Ambiciones de juventud

Sometimes a lackluster script or bad direction is impossible for a cast to overcome. In this case, it feels like the writing indeed lacks luster-perhaps because two writers are credited.

When the New York Times reviewed the film, on its release, the critic hailed the writing and direction, but called the cast "comparatively second-flight". By today's standards, Glenn Ford, Ruth Roman and Nina Foch are considered first-rate, and they do seem to have a handle on the story. But I still allege that the story itself is flawed.

Ford plays Maxwell Webster, a Montana attorney with a misguided wife (Ruth Roman), who pushes him to get ahead. She is the one with the ideas. Maxwell is always muttering apologies and trying to make people like him. It's a role better suited to Wally Cox. But Ford does his best.

And so does Nina Foch as a sexy candidate for the bar who inexplicably latches onto him like a leech. And so does Denise Darcel as an exotic bombshell who Maxwell tries to collect from when he joins a debt collection firm. Each of these actors is fun to watch individually, but when their characters are forced to interact in this ill-fitting comedy, the effect is annoying.

If you've ever had to take a state bar exam, you'll get a kick out of Young Man with Ideas. It depicts the trials and tribulations of young lawyer Max Webster (Glenn Ford), who moves with his wife Ruth Roman) and kids from Montana to California--the big time!--and now needs to pass the California bar exam. Certain people--you know who you are--will find this very relatable. The poor sap is taking bar-review courses during the day, studying at night, and working part time as a debt collector, all while trying to keep his family safe from some thugs (led by Sheldon Leonard) who think he's a bookie and to keep his wife from going nuts. Oh, and he also is fighting off his man-hungry classmate (the great Nina Foch) who wants to do more than just study with Max. And he's helping out a nightclub singer who's down on her luck (Denise Darcel, the Anna Nicole Smith of her day).

If that sounds awfully sitcom-y, you're right. In a lot of ways, it feels like a supersized episode of I Love Lucy. But the cast is excellent, and the craftsmanship is good. It's a fun 84 minutes if the subject matter interests you.

Young Man With Ideas has Glenn Ford as a young very junior attorney at a law firm in some small Montana town who's not the most forceful fellow around. With a wife and three kids, he can't afford to be. Wife Ruth Roman sees something more in him and convinces him to be more assertive. Ford decides to move the family to Los Angeles where he can work and study to pass the California bar.

The rest of the film is the trials and tribulations they have in Los Angeles, some comic, some serious. Ford shakes off some of his inhibitions, not always in constructive ways.

Glenn Ford is one of the easiest to take actors around and his films reflect that. He's got the art of underplaying down to a science. and Young Man With Ideas is a great example of that.

Look for good supporting performances here, especially from Nina Foch, as a fellow aspiring lawyer, Denise Darcel as a nightclub entertainer, Rith Roman as the wife and Sheldon Leonard as a bookie.

By the way Foch gets Ford a job in a collection agency she works for and some of the film's best moments are from the mild mannered Ford working there.

When the film begins, Max and Julie Webster (Glenn Ford and Ruth Roman) are living in Montana. Max is a meek lawyer who doesn't get the respect his wife thinks he deserves. When they go to a very important meeting with Max's boss to celebrate a case they just won, Julie gets drunk and tells off Max's boss!! The next day, Julie nags poor Max into going in to the boss and instead of apologizing insists that he should ask for a raise. Not surprisingly, Max is fired.

The wife then insists that they should move to California and this means not only relocating them but forcing poor old Max to take the California Bar exam in order to practice there. Not only that, he doesn't have a job...though he is offered one as a bill collector. Naturally this job is all wrong for Max since he's so meek, but when the wife berates him for being so weak, he takes the job. The wife also nearly gets Max killed due to comments she makes to a stranger over the phone. What's next? Well, two other women end up throwing themselves at Max and you figure sooner or later he's going to up and leave Julie...or bust her in the kisser! But then,...there are the kids to consider.

This films has funny moments but the longer I watched it, the more the film annoyed me. While Max certainly should learn to speak up for himself, the writer made Julie too difficult to like and, well, a tad nasty. I found that as the film progressed, I wanted Max to leave her...and that made the film a comedy that simply stopped being funny. But you also know that in the 1950s no matter what she did and how hateful she acted, by the end of the film they'd be back together even if Max did leave her. I just wanted to see Max take the kids, move back to Montana and leave Julie to turn tricks or sell organs in order to survive...or something of the sort. I also think it was a serious mistake to make Max so meek and mild...yet occasionally, and inexplicably, a crazed madman who beats the crap out of thugs....none of which is really funny. The sum total of all this was tiresome and could easily have been funnier.

Maxwell Webster (Glenn Ford) and his wife Julie join his bosses for a dinner party. Julie gets drunk and Maxwell doesn't get the recognition he wants. It all ends badly. Max is good lawyer but a pushover. Julie convinces him to quit and move the family to L. A. They could only get a house which is a former bookie joint. Joyce Laramie inserts herself as his class study buddy to get a Californian law license. She gets him a collection job but he's ill-equipped for the work.

This has some fun. Glenn Ford plays a flustered guy pretty well. There are some good moments and good comedic side characters. The child actor bit is very funny. Max is a little too pathetic at times but it fits his character. I would like less of that. The trial is an interesting turn but it's a bit too serious. All in all, it's good fun for the most part.