As Young as You Feel

This is a likeable little comedy/drama. It has a good cast, and a fairly interesting plot. One thing, though. The movie jacket for "As Young As You Feel" has a large photo of Marilyn Monroe and her name is printed on the top. Don't let that fool you, though. Marilyn only has a small part in this movie, portraying a secretary, although she makes the most of her scenes.

John R. Hodges (Monty Woolley) is a printer at ACME Printing. He receives notice that he must retire because he is age 65. The rule comes from Consolidated Motors, the parent company of a vast conglomerate that owns ACME. John takes great pride in his job and enjoys the dignity that comes from doing good work. He decides on an unorthodox strategy to get his job back.

"As Young As You Feel" is a comedy, but it contains serious messages about age-related issues and the unintended effects of technology and modern production methods. More than sixty years later, those viewpoints--as expressed by John--are just as relevant today.

But the messages do not sidetrack the fun. Monty Woolley plays John with a twinkle in his eye. His positivity influences the lives of others (on a grand scale), except maybe for a couple of annoying members of his own family.

One notable aspect of this film is that is adapted from a story by Paddy Chayefsky, who won three Oscars for screen writing. After his service in the war, Chayefsky worked in his uncle's printshop--a connection with this story.

Marilyn Monroe has a small, but well-acted, part in the film as secretary to the executive who runs ACME. Her larger roles were yet to come. I enjoyed seeing Jean Peters and Constance Bennett as well. And there's a small part played by a very young Russ Tamblyn.

This film is a feel-good story that focuses on the subject of human dignity. It is light-hearted and written to entertain.

I really enjoyed this fine screwball comedy, from a very clever story by Paddy Chayefsky, about a man forced to retire from a beloved printing job because he turned 65. He decides to go straight to the president to question the ageist policy, discovers no one knows what the president looks like, decides to impersonate him, and hilarity ensues. Wonderful roles for Monty Woolley, Thelma Ritter, Constance Bennett and Marilyn Monroe. Heartily recommended if you're in the mood for a few good laughs at the expense of American big business. Still a relevant question that wrangles society today: Whether or not capable people should have to stop doing what they love because of age. I wonder if many instances are simply excuses to incorporate age-related discrimination.

Monty Woolley believes you're as "Young as You Feel" in this 1951 film also starring Thelma Ritter, David Wayne, Jean Peters, Allyn Joslyn, Russ Tamblyn, Albert Dekker, Constance Bennett and Marilyn Monroe.

Woolley plays John Hodges, who at the age of 65, is fired from his job in a printing company due to corporate policy that no one can work past 65. Many baby boomers wish that were the case today, because in fact, they'll be working way past 65. He finds out that the company he works for is a subsidiary of a huge company that is owned by a huge corporation. Finding out the name of the President of that huge corporation, he dies his hair and whiskers and poses as the man, comes to town, tours the plant, and makes a speech in which he declares that the knowledge of our elders is critical in printing, and changes the policy.

And there the fun begins. The boss' wife (Constance Bennett), feeling unloved by her husband (Dekker), falls for Hodges; his granddaughter's boyfriend (Wayne) recognizes him and tells someone else at the plant; and the corporation doesn't know what to do. This fake president has raised their stock and given them a fabulous profile, so much so that the labor union has settled their grievances with them. How can they call his bluff? I seem to have enjoyed this film more than some of the other posters. Thelma Ritter, as John's daughter-in-law, is a scream. An ex-singer who gave up her career to marry George (Joslyn), John's son, sings "Temptation" while in the kitchen - she's hilarious. Woolley is great as an older man not ready to be put out to pasture, and it's wonderful to see one of the great stars of the '30s, Constance Bennett, in a later role.

This film is remembered today as early Marilyn Monroe. She plays the boss' sexy secretary, and she does a wonderful job. It's a small role, but you can definitely see that she, Peters, who plays the granddaughter, and David Wayne are all getting the star buildup and are each at different stages of it. Monroe was just about to break through, and she and Wayne would appear together in "How to Marry a Millionaire" (where he says, "I already think you're quite a strudel.") Entertaining and definitely worth seeing.

This film was indeed a mildly amusing comedy and one's acceptance of it will depend on one's affection for Monty Wooley. But I was fascinated by the credits. It's part of the feel-good type of movies of the early 1950s. The story is by a young Paddy Chakevsky, who would later write Marty, A Catered Affair, The Goddess, The Americanization of Emily, Hospital, Network, and Altered States, and the screenplay is by Lamar Trotti, who wrote the screenplays for John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln and Drums Along the Mohawk, for Ox Bow Incident, and won the screenplay Oscar for Wilson in 1944. A lot of talent in a thimble. It might be interesting to compare this screenplay to their other works for similarities. Chakevsky's work later became sharp and hard and even bitter. But his Marty, Catered Affair, and maybe even this show a gentle, humorous side. Trotti would die the next year, so this is one of his last screenplays