Young and Willing

Paramount made this film in 1941, but the movie-going public didn't see Young And Willing until 1943 when the film was sold to United Artists to help them fulfill booking commitments. That it was held up for two years is always a bad sign.

It's not a horribly bad film, but not all that good. It concerns six people who are aspiring thespians who share an apartment. Bills such as they are are paid by Martha O'Driscoll who has a rich dad. The others living there are William Holden, Eddie Bracken, Susan Hayward, James Brown and Barbara Britton. It was agreed no romance, but Brown and Britton have already broken that rule, they are secretly married.

The young folks do struggle and when O'Driscoll's father learns she's been living coed he threatens to take her back to their small Illinois home town where family values prevail. The six of them pull all kinds of schemes to both keep O'Driscoll around and get a big break from playwright Robert Benchley.

One thing that truly drove me up the wall as much as it did to the characters on screen was Florence MacMichael's baby talking voice. She's a high minded young woman who finks on the arrangement to O'Driscoll's dad. That woman was hard to take from the moment she opened her mouth until the rest of the film was over. She made me glad when it was over.

This had to be the ultimate of what Bill Holden called his 'Smiling Jim' roles before Sunset Boulevard which he ached to get out of. But at least Young And Willing being the last film the public saw Holden in before he joined the Army Air Corps kept him in the public eye. The public wouldn't see him again until 1946 in Blaze At Noon.

Beware of Florence MacMichael.

In the 1940s, it simply wasn't proper for a man and a woman to cohabitate without being married. Let alone three men and three women! Although they've all taken a pledge not to get romantically involved with each other until their acting careers have taken off, young love just can't be stopped. When one of the girls' father stops by for an impromptu visit, the boys are forced into a hasty exit to pretend they don't live in the apartment.

The entire film takes place in the one-room apartment, so it's easy to imagine Francis Swann's original play onstage. It feels like one lengthy Frasier episode, with gags, mistaken identities, and situational comedy, so if you like that sort of fast-paced hilarity, you'll probably like this one. I couldn't stop laughing. I love fast-paced wit, and it's always funny to laugh at fledging actors if you once were one yourself.

While William Holden and Susan Hayward play two of the roommates, it's Florence MacMichael who stays in my memory as the funniest one in the show. She's the thorn in everyone's side, and while she might annoy some audience members with her constant baby-talk, I found it adorable. Young and Willing isn't a classic most people remember, but it's certainly funny enough to rent during a fun girls' weekend.

The movie went along well enough when they weren't acting out parts that were supposed to illustrate they were still neophytes with very little talent. There were many elements of a screwball comedy but as much as I was interested in seeing the cast at this stage in their careers, this movie was so amateurishly written almost any of us could think of ways to improve it substantially. And Florence MacMichael's voice gave me a headache.

There was a bottle of medicine that figured in the plot that was supposed to be helpful for an expectant mother. It seemed to be a mystery substance known only to fictional doctors.

I'd suggest that a 1943 audience would be annoyed, even angered, that the guys weren't all in the military and the gals were totally uninterested in anything but acting. This movie would have gone over a lot better before Pearl Harbor.

I prefer Robert Benchley's writing to his movie roles but I always find him enjoyable and he worked well with Mabel Paige as the two responsible adults with all these immature young people.

If you are a very tolerant and easy-going person who laughs readily, you might enjoy this movie as a light-hearted romp. If you want to know what these people were like then, you might want to see this movie. Everybody else would be happier avoiding it.

The movie is a fast paced comedy, action oriented and a clear plot. Star power in the actors, and everyone delivered a fine performance. But for whatever reason, it wasn't funny.... and I love comedies. Perhaps it was the writing and plot. It didn't seem to have many funny scenes.

I dearly love this movie -- it's been a favorite of mine for years. It's no Gone With the Wind, to be sure, but it's entertaining, witty, and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. The cast not only contains a pre-stardom William Holden and Susan Hayward, which alone is enough of a recommendation, but it has some absolutely priceless performances from Mabel Paige, Robert Benchley, Eddie Bracken, Martha O'Driscoll, and Florence MacMichael. The whole film, from start to finish, offers an implausible, screwball-type plot and performances, and it is absolute fun. There is truly never a dull moment -- and the more you see it, the more you'll appreciate it.