Love Begins at 20

Love Begins At Twenty began as a Broadway play in 1929-30 that starred none other than Bette Davis in the role that Patricia Ellis plays on screen. But the protagonist of the story here is Hugh Herbert and on Broadway it was done by Donald Meek.

Herbert is a poor henpecked bank clerk with wife Dorothy Vaughan and daughters Ellis and Mary Treen. As Horatio Gillingwater has had it thrown up to him his entire life about how Vaughan should have married some dude named Harold McAuley and that she would be on Easy Street now. Herbert drinks a lot just to drown her out.

One day it all comes crashing down on him. He's fired after a bank robbery when bonds that were in his care disappeared and the wife gives him hell after he tries to help Ellis elope with Warren Hull. But in the end it all works out as it inevitably does in these films.

I'm surprised that W.C. Fields didn't snap this one up and get Paramount to buy the right for him. This was just the kind of material Fields was doing at the White Mountain studio. Of course had Fields done it, it would have been dipped in a bit more acid.

If you are a fan of Hugh Herbert's wackiness, Love Begins At Twenty is definitely a film for you.

A gently eccentric fellow finds his life complicated by a bullying wife, an acidulous boss, a quickie marriage & a bank robbery.

LOVE BEGINS AT TWENTY is a fine example of the comedies which Warner Brothers Studio produced almost endlessly during the 1930's - fast, frugal & fun. Throw in a little crime for dramatic effect and the services of the Studio's array of character actors - the formula rarely failed to produce some good entertainment at the bottom of a double bill. Here, an added attraction for today's audience is knowing that the script was co-written by a young Dalton Trumbo.

A whimsical Hugh Herbert sparks the story as the harried hero. The comic relief in many a film, here he is hilarious as the main star. He receives solid support from another worthy character actor, vinegar visaged Clarence Wilson playing his caustic employer. Together these two - sweet & sour - keep the laughs coming.

Plump Dorothy Vaughan as Herbert's Xanthippe, Mary Treen as their tart-tempered daughter, Hobart Cavanaugh as a bumbling friend and Arthur Aylesworth as a comically deaf judge all add to the merriment.

Patricia Ellis & Warren Hull handle the romantic angle of the film, but wisely it is never allowed to intrude too much. Movie mavens will recognize Tommy Bupp & Dickie Jones as the youngsters Herbert regales on the train with his wrestling yarns.

In general, I am not a huge fan of Hugh Herbert...but I've got to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed "Life Begins at Twenty". The film is slight but lots of fun!

When the film begins, it's obvious that Horatio (Herbert) is a hen- pecked man. His wife endlessly tells him what to do and it soon becomes apparent that his boss is no better. But Horatio just takes it...letting folks walk all over him. To make it worse, his wife keeps reminding him of another man who COULD have married her instead and she wishes she'd taken this other guy! By now, the audience is just praying to see this worm turn...and eventually he does and it all starts with an innocent little drink.

What I liked about this film is how everything worked out so nicely and yet realistically for good old Horatio by the end of the film. I could see how this originally was a very successful play...and it's well worth seeing and a nice little surprise.

Say the name Bumpsted to movie goers today and they'll almost certainly think of Blondie and Dagwood BUMSTEAD of comic strip (and 1930's and 40's movie) fame. That may, in part explain the character name change in the central family ("Gillingwater" in the film) at the heart of the charming comedy expanded (and contracted) from Marvin Flavin's Broadway comedy BROKEN DISHES (178p., 5Nov29-April1930 at the Ritz and Masque Theatres) best remembered today as the show Bette Davis opened the same night Noel Coward's BITTERSWEET opened elsewhere on Broadway dividing the critics' attention.

The story is otherwise well preserved of the henpecked father (a wonderful Hugh Herbert) and his loyal daughter (Patricia Ellis in the Bette Davis role) overcoming the ghost of a past favored suitor of MRS. Gillingwater and marrying the daughter to her beloved (a handsome Warren Hull - not favored by her mother) for a generally predictable but happy ending. For a "programmer" - hour long film cranked out to fill studio owned movie houses - the piece is surprisingly well filmed and never lags. There's even a brief but exciting car chase scene in the middle of the well observed family comedy! All the touches which no one thought about at the time but made for what movie audiences accepted as NORMAL home life of the period make LOVE BEGINS AT TWENTY a fascinating glimpse of life in America in 1936. The film title is difficult to explain except that it must have sounded appealingly commercial in 1936 (and BROKEN DISHES, which was more plot related, sounded too much like a drama!).

Anyone looking for a 21st Century comedy will find themselves somewhat at sea watching LOVE BEGINS AT TWENTY, but for expert performances by the kind of repertory players and writers (the pre-blacklist Dalton Trumbo script is close to flawless) which made the height of the studio system such a reliable source of middle brow universal entertainment before being destroyed by right wing politics and well meaning anti-trust actions after WWII. One of star Hugh Herbert's best performances alone makes LOVE BEGINS AT TWENTY well worth giving a watch.

Warner Brothers provides us with another one-hour B picture, with almost exactly the same plot as W.C. Field's THE MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE. Hugh Herbert is quite enjoyable in the lead, but I enjoy Hugh Herbert and his pixilated little men; his drunk scene with Hobart Cavanaugh is excellent. Dorothy Vaughn is fine as his shrew of a wife -- if you close your eyes, you may think you're listening to Marjorie Main. But Patricia Ellis is very stiff as the ingénue and the third act clearly rushes to make it through the end on the one-hour mark.

Completists should note that this is an early credit for Dalton Trumbo. Do not, however, expect any moments of drama or depth.