These Wilder Years

These Wilder Years marks the only teaming of James Cagney and Barbara Stanwyck. It would have been nice if they had been teamed for a better film. Can't you just see Stanwyck in Virginia Mayo's part in White Heat?

Still These Wilder Years is not a bad film, high class soap opera the kind of stuff that became popular on television in the Eighties.

James Cagney is a millionaire industrialist looking for the son whose paternity he denied when he was sowing his wild oats. Barbara Stanwyck runs the home for unwed mothers where the girl who Cagney was involved with came and gave up her kid for adoption.

Cagney has the resources to get his way, but Stanwyck with the confidentiality of adoption records has the law on her side. Or has she?

Walter Pigeon plays Cagney's attorney and Don Dubbins, a young actor whose career Cagney was pushing plays the son and both do well. Look for bit parts from Tom {BillyJack} Laughlin, Michael Landon, and Dean Jones all at the start of their careers.

Cagney and Stanwyck are both players with an edge to their parts. It's like they've been taken down into second gear for this film. Still it's a pleasant enough movie. Look for young Betty Lou Keim who is a current unwed mother in Stanwyck's charge. Her scenes with Cagney are quite poignant.

Not quite a weeper, These Wilder Years is one of those small-scale, thoughtful dramas that rarely if ever are made nowadays. It's about a steel tycoon (James Cagney) who, in mid-life crisis, tries to find the son he abandoned, along with the mother, twenty years earlier. Used to getting his own way by means of money and mouthpieces, he runs into the head of a home for what once were called "wayward girls" (Barbara Stanwyck). She refuses to bend to his charm, his money, or, finally, his legal talent (Walter Pidgeon).

The story -- possibly more resonant today than when it was released -- takes some unexpected (not to say far-fetched) turns; it's sentimental, all right, but stays on the dry side of mawkish. Its main problem is one of audience expectations. Starring two of the most powerful actors in the history of movies -- Stanwyck and Cagney -- it keeps them at half-throttle throughout. Of course they acquit themselves admirably: they're both seasoned troupers with a wide range. But the confrontational fireworks we hope for and expect never quite come. Nonetheless, These Wilder Years remains a solid and fairly credible film.

I was drawn to this, as I so often am with many TCM movies, by the cast, and was very impressed with the film as a whole. Dealing with the issue of adoption, it centers on an unmarried tycoon who seeks out his son, the offspring of the girl he abandoned in his youth. It is an intelligent script which deal sensitively with the competing rights and needs of adopted children and of biological parents. Cagney is wonderful as the tycoon, reminding us that he was a better actor than just his gangster roles would lead us to believe. Walter Pigeon is marvelous as the lawyer, and though I've never been a fan of Barbara Stanwyck, she and Cagney play beautifully against each other here. As some have said the plot is a bit contrived, but all stories are contrived to some extent. In this the relationships play out convincingly, and I found the ending genuinely touching. This overlooked gem is well worth watching.

With James Cagney's gangster phase at a close, ending beautifully with 1955's Love Me or Leave Me, he turned towards a different kind of role: a regular fellow. In These Wilder Years, he plays a successful businessman who decides he has everything he could ever want except the unfinished business of his past. Without a word of explanation to anyone but his faithful lawyer, Walter Pidgeon, James leaves work and travels to a small town and visits an orphanage. Turns out, he's looking for his son, who was adopted twenty years ago.

In case this sounds a little corny, give it a chance anyway. This one is completely worth watching. The plot moves steadily along, and with old pros like James Cagney and Barbara Stanwyck pitted against each other, they each bring a lot of emotion to the table. Barbara is stronger than she looks, and Jimmy holds more secrets than he first lets on. While trying to find his son, Jimmy also bonds with a teenager, Betty Lou Keim, who's pregnant and preparing for the difficult emotional decision of giving her baby to Barbara's orphanage.

There's so much to appreciate about this movie, and if you're a fan of the leads, this is a great transition movie to see them in the second half of their careers. Depending on how sentimental you're feeling, you might want to bring along a Kleenex.

This is by far from being a masterpiece; yet I don't consider it a yawn-fest as other reviewers describe. Yes, it's a melodrama. Yes, it certainly reeks of Hollywood's lobotomized treatment of illegitimate pregnancy and the adoption experience. But it is at least thoughtful and empathetic in its approach.

I would technically rate this film 5 out of 10; but because I've seen it several times and will certainly watch it again when on rotation on TCM, I'm bumping it up 2 stars to a 7. When what is in actuality an average movie seems to pop up on some network at regular intervals, it signals there's enough substance and likeability factor intrinsic to warrant repeated airings.

It's fun watching Stanwyck and Cagney together, and it's especially pleasant to see Cagney in a role wherein he doesn't chew up the scenery. I wouldn't rush to a theater to see it, but I respect it enough to watch it again.

Mainly for diehard Cagney fans, and for those who will watch anything in which Stanwyck is part of the cast.