Jamais trop tard

Film version of the hit Broadway play that ran for over 1,000 performances. Original stars Paul Ford and Maureen O'Sullivan repeat their stage performances as the middle-aged couple dealing with a surprise pregnancy.

Filmed in Concord, Massachusetts, this movie perfectly captures "small town" America just before the 60s went nuts. Affluent Harry and Edith Lambert live in a big house where Harry rants and fumes about everything, especially his daughter Katie (Connie Stevens) and her husband Charlie (Jim Hutton) who live with them. The young marrieds are just big children, depending on poor Edith to do everything for them (cook, clean, do laundry), until Edith breaks the news of her pregnancy.

To make matters worse here, Charlie works for Harry in his local business. As Harry and Edith grapple with the pregnancy, Katie and Charlie are forced to grow up and accept responsibility for their own lives. Sweet and funny, the domestic situations ring a bell even today with the trend of grown children who continue to live with their parents.

Ford and O'Sullivan are excellent. Hutton and Stevens are good. Co-stars include Lloyd Nolan as the mayor, Jane Wyatt as a family friend, Henry Jones as the doctor, Jesslyn Fax as the saleslady, Claude Stroud as the out-of-town friend, and Timothy Hutton as the boy.

When Warners bought the rights to the play, they intended to get big-name stars but eventually went with the original Broadway stars and it's a good thing. Ford and O'Sullivan know their characters inside out.

Warner Bros. Business plans seem to go like this produce a Frank Sinatra movie (with Sinatra having his own building on the lot, a Troy Donahue movie, and having the movie version of a hit play: My Fair Lady, Camelot, Music Man, A Majority Of One, Gypsy etc.

Jack Warner bought the movie rights to this play and Never Too Late WB wanted Spencer Tracy and Kate Hepburn to star but Tracy declined to to health and Kate wanted to be with Tracy. Other actresses such as Roz Russell, Susan Hayward,were considered for the role Maureen O Sullivan played.on the stag. The film was produced with Paul Ford and Maureen O' Sullivan with Connie Stevens getting 2md billing behind Ford. The Film was produced starring Paul Ford, and Connie Stevens and Jim Hutton and two lovely professional actresses Maureen O Sullivan and Jane Wyatt. Ms. Stevens worked her way up the ladder at WB first being Cricket Blake on Hawaiian Eye and then a series of WB movies with Troy Donahue: Parrish, Susan Slade and Palm Sprigs Weekend. This film brought Connie over the title star billing. She is gorgeous in this movie and was cast because she was lovely to look at and a fine actress. And because Ford and O Sullivan had no pull with teenage audiences. This comedy is enjoyable but not laugh out loud funny.

Jim Hutton free of his MGM contract worked steadily around town and was fine in this film. I can't say Jim Hutton ever gave a bad performance. Hutton worked with the best: Cary Grant, John Wayne, Steve McQueen, Burt Lancaster, Charlton Heston, Bob Hope, Roz Russell, George Peppard Lana Turner. Jane Fonda Yvette Mimieux, and most successfully Paula Prentiss.

This film was the subject of a lawsuit as the creators of this film objected to All In The Family as a riff off this storyline; they lost.

PS. This has nothing to do with Never Too Late but both Hutton and Stevens wanted to play they young couple in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf at WB. Jack Warner gave no encouragement to Hutton but told Stevens to talk to Mike Nichols to no avail.

Before Bud Yorkin and Norman Leer shot to fame for films such as "Start the Revolution Without Me" or TV shows like "All in the Family", they had a big stage success with "Never Too Late". And, unlike most Broadway shows that make it to the big screen, the starts of the play, Paul Ford and Maureen O'Sullivan, starred in BOTH!

The story is very simple. Edith is in her 50s and finds herself pregnant. However, oddly, her husband just seems to be in a very foul mood throughout the film...complaining about pretty much everything! You'd think he'd be happy and initially shocked...but his reaction just seemed bizarre and inappropriate. And, speaking of inappropriate, when the daughter and her husband hear about it, suddenly the daughter (Connie Stevens) insists she also wants a baby and her husband (Jim Hutton) also then spends the rest of the film complaining! And, after a while, I just got tired of it!

While the story is fun, at least initially, it just didn't seem the least bit realistic nor enjoyable. Yelling isn't comedy...and this is pretty much yelling from start to finish. It has some good moments here and there...but overall it left me flat.

By the way, if you watch the film, notice that they never use the word 'toilet' in the scene with the toilet. They also act as if it's something unmentionable. Too weird.

This film is a forgettable piece of fluff that's perfectly fine if, say, you're sick in bed and don't have many other options. Paul Ford plays the classic 1960's successful businessman but bumbling husband whose home life is a mess, and Maureen O'Sullivan is his long suffering wife who's gets pregnant in, I don't know, probably her mid- to late-50's. Connie Stevens is their daughter and Jim Hutton is their son-in-law, who bounce back and forth between being supportive and argumentative, whatever each particular scene requires. And apparently, the moral of the film is that political corruption pays off in the end.

If this sounds good to you, then go ahead and tee up this film. But I have to warn you: For the sweet love of all that is holy, fast forward through the horrible, horrible theme song. When I heard the opening theme, I literally started hating the movie already. The same song repeats during the ending credits, so get ready with the kill switch then, too.

In those early Sixties Kennedy years this play and film were big hits with an across the board appeal to generations, but particularly the senior citizen crowd. Paul Ford and Maureen O'Sullivan who repeated their roles from the 1007 performance run Broadway play show that those thought past their prime can still do some things totally unexpected.

Menopause was late coming in the Lambert household of Concord, Massachusetts because Maureen O'Sullivan has announced after a 20 year span after the birth of her daughter Connie Stevens that she is pregnant again. She and Paul Ford are about to be parents again at an age when they should be expecting their first grandchildren. That is of particular interest to Connie Stevens and her husband Jim Hutton who are trying ever so hard to get Connie in a family way.

But in general Ford who is a conservative man by nature is getting all kinds of Ooohs and Ahs from the town for his unexpected virility. His neighbor and rival Lloyd Nolan who is the mayor of the town is really ribbing him something awful.

Sight gags abound in Never Too Late usually involving Ford and his middle age paunch. There's a scene in the pediatric waiting room where Ford is sitting with a bunch of young fathers to be. There's another one in an elevator with Ford and a little girl and some pregnant women with the young girl drawing all kinds of conclusions.

In the non-visual category Ford and Hutton both really tie one on and a bit of truth telling emerges from the booze.

I remember seeing this in the theater back when it first came out and the timeless family situations make Never Too Late as fresh as it was when I first saw it. This could get a remake today and not lose a thing. But until then this fine version will suffice.