Under Eighteen (1931) User Reviews (18)

a little pre-code melodrama

[postmanwhoalwaysringstwice · 7/10 · 7 December 2006]

The depression era drama "Under Eighteen" tells the story of Margie, a charming young woman in her late-teens with a heart of gold who wishes for something more for herself and her mother, who she supports with the little she can scratch together as a seamstress.

A damper is put on her plans when her pregnant older sister brings along her somewhat abusive deadbeat husband and young baby to live with them. Things are complicated further when Margie tries to scrounge some cash together to help her sister pay the impending divorce attorney (although a brief allusion is also made to an abortion). What lengths will she go to for money to help her family?

"Under Eighteen" is an interesting film with snappy dialogue that follows a surprisingly empowered female lead through several chance encounters. References are made to several taboo subjects of the time, but it's not as out and out salacious as might be expected from the title, but the film certainly winks at the audience a number of times as it hints at what's really on it's mind.

Great precode that broaches one particularly daring subject

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 25 April 2010]

Though it only has one star usually associated with Warner Brothers in the early 1930's - Warren William - and even he has a supporting role in relation to the now forgotten Regis Toomey, this film is just bursting with the attitude of precode Warner Brothers.

It's subject is very definitely the depression and specifically how fortunes quickly changed for families when the male head of the household died. The beginning of the film is full of hope as the movie opens on the wedding day of Sophie (Anita Page), oldest daughter in the Evans family. However, three still-shots later - Dad's grave stone reading 1872-1928, a room for rent sign, and a pawn broker's store sign, and the audience is standing in the middle of a crowded tenement neighborhood in New York City in 1931. Youngest daughter Margie is working as a seamstress, living in a complete dump with her mother, and her boyfriend is making annoying happy talk about how their next big break is just around the corner. What is just around the corner is that sister Sophie, her husband Alf (Norman Foster), and their baby are moving into Margie and Mom's cramped quarters because they have just lost everything. Worse, Alf doesn't think that getting a regular job is a priority.

The daring subject that is insinuated here but never mentioned specifically is abortion. After Alf hits Sophie when she objects to him taking what little money they have and betting on himself in a billiards tournament, she reveals to Margie that she wants a divorce from loafer Alf, and furthermore she's pregnant again. Margie talks about taking her to someone the other girls have talked about, and you do see her talking to a lawyer next, but you've got to wonder what else happened since that baby is never mentioned again.

Unfortunately the girls are shocked to find out from the lawyer that a divorce costs 200 dollars, which they don't have. Margie has two places she can go for the money - her boyfriend, who has 800 dollars saved to start his own business but is dead-set against divorce under any circumstances, much more so against financing one. She could also go to playboy millionaire Raymond Harding (Warren William) who took a liking to Margie when he saw her stand in as a model at the fashionable dress shop where she works. He would certainly give her the money, but what will she have to do in return? This film is headed to a dark depression precode outcome when several credible good things happen and one rather outlandish thing happens that results in a rather preposterous happy ending. It's sad to think that Marian Marsh's career never really went anywhere. I've found her a delight in the three films in which I've seen her - Svengali, Beauty and the Boss, and this one. I'd recommend it to anybody who likes the precodes.

A straight up drama about two girls trying to make it in New York--and a fabulous party scene

[secondtake · 7/10 · 11 August 2014]

Under 18 (1931-22)

A light-hearted comedy drama with a few very serious moments. It's a sincere and touching story about two sisters trying to make it in the poor tenements of New York. They each have a man from the same neighborhood, one a loafer (and pool shark) and the other a sweet and goofy grocery delivery driver. Mom lives with one of the sisters who is the title character, a bit young to know what she wants.

But not too young for the rich ladykilling man who sees the girl modeling an expensive fur. Which leads, roundabout, to the highlight of the movie, and twenty minute frenzy on the roof of a tall building in Manhattan. This pool party is a real height of the Roaring Twenties as they were winding into the early Depression. It's pure wild decadence, and director Archie Mayo really knew how to ramp it up without getting totally obscene. Great stuff.

