Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Movie review - "That Certain Age" (1938) ***

Deanna Durbin gets a crush on Melvyn Douglas but basically just bangs her head against a wall for 90 minutes which isn't that satisfying, although it's all sensitively handled and the star is in excellent form. Douglas is good too.

There's some sweet teen atmosphere - Durbin is putting on a play with some scouts. Her kind of boyfriend is Jackie Cooper who looks like a middle aged man already so isn't really a threat for Douglas.

It is sensitively handled, well acted - liked the troublesome little girl. There's not much of a story - Durbin is keen on Douglas, he's never going to do anything about it... she realises it's silly, the ending. I guess it's okay. It absolutely passes the time and is very simple. It just needed a subplot. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett did some work on the script reportedly.

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