Rendez-moi ma femme

"As Young As You Feel" is a modest budget early 50's B&W comedy. While the creative people were experimenting with 'film noir' and 'neo-realism', the studios were cranking out stuff like this for a traditional audience. This adaptation of a story by Paddy Chayefsky was made during the McCarthy years, so the social satire aspect could only be subtly subversive. The themes (balancing work and play, doing work that gives you personal satisfaction, and maintaining your integrity) give the film a worthwhile message and are not delivered in an overbearing manner.

Monty Woolley (as John Hodges) carries the film as a printer who is pushed into retirement at age 65 and decides to impersonate the president of the holding company that owns the printing plant where he worked. This sets up a sort of 'Being There' effect, where his views on national affairs become an inspiration to the whole country. David Wayne (who would eventually play the Mad Hatter on "Batman") plays his prospective son-in-law and their scenes are all gems, partly because they have a real chemistry and partly because they got the best dialogue. The best scene is the opening, a very well staged scene of the company orchestra playing the "Nutcracker": the camera opens on a promotional poster, pans left and takes us into the concert hall as a little girl scurries to her seat. The camera moves around in the crowd where we meet most of the main characters. Hodges is playing one of the piccolos and he soon launches into an impromptu solo, much to the annoyance of the guest conductor and an accurate preview of what his role will be throughout the film.

This film is fairly entertaining but is most valuable as a cultural artifact. Because it was not a high budget production the cast is almost entirely older stars at the very end of their careers (like Wooley and Constance Bennett) and young actors at the beginning (Wayne, Jean Peters, and Marilyn Monroe). So there is a kind of torch passing at work. It is also hints at Monroe's special screen presence which somehow allowed her to beat the Hollywood starlet system. She and Peters were the same age (both were born in 1926) and had both started too late in the movie business. By this film they had already lost all the youthful luster of their early 20's (check out how much better Peters looked two years earlier in 'It Happens Every Spring' and Monroe before she became a blonde), yet Monroe was somehow able to transcend this and become a big star.

Arthur Miller said of Monroe: "She was rarely taken seriously as anything but a sex symbol. To have survived, she would have had to be either more cynical or even further from reality than she was. Instead, she was a poet on a street corner trying to recite to a crowd pulling at her clothes."

Though released on DVD as part of Fox's "Marilyn Monroe Collection", her role – playing the spirited, though obviously dumb, secretary at a printing factory headed by Albert Dekker – is actually very brief. The film is an amusing, Capraesque comedy about 65 year-old printer Monty Woolley who refuses to accept the age imposition which sends him into retirement. The plot involves him impersonating the President of the corporation which owns the factory, paying them an unexpected visit and making a speech in which he retracts the current policy – thus enabling Woolley the printer to get back his job! Complications arise when David Wayne (fiancé of Woolley's niece Jean Peters), who also works at the factory, recognizes him – but also with the attentions given Woolley by Dekker's neglected wife Constance Bennett. The film features a solid supporting cast which includes Allyn Joslyn (as Woolley's son), Thelma Ritter (as his wife, who's proud of her Brooklyn origins), Clinton Sundberg (as Wayne's ambitious colleague at the plant who could blow Woolley's cover at any moment), Minor Watson (as the real President of the conglomerate) and a young Russ Tamblyn (playing Dekker and Bennett's confused son). It's a pleasant enough diversion – adapted by Lamar Trotti from a Paddy Chayefsky(!) story – given Fox's typically polished (if fluffy) treatment.

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.

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

This is among my favorite "little movies"--movies that were small budget and about everyday people with everyday problems. The lead is played by the crotchety but very erudite Monty Woolley. Monty is forced to retire from his job as a printer due to his age, even though he still feels young and vigorous. Everyone around him seems to agree that retirement shouldn't be forced upon you if you are still able and willing to work, but no one in this large company where he works seems to be able to anything about this rule--especially since the company is actually controlled by a huge corporation. They just keep saying it's company policy and they would change it if they could--maybe he should talk the the guy in charge to get the rule changed someone suggests. Unfortunately, no one seems to know exactly who that is or how to find him. Out of sheer frustration, he hatches a plot to impersonate the company's CEO and make the changes himself! Unfortunately, this relatively simple plan snowballs and lots of unforeseen problems arise.

This is a brisk, cute movie that it sure to please. The acting is superb (I just love Woolley in films), the story well written and the film leaves you smiling.

PS--Get Marilyn Monroe OFF the Video Cover!!! She's barely in the movie at all--if you expect her, expect to be disappointed. Stupid advertising folks!