And a great contrast with the humble lives of the impoverished stars. None of the leading ladies or their men are names most of us recognize (the main star, Marian Marsh, has several great films to her name, namely "Svengali" and "Crime and Punishment"). It's Warren William, the rich fellow, who is the most famous of the bunch, and he's always a hoot to watch, slyly winning over women despite (or because of) his age.

But there is another serious side to all of this, and that is the trap women faced then (far less than now) in having to find a man to help survive economically. The Depression has clearly made jobs scarce, even in New York (which was still humming in some ways). When Marsh's sister realizes her new husband would rather play pool than work, things go bad—and get worse when she has a child. So Marsh sees the folly of marriage even though her own boyfriend is a decent chap with a job. This fairly realistic portrayal of life at the time is the largest part of the movie.

The party, however, is the most fun, and I would say you could, if impatient, skim ahead to that section, a little after halfway, and just see the craziness of the times. It reminded me of "Madame Satan" which uses the same kind of party—in a blimp—that is so wild and compelling it makes you wonder why these kinds of scenes disappeared by the time of the Hays Code.

There is a slightly awkward feel to the script throughout the film, unfortunately, and the acting of some of the lesser characters is fair but not great, bringing the whole thing down to earth. Still, the best of it…well, give it a shot. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

precode with Warren William

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 7 March 2015]

Someone said on this board that they liked the film but were uncertain was to the plot for most of the film. Actually, that person is correct, now that I think about it. I read the plot so I knew what it was supposed to be, but actually that plot didn't unfold right away.

Margie, played by the beautiful Marian Marsh, lives with her mother and wants nothing more than to get her out of the hot apartment and into someplace cool. It's summer in New York - I've lived there, and for those who have "summer in New York" needs no explanation. Just add, "in 1929" and you have an idea of the suffering of these people.

Margie's boyfriend Jimmie is relentlessly cheerful, which aggravates Margie even more. Then the final blow -- her sister Sophie (Anita Page), her sister's unemployed husband, and their baby move in with them. The couple bickers constantly because Sophie's husband can't seem to find a job.

Margie ends up modeling a fur for a wealthy man, Mr. Harding (Warren William) in the salon where she works, and really catches his eye. The coat went for $16,000. I looked it up in today's money. Six figures. Well, $16,000 isn't exactly cheap now.

Margie notices some of the models in the shop are kept by wealthy men. She actually starts to consider it. Then Sophie's husband hits her, and Sophie wants a divorce. But the lawyer costs $200. Margie tries to get it from her boss, who refuses; Jimmie has it but he won't give it to her so her sister can get a divorce.

Finally, she goes to see Mr. Harding, who is in the midst of a wild party. This is the best scene in the film. Boy, were they having fun.

This is an okay movie, but supposedly the studio had high hopes for it. When it didn't become a massive hit, it hurt Marsh's career. However, I don't believe she cared all that much about acting. She was in it to help her family, and once she married, she retired.

The end of this film is fun but strange. Warren William as usual is marvelous. He could be sly, mean, funny -- he's one reason I love TCM as it gives people an opportunity to see him. He died in 1948 at the age of 53.

Marian Marsh is adorable here, with an angelic and doll-like beauty which she showed to good advantage as Trilby in Svengali. When John Barrymore asked her if anyone had commented on her resemblance to his then wife, Delores Costello, she said yes, the butcher who gave her liver for her cat had remarked upon it.

Worth seeing for the performances.

The Perils of Two Blonde Sisters in 1930's New York

[HarlowMGM · 6/10 · 5 December 2006]

Marian Marsh was a creamy complexion blonde ingénue best remembered for playing Trilby opposite John Barrymore's SVENGALI in 1930. Warner Bros. briefly considered her star material in the early 1930's, needlessly to say this gentle starlet did not last long on the mean streets of Warners although she had a surprisingly long career as a B movie lead that lasted into the early 1940's. She was at the height of her fame in 1931 when Warners starred her in UNDER EIGHTEEN, a drama about a young girl who considers the primrose path.

