That Certain Age

Brave reporter Vincent Bullit has just returned from following the Spanish Civil War. His boss, newspaper magnate Fullerton, has several plans to send him to China. However, first Fullerton invites Bullit to the peace and quiet of his own home to write a series of articles on European topics. When Fullerton's adolescent daughter Alice fell in love with Bullitt, her suitor, boy Ken Ken Warren, seems to have no chance. Mr. And Mrs. Fullerton, Ken Warren, and even Vincent Bullit himself are doing their best to distract young Alice's feelings from the older man. It is a difficult task though, as she is 'in those Certain Age'.

This is a heartwarming and feel good film! Deanna Durbin is really great with her singing of the title number as well as other good songs! "That Certain Age" received two Oscar nominations in the musical category. The story is about a well to do family headed by a newspaper magnate who invites one of his reporters to his expansive estate to stay in the guest house behind their mansion. Durbin and her friends are rehearsing for a show that they are going to put on at the theatre in town and of course, they are using the guest house for their rehearsals. When they get word that this distinguished reporter is coming to visit to work on some articles, they don't like it and Durbin decides they will all pull some shenanigans to make him want to leave. Only one problem, the love bug bites Durbin and she is smitten by the older man. She becomes so enamored that she ignores the show and her friends and even her boyfriend. The reporter now has the task of setting her straight but that isn't going to be that easy to do! If you are a Deanna Durbin fan or a Melvyn Douglas fan, this film is one you won't want to miss! The rest of the cast is great too! Some really good laughs!

It's quite possible that the teen musical genre began with THAT CERTAIN AGE (1938), Deanna Durbin's fourth starring role in two years and the first to feature a large cast of supporting teens. It certainly seems to have been the precursor of the Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland-"Let's put on a show" brand of musical that burst forth from MGM the following year with BABES IN ARMS (1939). Here, the kids, based in an affluent community in Mount Kisco, New York, are indeed putting on a show, with local rich girl Alice Fullerton (Durbin) in the lead role ("Lady Iris") and her sort-of boyfriend, Ken Warren (Jackie Cooper), a Senior Patrol Leader in the local Boy Scout troop, serving as director. The production they create is an elaborate operatic-type show with a "Carmen"-like theme, at least as far as we can tell from the few tantalizing bits offered.

Complications arise when Alice becomes infatuated with her parents' summer house guest, Vincent Bullitt, a renowned foreign correspondent in his 30s (played by Melvyn Douglas, who was 37 at the time to Deanna's 16), who works for her father (John Halliday), a newspaper publisher who seems to have way too much time on his hands. Alice decides that Bullitt needs her more than the show does and the show suffers accordingly--in the short run. Bullitt appears to be based on Vincent Sheean, a swashbuckling left-of-center journalist of the time whose autobiographical account of his own reporting adventures, "Personal History," had come out the previous year.

The problem with the Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland musicals was…Mickey Rooney. Having re-watched the four films again a couple of years ago (BABES IN ARMS, BABES ON Broadway, STRIKE UP THE BAND, GIRL CRAZY), I was struck by how manic Rooney was—and desperately unfunny. Sure, he had a lot of energy and performing ability, but his characters in those films managed to come off quite abrasive at times and downright creepy at others. Poor Judy was overshadowed in each of them. (Fortunately, she was rescued by Arthur Freed's unit at MGM and placed in films worthy of her talent.) Unlike Rooney, Jackie Cooper doesn't sing or dance or try to be funny as Durbin's leading man, although he sometimes IS funny. He's got a straightforward manner and comes armed with abundant sincerity. He was about a year older than Deanna and plays her devoted friend, with secret romantic feelings, who is absolutely heartbroken when he learns how she feels about Mr. Bullitt. His gracious "best man won" concession speech to Bullitt is the older man's first inkling of Alice's infatuation and provokes some amusing comic reactions from Douglas. Cooper's lovelorn scenes are funny, but quite moving. This is, after all, the kid who made millions of grown men blubber like babies with his final scene in THE CHAMP (1931). He knows how to break your heart and does it without any tricks.

Deanna sings five or six times in the film, more than in most of the films of hers I've seen. Four songs are listed in the opening credits, all by the team of Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson: "My Own," "That Certain Age," "Be a Good Scout" and "You're as Pretty as a Picture." (The team also wrote songs for Durbin in MAD ABOUT MUSIC, also 1938.) Deanna also sings a couple of classical pieces from her lyric soprano repertoire, although those aren't listed in the credits. The title song is sung as a chorus under the opening credits and then reprised by the ensemble in the film's final minutes. Deanna never sings it solo, although I wish she'd had.

Deanna herself is a force of nature, a mesmerizing young star who dazzled us in exquisite closeups and whose every smile melted hearts. And she could sing beautifully, too. She is quite something and one can easily see why Universal Pictures bet the ranch on her—and won! I won't claim that THAT CERTAIN AGE is a better musical than BABES IN ARMS, but I will say it's a better film and a more satisfying and often quite compelling piece of entertainment.

