Gaynor was fresh from her triumph in A Star Is Born (1937), which had earned her an Academy Award nomination (her second - she was a winner in the first Oscar® year, 1928) and revived her faltering career. Gaynor had been the top star at Fox in the silent and early sound years. Yet the studio had apparently lost interest in her as a new generation of stars like Loretta Young got the best roles. A Star Is Born was Gaynor's first film after she left Fox.
Selznick originally wanted stage legend Maude Adams (Broadway's original Peter Pan) to play Miss Fortune, and she made a screen test, but eventually declined the role. He then turned to another legendary stage actress, Laurette Taylor who also tested and also declined. (Both tests still exist. Adams' test, which she made with Gaynor, was shown in 2007 at a Gaynor centenary retrospective at film archives and museums around the country.) The role went to another theater veteran, Minnie Dupree, who had made her stage debut in 1887 at the age of 12, and had played her first starring role in 1900. The Young in Heart was Dupree's feature film debut. She would appear in only one other film, Anne of Windy Poplars (1940), in a minor role, before returning to the stage.
Two other newcomers of note also appeared in The Young in Heart. The film introduced Richard Carlson as Gaynor's love interest. He would go on to a long career in film and television. Paulette Goddard, who plays Fairbanks' boss and girlfriend, had been playing bit parts for years when Charlie Chaplin cast her in the lead of Modern Times (1936). The Young in Heart was her next film.
The Young in Heart was one of several films in production at Selznick International Studios as the producer prepared for his magnum opus, Gone With the Wind (1939) and searched for his Scarlett O'Hara. Goddard tested for Scarlett, as had many actresses in Hollywood, and for awhile, she seemed to have the inside track. She certainly had the looks and the spirited personality, if not the acting experience. More worrisome was Goddard's private life. She was living with Chaplin, but both were evasive about whether or not they were married. Selznick's publicity expert Russell Birdwell warned his boss in a memo that the couple's questionable marital status was "dynamite waiting to explode." Still, Selznick felt that director George Cukor could coach Goddard into giving a good performance, and he was leaning towards giving her the role anyway. That was before Vivien Leigh sauntered onto the set of the burning of Atlanta sequence and blew everyone away.
As was the case with all Selznick productions, The Young in Heart had a first-class production design. Art director Lyle Wheeler created some lavish sets, including a glamorous nightclub. Wheeler even custom-designed the Flying Wombat, placing it on the body of a Chrysler that belonged to the son of pickle magnate H.J. Heinz. The finished vehicle cost $12,000.
The original ending of the film, like that of the Saturday Evening Post serial on which it was based, was downbeat. But preview audiences hated that ending, so Selznick reassembled the cast and shot a new, happy ending. Critics were pleased with the results. Variety called it "a beautiful and deeply touching picture.... the fragile story is never permitted to lapse into bathos." According to Time magazine, "The Young in Heart never permits its audience much doubt about how the lion & lamb relationship of its major characters will resolve itself. However, if it has often been told before, the story has rarely been told better.... [It is] the wittiest and most civilized cinema comedy of the year."
Producer: David O. Selznick
Director: Richard Wallace
Screenplay: Paul Osborn; Charles Bennett (adaptation); I.A.R. Wylie (serial "The Gay Banditti")
Cinematography: Leon Shamroy
Art Direction: Lyle R. Wheeler
Music: Franz Waxman; Heinz Roemheld (uncredited)
Film Editing: Hal C. Kern
Cast: Janet Gaynor (George-Anne Carleton), Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (Richard Carleton), Paulette Goddard (Leslie Saunders), Roland Young (Col. Anthony 'Sahib' Carleton), Billie Burke (Marmy Carleton), Minnie Dupree (Miss Ellen Fortune), Henry Stephenson (Felix Anstruther), Richard Carlson (Duncan Macrae), Lawrence Grant (Mr. Hutchins), Walter Kingsford (inspector), Eily Malyon (Sarah), Tom Ricketts (Andrew), Irvin S. Cobb (Mr. Jennings), Lucile Watson (Mrs. Jennings), Margaret Early (Adele Jennings).
BW-90m.
by Margarita Landazuri
