Over 21

I first saw this movie in the 1960's on TV. I subsequently saw it a couple of more times in the next few years but have not seen it since the late 1960's. I don't believe there are any existing copies of it, but I may be wrong. I found the movie, as I recall it, pleasant and amusing. As you can tell, it made an impression on me.

This film is about the editor (Alexander Knox) of a New York newspaper who, already an older individual, gets called near the end of World War II, into the U.S. Army's Officer Candidate School and the difficulties he goes through to meet the standards in order to become an officer. He agreed at his publisher's (Charles Coburn) urging to continue with editorial writing. Because he becomes burden with trying to pass the classes at OCS he becomes, he can't devote time to effort to writing the weekly editorials as he promised. His wife (Irene Dunne), who lives with him while he attends OCS, starts writing the editorials but passes them off to the publisher as his (Knox's character does not know that she keeps writing the editorials after he stops).

What impressed me about this movie was a speech Knox's character gives at the graduating class commencement in OCS toward the end of the movie. It is called "The World and Apple Pie" and speaks about the need for America to remain active in world affairs after World War II ends (in view of America's isolationism prior to World War II). He makes the analogy between the ingredients and person that make a apple pie and the ingredients that and people that make a peaceful world, that the pie and the world are only as good as the ingredients and the people who made them.

If there is an extant copy of the movie with the speech in it, I would love to find it. If you do have a chance to see the movie, do so. It's not a great movie but the speech, I think, will make its mark.

I did come across a book, a few years back, containing Ruth Gordon's play upon which the movie was based but the play did not have the speech in it.

Max Wharton (Alexander Knox), 39, is the editor of the New York Bulletin -- or he was, until he announces to his boss over the Teletype that he's quitting to join the army. Robert Gow (Charles Coburn), who owns the paper, is furious. Wharton is the Bulletin. Without him there's no newspaper. But what Wharton wants is to be close to the war. And his wife, Polly (Irene Dunne), wants to be close to him. And so she finishes up her latest movie script and goes to live near the barracks. She suffers life in a bungalow that has no shower, lights that you have to turn on and off from the outside, a refrigerator that will make a hideous noise when she's lucky (that means it's working), moths and other niceties. Meanwhile, Max is starting to believe the saw that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Supposedly, anyone over 21 has great difficulty in learning what one needs to learn to become an officer.

It's a lie, says Polly. But she's not sure whether she wants him to graduate or not. If he fails, he can go back to the paper, his baby, the thing he's constantly worrying about when he isn't worried about his tests. Gow has been calling her constantly, trying to talk to Max, but Polly won't let him, not when he has more important things on his mind.

Finally, Gow tells Polly that he has to sell the paper. Polly stops him in the only way she can. She tells him Max will write editorials from the barracks. But there's no way Max could handle the extra work load, so she writes the editorials herself.

The British critic, Leslie Halliwell, sums up this movie in his Film Guide: "Thin star comedy based on Ruth Gordon's play about her own predicament; not for the wider audience, and not very good anyway." Irene Dunne and Charles Coburn are good, as always, but you can see them in other movies.

"Over 21" stars Alexander Knox, Irene Dunne, Charles Coburn, and Jeff Donnell in a wartime story based on a Broadway play written by and starring Ruth Gordon. Gordon joined husband Garson Kanin when he joined the service and the play is inspired by that experience.

Here, Knox plays the 39-year-old newspaper editor Max Wharton, who feels that he can't write about the war unless he gets into the fray himself. His boss, Robert Gow (Charles Coburn) has a fit and so does his wife Paula (Dunne) but he insists. Paula gets housing in a broken-down bungalow so she can be closer to him. Max, meanwhile, is having a tough time. There are lots of tests, and there is a theory that people "over 21" can't absorb anything. Also his boss keeps calling, intending to pressure him to return to the paper as he is needed. Paula keeps Gow from talking to Max, but acts as if Max has agreed to write editorials. She then, under the guise of working on a screenplay, writes them herself.

This is an okay movie, if somewhat frantic. Dunne always had a wonderful style and a flair for comedy. She does a good job here but it almost seems as if she's working too hard. She has a huge part and she's not really surrounded by people as good as she is at comedy, so perhaps that's why. Knox gives an excellent speech at the end of the film.

"Over 21" is enjoyable, it's pleasant, it's no great guns, but the speech at the end is inspired.

This little-known comedy from the hit play by Ruth Gordon is a delight. The script, based on the play, is spicy, rich, and completely undated. Ditto the cast but I must underline the work of the leading lady,Irene Dunne. Irene is simply superb - as usual - and lights up the screen with every frame she's in (and she's in it a lot, thank heaven). In addition, director Vidor has given her some unusual close-ups that are mesmerizing. What a gal! I know of no other Hollywood actress from any era who has her versatility and is so convincing in every film. Why she remains so little known is a mystery. I have seen most of her films and this one was a surprise, even for a solid ID fan like myself. See it, everyone!

Over 21 the film version of the Ruth Gordon play which detailed her experiences trying to keep the marriage together with Garson Kanin after he'd gone in the service provides Irene Dunne with one of her better later roles on the big screen. It's also in keeping with what was then an upbeat spirit in America about how we would not screw up the peace as we did in the first World War and sow the seeds of yet another global conflict.

The play Ruth Gordon wrote and starred in herself ran for 221 performances in 1944 on Broadway and was confined simply to the bungalow that Gordon and Harvey Stephens who was the male lead had on a training base. If you look on the Broadway credits list it says that the production was 'staged' by George S. Kaufman as opposed to being directed by him. I'm not sure of the distinction, but I can imagine that with a wit and will as strong as Kaufman's it must have been an interesting period putting the production together before opening night.

When Columbia bought the screen rights, Sidney Buchman had to do some considerable script reconstruction to move the action beyond the bungalow. The film bears very little trace of its stage origins.

Alexander Knox plays the husband and Charles Coburn the employer of both Dunne and Knox who are writers. Knox has graduated to not only editor, but featured columnist. His words and thoughts help sell the paper and Coburn is in a bind. But Knox feels he has to get into the war, the seminal event of his time in order to speak authoritatively on the kind of post war world he wants. This was not an uncommon theme in those years.

Irene Dunne has some good comic moments, the kind she used to have when she was appearing opposite Cary Grant. In fact Garson Kanin directed both of them in My Favorite Wife a few years earlier. Coburn is his usual cantankerous old water buffalo of a boss who ultimately has a good heart.

Over 21 was an optimistic picture which sad to say wasn't accurate about what the Allies and I mean all of them could bring to the peace conferences to create a better world. Still hopefully a new generation will get it right.