Ironically, Rooney and Durbin shared an Honorary Oscar that year. The citation was worded, "Special Award to Deanna Durbin and Mickey Rooney for their significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth, and as juvenile players setting a high standard of ability and achievement." The two films with Durbin that prompted the award were MAD ABOUT MUSIC and THAT CERTAIN AGE. (I don't know what Rooney films they were thinking of.) Universal eventually came up with its own answer to the Rooney-Garland films in a series of musicals with Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan in the early 1940s, including TOP MAN and THE MERRY MONAHANS. If only those films would come out in a DVD box set.

THAT CERTAIN AGE (Universal, 1938), a Joe Pasternak Production directed by Edward Ludwig, stars Deanna Durbin in her fourth leading role for the studio. Aside from being a noted winning film at the box office at the time of its release, it's also of interest with an impressive supporting cast headed by Melvyn Douglas and Jackie Cooper, along with once popular leading ladies as Irene Rich (who played Jackie Cooper's mother in THE CHAMP (1931)), and Nancy Carroll in support. The plot, taken from an original story by F. Hugh Herbert, may be a first in a series of teenage musicals made more popular in the 1940s, along with theme quite familiar due to similar stories produced either in motion pictures or television shows in later years.

The story revolves around Alice Fullerton (Deanna Durbin), a childhood sweetheart of boy scout leader, Kenneth Warren (Jackie Cooper), who intends on staging a show to help raise money to help poor scouts to attend camp. Alice is the daughter of Gilbert Fullerton (John Halliday), a newspaper publisher who invites war correspondent, Vincent Bullitt (Melvyn Douglas) to spend a few weeks at the guest house for peace and quiet so he can provide articles on current events in Europe. It so happens Alice has promised the guest house to her friends for show rehearsals and is advised by her mother, Dorothy (Irene Rich) to have it someplace else. Upon the arrival of Bullitt, who would rather be someplace else, Alice and her friends scheme to have Bullitt leave, but because Alice has become infatuated by this older gentleman, she has arrange for him to remain, much to the dismay of Vincent as well as Ken, who finds Alice not to be a good scout by not appearing in his upcoming show.

Featured in the supporting cast are Jackie Searl (Tony, who appeared opposite Cooper in both SKIPPY and SOOKY (Paramount, 1931)); Peggy Stewart (Mary Lee); Charles Coleman (Stevens, the Butler); Grant Mitchell (The Jeweler); Addison Richards, Moroni Olson and Russell Hicks in smaller roles. Juanita Quigley, billed simply as the Pest, is amusing as Cooper's little sister, Elsie "Butch" Fullerton. Fans of Nancy Carroll, a popular leading actress for Paramount of the 1930s, now past her prime, would have to wait until the movie is nearly over before her first appearance in the story (lasting only under three minutes) as Vincent's reporter friend, Grace Bristow.

New songs by Harold Adamson and Jimmy McHugh include: "That Certain Age" (sung during opening credits); "Be a Good Scout" (sung by Deanna Durbin, Jackie Cooper and scouts); "Waltz from Romero and Juliet," "You're as Pretty as a Picture," "My Own" (Academy Award nominee for Best Song of 1938); "Les Filles de Cadirz" by Clement Philibert and Leo Delibes; and "That Certain Age."

For this presentation, Deanna Durbin has reached that certain age of her career from peppy teenager in her feature debut of THREE SMART GIRLS (Universal, 1936) to an attractive young lady while still in her teens. Though the story is routine, it's more plot than musical for a Durbin movie, yet endearing at times during much of its 101 minutes.

Seldom seen on commercial television since the 1960s, THAT CERTAIN AGE eventually got some public television exposure in the 1980s before disappearing from view again. To date, this little known teenage musical has yet to be broadcast on cable television, but fortunately has become available for viewership on both video cassette and DVD formats to assure its rediscovery of that certain age gone by. (***1/2)

Melvin Douglas and Jackie Cooper co- star with Deanna Durbin in this comedy about romance and teenage infatuation. Durbin had already reached stardom by age 16, and she plays teenager Alice Fullerton who gets a crush on an older man. That's Douglas's Vincent Bullitt, a top-notch ace reporter and journalist for her father's big New York newspaper.

Bullitt was wounded covering the Spanish Civil War and has come home for a rest. Publisher Gilbert Fullerton (played by John Halliday) wants him to relax and stay at his country home while writing a series of articles on the political scene in Europe. But, Alice's youth group has moved into the family guest quarters where they are rehearsing for a benefit play. Alice has to come up with a plot for them to chase Bullitt away, and they carry it out initially. But as she starts to fall for Bullitt, the story takes a turn with a couple of twists that lead to family turmoil and some more humor.

Jackie Cooper plays Ken Warren, who is directing the play and is himself smitten with Alice. While not a true love triangle, the story has the characters in positions that lend to good humor along those lines. In the meantime, Gilbert and Mrs. Fullerton (played by Irene Rich) get involved and stumble through the teenage infatuation of their daughter. A young Juanita Quigley plays Cooper's little sister, The Pest, whom he calls Butch once or twice; and she has a couple of funny scenes.

This was one of the films that helped Deanna Durbin's star rise and stay up through her short career which she ended just 10 years later. The plot is strictly comedy romance, with the music and Durbin's singing interspersed. But that did contribute to "That Certain Age" receiving two Oscar nominations - for sound recording and original song.