The Age of Consent

The Age Of Consent is a terribly dated before the Code film with a Victorian era plot and loaded with sexual innuendo. This would have made a great Cecil B. DeMille silent film.

The Age Of Consent began as a play called Cross Roads which had the misfortune of opening on Broadway within two weeks of the Stock Market crash. After that Broadway closed a lot of shows because folks couldn't afford the theater. Cross Roads only ran 28 performances and Franchot Tone and Sylvia Sidney were in the supporting roles that Eric Linden and Arline Judge play on the screen.

The leads are Richard Cromwell and Dorothy Wilson who are in love and going through a lot of angst. Dorothy's a good kid who doesn't want to give it up before she has a wedding ring on her finger. Richard's even ready to quit school. But when she says no he goes off with the local waitress at the college hangout Arline Judge.

Catching him alone with his daughter puritanical dad Richard Barlow says no one is going to disgrace my daughter, marry her or else because she's still a minor. Poor Cromwell sees his whole life slipping away, all the plans he had for his future, just gone up in smoke.

It all kind of works out for most of the cast. John Halliday is her as the wise science professor who acts as mentor and father figure to the college kids. Barlow's part is interesting his type is still around today, ignorant and proud of it. Look for a young Betty Grable as one of the coeds.

It's an interesting story and typical of the times. But thank God we seem to have moved away from the attitudes expressed by Barlow in The Age Of Consent.

Unlike a lot of early sound films, where the actors don't know quite what to do with their voices, so the dialog's either stilted or exaggerated (more like on stage), this one came across pretty good. There wasn't all that exaggeration or over-the-top melodrama, and I credit the actor for that.

The story's not bad either, as two young college students try to navigate a society that's quite a bit different than when their parents were their age. (This movie is from 1931, so Mom and Dad were probably college age in the 1900's, so that says a lot.) Betty's an old-fashioned girl who thinks she should be more modern, while Michael wants to hold onto traditional values and ideals, despite pressure and temptation.

When a modern mistake is made, an old-fashioned correction seems in order, which may ruin the couple's chance for happiness.

There is also educational/life choice issues: is it okay to leave college and get a job, start your adult life a bit sooner than planned, even if it means postponing or giving a degree and career goals, if you have what you believe is a valid reason for doing so?

This movie has a bittersweet ending, and I could have done without the bitter, as a character of questionable ethics shows himself to be a better person and deserved a better fate.

Worth watching.

Even for pre-Hayes code cinema, this one is particularly smutty. Not to say there's nudity or whatever, but the sexuality positively drips off the screen, and very little is said which doesn't have to do with intercourse of one sort or another. They probably had fun making this one. Highly recommended if you can find it. Thanks to the American Film Institute for their preserving this film.

Gregory LaCava directed this 1932 film, The Age of Consent, starring Richard Cromwell, Dorothy Wilson, Aileen Pringle, John Halliday, and Arline Judge.

It's a precode story of kids in college, with lots of talk encouraging young women to loosen their morals, all kinds of sexual innuendo.

Michael (Cromwell) is a young man of high ideals who doesn't appreciate his buddy Duke's (Eric Linden) outrageous flirting and sexy talk, especially when it comes to Michael's girlfriend Betty (Wilson).

He confides to one of the professors (Halliday) that he's thinking of giving up college for marriage. This is evidently because of raging hormones.

When he's caught with an underage waitress, Dora (Judge), after a night of drinking, Dora's father demands they marry at once. This is one of those so subtle blink and you miss it. We are given the impression that they maybe kissed while drunk. I don't think so. She asks, are you sorry - I think they had sex. Other reviewers weren't sure.

The premise seems to be, leave college and get married rather than just shack up. In a way it's odd, since other precodes have people living together before marriage.

Anyway I have a soft spot for Richard Cromwell due to Emma and the fact that he was briefly married to Angela Lansbury. He did not stay in show business. He was a very talented artist and died at 50.

The Pre-Code era lasted from about 1930 to mid-1934. During this time, Hollywood had a production code but routinely ignored it. In other words, though they set up a board to oversee films to ensure that they were wholesome, these folks were essentially a rubber stamp for the studios. As a result, all sorts of amazingly adult plots made their way to the big screen. Plots involving abortion, adultery, homosexuality and premarital sex were surprisingly common...that is, until the new and tougher Production Code was enforced starting in July, 1934...after which, films became quite sanitized and wholesome...and occasionally a bit dull or cryptic. In other words movies either needed to be nice and sweet or they needed to talk around subjects...implying much but saying and doing very little.

It's very obvious that "The Age of Consent" is a Pre-Code picture....and it seems to loudly scream that when the story begins. With frequent mentions of sex, petting and lines like "You'd be much nicer is you loosened your morals", you can't help but be shocked at the sort of stuff our grandparents and great-grandparents were watching way back in the day.

The story is set at a sex-crazed college where students never seem to be in classes and mostly spend their time trying to get their dates into the sack. In the case of Mike, he and his girlfriend are interesting because they are clearly being overwhelmed by their hormones...so much so that they debate about dropping out of college in their final year because they can't wait to to the old horizontal mambo. But problems develop when Mike foolishly goes out with another girl...and finds that she's both underage AND her father threatens to press charges unless he marries her! Oddly, it appears in the film as if the pair never really did anything other than drink a bit and stay out late at her house. So what's to become of Mike? Will one night of foolishness destroy his life?

The message to the film is oddly Pre-Code and essentially says that it's a good idea to drop out of college because sex is grand! I am sure some parents back in the day did not appreciate this! Overall, a film that isn't very good but it never is dull!