The Young in Heart | |
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Directed by | Richard Wallace |
Produced by | David O. Selznick |
Written by | Charles Bennett (adaptation) |
Screenplay by | Paul Osborn |
Based on |
The Gay Banditti (novel) by I. A. R. Wylie |
Starring | |
Music by | Franz Waxman |
Cinematography | Leon Shamroy |
Edited by | Hal C. Kern |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date
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Running time
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90 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Young in Heart is a 1938 American comedy film produced by David O. Selznick, directed by Richard Wallace, and starring Janet Gaynor, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Paulette Goddard. The supporting cast features Roland Young and Billie Burke.
The screenplay by Paul Osborn was adapted by Charles Bennett from the serialized novel, The Gay Banditti by I. A. R. Wylie, as appearing in The Saturday Evening Post from February 26 to March 26, 1938.
A family of con artists led by "Colonel" Anthony "Sahib" Carleton (Roland Young) and his wife "Marmy" (Billie Burke) are working the French Riviera in search of wealthy potential mates for their daughter George-Anne (Janet Gaynor) and son Richard (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.). Sahib, a former actor, passes himself off as an officer who served with the in India. George-Anne flirts with her Scottish suitor, Duncan Macrea (Richard Carlson), whom she dismisses when she learns that he is not rich. Richard has managed to get himself engaged to the wealthy, but rather plain Adela Jennings. Meanwhile, Sahib cheats her American senator father out of a large sum of money at poker. The local police find out about the Carleton family, provide them with complimentary train tickets to London, courtesy of Mr. Jennings, and order them to leave the country.
On the train, George-Anne meets a lonely old spinster named Miss Ellen Fortune (Minnie Dupree), who inherited a fortune from her former fiancé, with whom she had quarreled in her youth. The kindhearted Miss Fortune invites George-Anne and her family to her first-class compartment, and the penniless family eagerly accepts, hoping to swindle her out of some of her money. While Miss Fortune treats them to dinner, the train derails, and they manage to extricate the old woman from the wreckage. Grateful for their actions, she invites them to stay with her at her London mansion. Seeing an opportunity to make their way into Miss Fortune's will, they treat her with kindness and spend evenings with her. Sahib and Richard also go out looking for jobs in order to persuade both her and her suspicious lawyer, Felix Anstruther (Henry Stephenson), that they can be trusted.