By Frank Miller
Love Begins at Twenty
Brief Synopsis
A henpecked husband tries to help his daughter marry the man she loves and his wife loathes.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Frank Mcdonald
Director
Hugh Herbert
Horatio Gillingwater
Warren Hull
Jerry Wayne
Patricia Ellis
Lois Gillingwater
Hobart Cavanaugh
Jake Buckley
Mary Treen
Alice Gillingwater
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Adaptation
Release Date
Aug
22,
1936
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
First National Productions Corp.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play Broken Dishes by Martin Flavin (New York, 5 Nov 1929).
Technical Specs
Duration
57m
Synopsis
Horatio Gillingwater has a nagging wife, Evalina, and a boss, Jonathan Ramp, who takes advantage of him. When Ramp sends Horatio to the bank to deposit some bonds, he is robbed. Blaming Horatio, Ramp explains that he will have to pay back the amount of the bonds. Because of the robbery, Horatio is late getting home and, as she habitually does, Evalina angrily compares him to the man she should have married, Harold McCauley. Horatio's only defender is his daughter Lois, who is in love with Jerry Wayne, a man her mother does not like. After dinner, Evalina and Lois's sister Alice leave Horatio behind to wash the dishes while they go to the movies. Lois stays behind also, pleading a cold, so she can spend the evening with Jerry, who brings a bottle with him as an offering for Horatio. Under the influence of the alcohol, Horatio is persuaded to attend a lodge meeting with his friend Jake Buckley. The bank robbers are also at the meeting, hiding from the police, and slip the bonds into Horatio's coat pocket. Horatio, who is very drunk, fights with Ramp who fires him. Horatio and Jake then return home to find that Lois and Jerry are engaged. Taking advantage of Evalina's absence, Jerry sends for deaf Justice Felton, who Horatio thinks at first has come to arrest him for attacking Ramp. The wedding is completed just before Evalina and Alice return from the movies. She starts nagging immediately, then the police arrive to arrest Horatio and, finding the bonds, take him to jail. Faced with his loss, Evalina realizes that Horatio is really a good man. The robbers, having followed Horatio, break in to retrieve the stolen bonds and Evalina is embarrassed when she recognizes one of them, Mugsey O'Bannion, as her old boyfriend Harold McCauley. Jerry manages to capture the robbers and receives the reward for their capture. Jake testifies that he witnessed the crooks slipping the bonds into Horatio's jacket, and Jerry uses the false arrest to force Ramp to make Horatio a partner. Jerry and Lois leave for their honeymoon and Horatio, taking charge of his family, listens to a chastened Evalina apologize for her nagging.
Director
Frank Mcdonald
Director
Cast
Hugh Herbert
Horatio Gillingwater
Warren Hull
Jerry Wayne
Patricia Ellis
Lois Gillingwater
Hobart Cavanaugh
Jake Buckley
Mary Treen
Alice Gillingwater
Dorothy Vaughn
Evalina Gillingwater
Clarence Wilson
Jonathan Ramp
Robert Glecker
Mugsy O'Bannion also known as Harold McCauley
Anne Nagel
Miss Perkins
Arthur Aylesworth
Justice Felton
Sol Gorss
Jim
Henry Otho
Lumpy
Max Wagner
Lester
Tom Brower
Bert Hanson
Milton Kibbee
Wilbur
Tom Wilson
Fred
Harry K. Morgan
Drunken Lodge member
Francis Sayles
Policeman
Frank Bull
Police broadcaster
Jack Cheatham
Detective
John Webb Dillion
Detective
George Andre Berenger
Man in office
Tommy Bupp
Boy
Dickie Jones
Boy
Stuart Holmes
Conductor
Jack Wise
Cashier
Lee Prather
Trooper
Harry Hollingsworth
Trooper
Sam Rice
Bartender
Ferdinand Schumann-heink
Man in window
George Ovey
Gatekeeper at Lodge
Perc Teeple
Lodge member
Walter Downing
Lodge member
Heinie Conklin
Lodge member
Cliff Saum
Lodge member
Bert Ross
Lodge member
Crew
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Adaptation
Release Date
Aug
22,
1936
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
First National Productions Corp.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play Broken Dishes by Martin Flavin (New York, 5 Nov 1929).
Technical Specs
Duration
57m
Articles
Love Begins at Twenty
Booze makes the man in this B comedy from Warner Bros. Hugh Herbert, most often cast in small roles as comic relief, stars as a henpecked husband emboldened when daughter Patricia Ellis' secret boyfriend (Warren Hull) unwittingly gets him drunk. Before long he's standing up to his tyrannical boss (Clarence Wilson) and helping his daughter marry the man despite wife Dorothy Vaughan's disapproval. A bank robbery, a mistaken arrest and a shocking discovery by the Mrs. help fill out this fast-moving hour. Warner Bros. must have loved the plot, as this is the second of three film versions. The story debuted on Broadway in 1929 as Martin Flavin's Broken Dishes, starring Great White Way newcomer Bette Davis. Warner's bought the play (but not Davis, who initially went to Universal before becoming Warner's top female star) and filmed it first as Too Young to Marry (1931), with O.P. Heggie and Loretta Young as father and daughter. In 1940, they released another version, Calling All Husbands (1940), this time starring Ernest Truex and Lucile Fairbanks. The 1936 script for Love Begins at Twenty was an early effort from Dalton Trumbo, though it shows little of the social consciousness that would figure so strongly in his later films.
By Frank Miller
By Frank Miller
Love Begins at Twenty
Booze makes the man in this B comedy from Warner Bros. Hugh Herbert, most often cast in small roles as comic relief, stars as a henpecked husband emboldened when daughter Patricia Ellis' secret boyfriend (Warren Hull) unwittingly gets him drunk. Before long he's standing up to his tyrannical boss (Clarence Wilson) and helping his daughter marry the man despite wife Dorothy Vaughan's disapproval. A bank robbery, a mistaken arrest and a shocking discovery by the Mrs. help fill out this fast-moving hour. Warner Bros. must have loved the plot, as this is the second of three film versions. The story debuted on Broadway in 1929 as Martin Flavin's Broken Dishes, starring Great White Way newcomer Bette Davis. Warner's bought the play (but not Davis, who initially went to Universal before becoming Warner's top female star) and filmed it first as Too Young to Marry (1931), with O.P. Heggie and Loretta Young as father and daughter. In 1940, they released another version, Calling All Husbands (1940), this time starring Ernest Truex and Lucile Fairbanks. The 1936 script for Love Begins at Twenty was an early effort from Dalton Trumbo, though it shows little of the social consciousness that would figure so strongly in his later films.
By Frank Miller
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Bette Davis made her theatrical debut in the Broadway production of Martin Flavin's play. According to news items in Film Daily, Ross Alexander and Anita Louise were originally cast as the young lovers. In 1931 Warner Bros. filmed a version of the play entitled Too Young to Marry (see below). The 1940 Warner Bros. film Calling All Husbands was also based on the same source.
