Un amour pas comme les autres

Hold on now... this isn't how it sounds. This is by far one of the richest and best performed roles made by Ms Day. Far from her usual happy go lucky character, which we do see, Day (Laurie) shines through a dark and true to life narrative. Accompanied by none other than Old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, both create a dynamic duo of dreams and one curses that they were never to come together again.

A truly beautiful story captured on film.

To be enjoyed alone or with close friends and family as feelings may be stirred and wine may be drunk. Can be watched again and again or saved for seasons of woe. Absolutely brilliant and a must see for any Day fan.

The three adult daughters of a Connecticut music teacher are anxious to encounter love and marriage. Each of them gets to the altar, but fate deals them some strange experiences along the way.

Laurie, Amy and Fran (Doris Day, Elisabeth Fraser and Dorothy Malone, respectively) choose men of widely contrasting personalities. Laurie plumps for Alex (Gig Young), the tall, handsome extrovert with musical ability. Fran settles for Bob, the dependable realtor (Alan Hale). If Amy's choice is a surprising one, it is ultimately vindicated by events. Then, of course, there is the surprise elopement ...

"Homes like these are the backbone of the nation," wisecracks Barney, the sarcastic interloper. His working-class Italian American sense of irony soon clashes with Laurie's blonde bourgeois rectitude. Barney describes himself as a 'stumblebum', and the part of the sharp-tongued loser is ideal for nighclub-singing, self-despising Frank Sinatra. "Pressed pants are constitutional in Connecticut," explains Laurie as she endeavours to reform the world-weary Barney, but Barney will never fit comfortably into Connecticut's refined social setting.

Songs are what the film is all about. No fewer than two songwriters attach themselves to the musical Tuttle girls, and the action is frequently punctuated by singing. Sinatra and Day even get to promote their latest Hit Parade offerings. The title song is deservedly famous, and Frankie does two excellent torch songs - the first in classic Sinatra mode, alone in a bar with an upright piano and a hat on the back of his head for a rueful rendition of Porter's "Just One Of Those Things", the other a night club crooning of the one and only "Set 'Em Up Joe".

The film has a great look. Shot by Director of Photography Ted McCord in a sumptuously rich Warnercolor, the images are pleasing to the eye. The 'puppy' scene which introduces Laurie to Alex is especially attractive. It seems always to have been a term of La Day's contracts that she must get to wear pretty clothes, and here the effect is sensational as she flounces past a blue house in a radiant orange New Look dress.

The set of the Tuttles' suburban avenue is breath-taking. A 'real' street with gardens and picket fences was constructed on Warners' back lot, and we see it transforming as the seasons turn. The location scene, the clam-bake on the beach, is one of the film's best-looking passages.

Though this is merely a popular musical, there are none the less some touches of artistic flair. As the theme song and the credits come to a close, Gregory Tuttle 'lifts' the tune from the titles and into the action by playing it on his flute in the living-room. Barney remains outside the circle of birthday well-wishers, showing us that this easy domestic affection is alien to him. The significance of Alex not being able to tie his knot is a nice little comment on what is about to unfold. Throughout the Christmas banter between Alex and the Tuttle clan, we see nothing of the action, because the camera remains doggedly fixed on the detached Barney, his reaction being the only one that matters to us.

There are few quibbles, and they are only minor ones. The pianist who doubles for Sinatra sits in a bolt-upright posture, totally unlike the Sinatra Slouch. Laurie's behaviour towards Alex is appalling, and unworthy of a romantic heroine. Consequently, the 'forgiveness' scene doesn't ring true. The method employed by Barney to solve everyone's problems, and its actual result, are utterly unbelievable.

Verdict - A homely, attractive musical with some outlandish plot elements.

Unconvincing musical drama, a remake of 1938's "Four Daughters", has bright, cheery Doris Day picking brooding Frank Sinatra for a suitor over bright and cheery Gig Young. She's hoping to cure Sinatra of his demons, of course, and isn't true love the best medicine after all? A corny, artificial outing, although one mounted with classy studio-style and featuring pleasant supporting characters and chipper family chit-chat. Still, Sinatra's dour mood and Young's attraction to Day (over one of her sisters, whose tender emotions are never quite dealt with) leaves one unsatisfied. It's certainly a well-scrubbed, family-oriented diversion, but the all melodrama the screenplay brings up seems wrong-headed, and sour Sinatra never fits in with this sunny family and he never clicks with Day. **1/2 from ****

A musicalization of a classic “woman’s picture” is about as unappetizing a prospect as can get for me film-wise, but the polished Hollywood expertise here wins out in the end and makes for a refreshing and appealing movie that I had long underestimated (it was shown several times on Italian TV but I never bothered with it).

Doris Day and, especially, Frank Sinatra are well-matched as star-crossed lovers in small-town America; Day comes from a classically-trained musical family headed by Robert Keith and including Dorothy Malone (with spinster aunt Ethel Barrymore watching maternally from the sidelines). Amiable popular music composer Gig Young bursts in on their quiet, happy family life (all the girls naturally fall for his charms) but this is further exacerbated by the belated introduction of his arranger pal, embittered long-time loser Frank Sinatra. The film’s narrative is largely made up of the romantic entanglements of the trio of girls (two of whom are engaged to local guys but pine for Young) while Day is longed for by Young but is immediately drawn to outsider Sinatra. Robert Keith is really no match for Claude Rains – who had played the father in Michael Curtiz’s original FOUR DAUGHTERS (1938) – but Sinatra does manage to make John Garfield’s star-making, Oscar-nominated turn his own.

Curiously enough, the screenwriters of YOUNG AT HEART – Julius J. Epstein and Lenore Coffee – were the very same duo who had earlier adapted FOUR DAUGHTERS to the screen; however, as is already apparent, the original movie had four daughters instead of three, the character names were also altered and the remake was even given a schmaltzy, happy ending! Naturally, both Day and Sinatra get to sing in the film but they only have a modest duo of sorts at the very end; incidentally, I was let down by the finale not just because of its improbable “all’s well that ends well” qualities but also because, after Sinatra is seen toiling at his magnum opus throughout the whole movie, the result is just a corny love song! At the very least, I was expecting the classic title tune to be it (which he does get to sing over the opening credits). Incidentally, he seems to have had a good working relationship with director Gordon Douglas – since they would reteam three more times in the next 14 years.

Once again Gordon Douglas deals with characters faced with moral dilemmas. In this case the three sisters and their infatuation with Gig Young, Doris Day's commitment to Frank Sinatra, and Sinatra's decision. From the opening scene of the neighborhood in which they live to the very end this movie is much more then it seems. Within the artificial look of the sets,there's no hiding the many themes that meander throughout this somewhat dark (musical?). For those who don't get it, take another look. These characters are far deeper then the picture perfect world they live in might make you believe.