The Truth About Youth

The first 60 seconds when Loretta Young enters in that special dress talking to the character "Dick" is worth the price of admission itself. Silly fun pre Code with Myrna Loy & Loretta Young? 7 stars!

The Truth About Youth is a typical creaky early talkie with some fairly dreadful singing thrown in for good (or bad) measure. Myrna Loy stars as Kara, a nightclub entertainer who gold digs for rich men in her spare time. Loy's singing voice seems to be dubbed, but she cuts a rug fairly effectively. She's furtively married the foolishly smitten David Manners, who gives one of his oddly effective performances as a lovestruck youngster who can't see the wood for the trees. Manners always had the look of a deer caught in the headlights, and this tic works well for him here. Youngster Loretta Young is also on hand, unconvincingly wooing wooden (and extremely old) leading man Conway Tearle, and there's a nails on the chalkboard performance by Yola D'Avril as Ms. Young's French maid. Interesting for Loy's performance as a vamp, but inessential in all other respects, The Truth About Youth does manage to end on a high note, as J. Farrell MacDonald gets the film's wittiest line.

"The Truth About Youth" is a 1930 film of special interest because of two of its young stars, Loretta Young and Myrna Loy. The story concerns a housekeeper's daughter Phyllis (Young) who is engaged to the young man of the house, "The Imp" (David Manners). He has just turned 21 and has been raised by a triumvirate of guardians, chiefly Richard (Conway Tearle). "The Imp" (whose real name is Richard) falls madly in lust with a man trap called Kara, who performs at a club and is known as "The Firefly." He writes her a passionate letter and when Phyllis finds it, the elder Richard claims it's his.

Because this is an early talkie, the film comes off as rather wooden. Both Loy and Young are gorgeous, Loy as a vamp and Young as a sweet young thing. Both had those short hairdos with the tight wave so popular back then. Loy has the better role as a money-grubber, and she's great. The gown she wears in performance is a knockout - an actress could wear it to the Oscars today.

The men are just okay, with the exception of two of the guardians, J. Farrell McDonald and Harry Stubbs, who provide some humor.

Before she became Nora Charles, Loy was cast as a vamp, usually an exotic one, until a producer who knew her personally decided to mine her humor. "The Truth About Youth" is an excellent chance to see her in an early role.

Since the death of his beloved "Charlie" fifteen years earlier, self-described "old hen" Conway Tearle (as Richard "Dick" Carewe) has raised handsome David Manners (as Richard "The Imp" Dane) as his own son. Now, Mr. Manners is turning twenty-one, and engaged to pretty housekeeper's daughter Loretta Young (as Phyllis Ericson). But, Manners stands up Ms. Young and birthday well-wishers to lust after sexy singer/dancer Myrna Loy (as Kara). He proposes to Ms. Loy, who prefers men "crushing the life out of me, and making me like it!" Loy agrees to wed him, thinking Manners has money.

Manners arrives home, falling down drunk. The next morning, he hides his interest in Loy, guzzles water to battle cotton-mouth, and goes out to seem more of the "vulgar" Loy. Back home, clueless Young finds a note that drunken Manners dropped, from the gold-digging Loy, accepting his marriage proposal. As it was addressed to "Richard," Young thinks Mr. Tearle is the one set to wed Loy. When Young returns the note to Tearle, he covers for Manners. Marriage, misunderstanding, and related mayhem follow - and, finally, Young finds "The Truth About Youth" is that sometimes older is better.

Don't miss Young's dress in the opening scene; she wears a strategically placed strap-on "attachment" that seems to shout out an invitation to Manners. If he hadn't stepped out to see bare-legged Loy, we might have had a different movie. Manners plays his drunk scene, and the morning after, well; he's almost commenting on those who call his acting "stiff." It's still Young's movie, however, as she becomes the central character. Young and Loy are fun, especially in their nightclub scene. Probably most outstanding is seeing Tearle continue to play leading-man roles into the 1930s.

****** The Truth About Youth (11/3/30) William Seiter ~ Loretta Young, Conway Tearle, David Manners, Myrna Loy

It's always nice to see Myrna Loy and Loretta Young, and despite portions of the story being cliché, there's nothing really wrong with the plot of this relatively short movie. David Manners plays a young man who is intended for Young, but finds himself seduced by Loy, who is a nightclub performer and gold-digger. Unfortunately, the execution of the film is sub-par: too much of the dialog is overly polished and doesn't ring true, and there's something that's just 'off'. I think it's Manners as well as Conway Tearle, who plays his foster father. I wasn't wild about Loy's nightclub performances which are clearly dubbed, and what a gold opportunity director William A. Seiter had there. Young expresses hidden desire for Tearle well, and there is also some nice comic relief from a couple of friends of his (J. Farrell MacDonald and Harry Stubbs), but it's not enough to make this a good movie. A better one from 1930 with boy Loy and Young that you probably would enjoy more is 'The Devil to Pay!', which also starred Ronald Colman.