The Way of Youth

Irene Vanbrugh runs a gambling house in Paris. However, her fancy man, Henry Victor, has been collecting her debts and keeping them for himself. S she decides that it's time to pack it in and move to London, where things are better managed.... except that Victor tags along. When she realizes that her grandchild, Aileen Marson, has lost a lot of money at her tables, she reveals herself to the girl and lets her have money to enjoy herself. Victor sees an opportunity for himself, and the young girl sees her forthcoming marriage to Army officer Sebastian Shaw threatened.

It's enough to make one think of Henry James and his long-winded meditations on the suffocating details of upper-class life, except that none of the people we see on screen are shocked by this raging storm of outraged propriety. It's well acted, if rather pointless, and its year of production meant it never played in an American movie theater, where Joe Breen' might have had a stroke, even though no one ever does or says anything wrong, no one is hurt, and no one is punished for the cardinal sin of wearing a straw hat after September 15.

THE WAY OF YOUTH is a slow and rather unusually-plotted British drama about the perils of gambling and the negative effect it has on the lives of a young courting couple. Unfortunately it's one of the least interesting films I've watched from this era, as the viewer ends up feeling like the two central characters when they're sitting bored out of their mind fishing and suddenly realise the pointlessness of it all.

The back story is rather convoluted and involves a kindly grandmother who just so happens to run a gambling joint in Paris. The story sees her moving to London to reconnect with her estranged family, but the manager of the gambling joint (the delightfully named Monsieur Sylvestre) is a true rogue trying to rip everybody off. This pair get mixed up with a youthful tale of love, leading to confrontation for all involved.

The set-up does sound mildly intriguing but THE WAY OF YOUTH blows any kind of sense of momentum with long, drawn-out romantic scenes and indifferent dialogue which rings hollow. They should have made it more of an anti-gambling 'sensation' drama like they were doing in America. Diana Wilson is a very unappetising and unlikeable lead actress although Irene Vanburgh as her grandmother is a lot better. The youthful lead Sebastian Shaw was the guy who much, much later played the unmasked Darth Vader in RETURN OF THE JEDI. The worst part of the film is by far the excruciating piano-and-song number from the Western Brothers.

Irene Vanbrugh plays the owner of a casino in Paris who decides to move back to London where she can be close to her daughter and granddaughter.Also she decides to open a casino in London.The daughter is concerned about her daughter and marries an old suitor who lives in the country.The granddaughter is bored and is taken for a night up in the west end.She ends up at the gambling club run by her grandmother.She looses money and goes to write a cheque when her grandmother realises who she is.She was taken by her step brother to the club.He lost a lot of money and gives I o US to the manager.The manager attempts to blackmail him.The granddaughter tells her grandmother and then goes to see the manager.The manager will wipe the slate clean if she will go with him to Paris.The son who is supposed to marry the granddaughter finds her in the managers flat.Meanwhile the manager goes to the grandmother's flat where he is confronted by the son.The son is knocked out.Grandma finds out the managers plans and gets on the train back to Paris with him.The son is now able to marry his stepdaughter.What a lot of plot and much of it rather silly.By the way the Western Brothers are featured in one of their typical songs.