, meaning this is surprisingly multicultural (to keep things in perspective, the actor was Filipino and the character wears a turban), Beymer as a hipster, Fabian as a jock, Weld as a groovy chick who changes her personality every year to fall for one of the guy (she starts with Beymer, briefly goes Indian, has a crush on Crosby then becomes engaged to Fabian), Craig as a journalism student. I actually wanted more of Crosby and the kids - Beymer starts off as this funny strong presence but is backgrounded; Weld, as ever in her early films, feels under-used; Craig and Crosby strike sparks and you expect it to pay off somehow but it doesn't really; Adiarte wears a turban and that's it; Crosby's relationship with his kids doesn't evolve.
The film is set in the South I think - they go to a college where a dean has a tribute to the old South ball. Oh those loveable old racists.
Henry Mancini wrote a catchy theme song. I did laugh at Bing in drag.
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