The Truth About Youth

Whatever truth about youth is revealed or explored herein is elusive. Youth is foolish, cunning, wise? We are left wondering. Worth seeing because of the cast (Loretta Young at 17, Myrna Loy in her exotic-vamp stage, silent-era relic Conway Tearle, pretty but awkward David Manners). The first minutes of dense and clumsy exposition play like the synopsis of a Victorian novel, which is pretty close to the actual origin of this story (it was a play in London in 1901 starring, among others, Constance Collier in the Loy role). I had to rewind to get a clear sense of the relationships. It doesn't help that during all this verbiage Young is wearing a gown with a downright bizarre decoration directly on the crotch which seems to shout "Pre- Code Costume! Don't listen - look!"

The conflict begins when David Manners, pledged to marry Young, falls instead for nightclub performer Loy whose exotic, cynical, gold-digger comes as refreshing counterpoint to Young's homespun housekeeper's daughter. Loy lip syncs a couple of forgettable songs and dances passably & briefly, looking gorgeous at all times. Melodies of two better songs of the day, "Get Happy" and "Miss Wonderful," are played during nightclub scenes.

Young's line readings are smooth and natural, especially considering her age at the time. But they are, in fact, rattled off too smoothly to register the subtleties of thought that her character is experiencing, so that when she reaches certain conclusions late in the story, they seem arbitrary. Loy's best moment is an outburst of anger while in the arms of David Manners when she finds out he isn't quite the cash cow she thought he was, but the scene collapses when she hurls a vase at him, and misses by a mile. Manners himself is slightly less wooden than usual, but only slightly. He does manage to get a drunk scene half right.

A few inter-titles illustrate a lingering habit from the silent era, while underscoring in some dramatic scenes reminds us that even in 1930 pure unadulterated soundtrack hiss was not always the case.

To those who find the ending shocking, tut-tut. Surprising, maybe.

It's fun to see the plot of this early talkie careen back and forth between traditional melodrama and coming of age story, with some hints of almost incestuous attraction in a May-December romance. Conway Tearle plays a middle-aged bachelor who has raised the son of a friend (who died when the boy was only 6). Now the boy, affectionately nicknamed The Imp (David Manners) is turning 21 and he's engaged to be married to Loretta Young, daughter of Tearle's housekeeper. The Imp is a callow youth (after all, he's played by David Manners) and he skips a carefully planned birthday dinner to spend the night carousing with a sexy, gold digging nightclub singer (Myrna Loy). She thinks the boy has a big inheritance and so agrees to marry him when he asks her, but what she doesn't know is that Manners has very little money at all. Young finds a love letter from Loy to Manners, but Tearle covers up for Manners by saying it was written to him (they both have the same first name). This ploy, however, upsets Young even more; it turns out that she has been nursing a crush on the older man for some time. Tearle goes though an elaborate charade to keep the truth from Young, not realizing all the time that Young is miserable.

It's a 1930 movie, so it's a little stiff and stagy, in production and acting. Loy is wonderful, like a breath of fresh air whenever she's around, glittery and sexy and dangerous. Manners is his usual rather awkward self (when he's staring with lust at Loy, he looks rather like Harpo Marx during his drunk scene in THE COCOANUTS) but he has the leading man looks needed for the part. Young is not as good as she would be in later movies; both she and Tearle are rather stiff. The characters could be fleshed out a bit more; all the exposition is crammed into a long dialogue scene in the first ten minutes of the movie. I would particularly recommend this to Loy fans-it's always fun seeing her as a kind of femme fatal (as she was in several of her early films) and contrasting that image with her good-girl/wifely image later in her career.

It's always nice to see Myrna Loy and Loretta Young, and despite portions of the story being cliché, there's nothing really wrong with the plot of this relatively short movie. David Manners plays a young man who is intended for Young, but finds himself seduced by Loy, who is a nightclub performer and gold-digger. Unfortunately, the execution of the film is sub-par: too much of the dialog is overly polished and doesn't ring true, and there's something that's just 'off'. I think it's Manners as well as Conway Tearle, who plays his foster father. I wasn't wild about Loy's nightclub performances which are clearly dubbed, and what a gold opportunity director William A. Seiter had there. Young expresses hidden desire for Tearle well, and there is also some nice comic relief from a couple of friends of his (J. Farrell MacDonald and Harry Stubbs), but it's not enough to make this a good movie. A better one from 1930 with boy Loy and Young that you probably would enjoy more is 'The Devil to Pay!', which also starred Ronald Colman.

The Truth About Youth is a typical creaky early talkie with some fairly dreadful singing thrown in for good (or bad) measure. Myrna Loy stars as Kara, a nightclub entertainer who gold digs for rich men in her spare time. Loy's singing voice seems to be dubbed, but she cuts a rug fairly effectively. She's furtively married the foolishly smitten David Manners, who gives one of his oddly effective performances as a lovestruck youngster who can't see the wood for the trees. Manners always had the look of a deer caught in the headlights, and this tic works well for him here. Youngster Loretta Young is also on hand, unconvincingly wooing wooden (and extremely old) leading man Conway Tearle, and there's a nails on the chalkboard performance by Yola D'Avril as Ms. Young's French maid. Interesting for Loy's performance as a vamp, but inessential in all other respects, The Truth About Youth does manage to end on a high note, as J. Farrell MacDonald gets the film's wittiest line.

Since the death of his beloved "Charlie" fifteen years earlier, self-described "old hen" Conway Tearle (as Richard "Dick" Carewe) has raised handsome David Manners (as Richard "The Imp" Dane) as his own son. Now, Mr. Manners is turning twenty-one, and engaged to pretty housekeeper's daughter Loretta Young (as Phyllis Ericson). But, Manners stands up Ms. Young and birthday well-wishers to lust after sexy singer/dancer Myrna Loy (as Kara). He proposes to Ms. Loy, who prefers men "crushing the life out of me, and making me like it!" Loy agrees to wed him, thinking Manners has money.

Manners arrives home, falling down drunk. The next morning, he hides his interest in Loy, guzzles water to battle cotton-mouth, and goes out to seem more of the "vulgar" Loy. Back home, clueless Young finds a note that drunken Manners dropped, from the gold-digging Loy, accepting his marriage proposal. As it was addressed to "Richard," Young thinks Mr. Tearle is the one set to wed Loy. When Young returns the note to Tearle, he covers for Manners. Marriage, misunderstanding, and related mayhem follow - and, finally, Young finds "The Truth About Youth" is that sometimes older is better.

Don't miss Young's dress in the opening scene; she wears a strategically placed strap-on "attachment" that seems to shout out an invitation to Manners. If he hadn't stepped out to see bare-legged Loy, we might have had a different movie. Manners plays his drunk scene, and the morning after, well; he's almost commenting on those who call his acting "stiff." It's still Young's movie, however, as she becomes the central character. Young and Loy are fun, especially in their nightclub scene. Probably most outstanding is seeing Tearle continue to play leading-man roles into the 1930s.

****** The Truth About Youth (11/3/30) William Seiter ~ Loretta Young, Conway Tearle, David Manners, Myrna Loy