The movie is remarkably tame for a pre-code with Miss Marsh's virtue never really compromised or in doubt. Miss Marsh is a pleasant performer but it's easy to see how audiences of the era were underwhelmed by her compared to so many charismatic actresses starring at the time. She's also overshadowed here in the acting department at least by her MGM contemporary, lovely Anita Page, borrowed from Metro to play the older (age 21!) sister who learns marriage ain't quite all wedding cake especially when you have a husband who won't work and is not above smacking you one. (The movies' most shocking scene is the suggestion that Anita is considering having an abortion rather than have another child for a man who won't support the first one. It's never stated outright but clearly suggested. "I know where to go from girls at work for things like that," Marian volunteers, but after teasing us with Marian's hand scanning down on the list of business offices on a building directory wall with "doctor" among them, she stops at "attorney", thus showing us she meant she would help her get representation for the divorce.) It's Anita's dilemma in fact that causes Marion to wonder if does any good to be a good girl and Marian's desperation to get the $200 (rather pricey for the era) needed for Anita to obtain a divorce that causes her to turn to presumably big bad wolf Warren William.

There's a remarkable unintentionally comic sequence when maid Marian goes up to Billy boy's art deco penthouse where a pool party with a bunch of fairly sauced party goers is in full swing (the depravity!), playboy Warren informs her this is just a typical night with his friends and instructs his butler to get the new chick a swimsuit, leading Marian to a room well stocked with swimwear and robes for visiting females.

But wait, Marian's virtuous boyfriend, milkman Regis Toomey is on the way to rescue his girl from this den of iniquity and gives WW a rather mild punch that sends the maligned lech to death's door but since he really isn't a bad egg he survives (old Reg turns out was no dangerous pug, Warren merely had eaten some bad shrimp!!) and so our lovebirds are happily reunited and we also learn sister Anita off-camera has been happily reunited with hubby Norman Foster who has won $1,000 in a pool tournament (and another $500 besides for betting on himself!!) Of course, the fact that bro in law had earlier in the film LOST his pool hall and savings in an earlier bit of gambling is conveniently forgotten.

The cast is pretty good here but the billing on the film is curiously strange. J. Farrell MacDonald as the girls' father keels over minutes into the film but is billed high whereas mom Emma Dunn has quite a large part but isn't billed at all. Similarly, Joyce Compton is billed quite high for a part so small I didn't notice she was in the picture on first viewing.

The picture may not be for the history books, but the star starlets sure were survivors. Marian Marsh passed away last month, November 2006, at age 93, while Anita Page is still with us at age 96.

A Lot of Promises - But None Are Kept!!!

[kidboots · 7/10 · 1 February 2011]

Marian Marsh should have had a bigger career - she had a doll-like prettiness, was sweet and when the role called for it (ie "Five Star Final" (1931)) a good little actress. "Under 18" had been given a lot of publicity but failed dismally at the box office and when Marian rebelled, Warners unceremoniously dumped her. She then started the uncertain path of freelancing. It"s not hard to understand why the public stayed away. The theme was typical of a lot of movies at the time - the plight of the poor working girl, faced with mountainous problems and no money - what's a girl to do? The publicity may have talked this up, the title "Under 18" was lurid but a tease and had nothing to do with the plot. Were Warners really going to let their sweet little ingenue, Marian Marsh, find the money she needs (for her sister's divorce) "the easiest way" - not on your life!!! The movie promised much but didn't deliver, anyway Constance Bennett had the market cornered on these types of movies - at least she really sinned before she saw the light!!!

Margie Evans (Marian Marsh) hopes, some day, to find the same happiness as her sister, Sophie (Anita Page) who is about to marry her dream man Alf (Norman Foster). A few years down the track, Alf is a loafer who is allergic to work and if ever a wife could drive her husband around the bend it is Sophie, who has turned into a nagging drudge. They turn up at Margie and her mother's flat and within a few days have turned Margie from a contented, soon to be married (to Jimmie) starry eyed girl to one who desperately wants to escape the drudgery of tenement life. (A weird thing - when Sophie arrives at the flat she is carrying a baby in her arms but the next morning the baby has turned into a toddler!!!)

When all the girls are at lunch, Margie, who is a seamstress, is asked to model a fur coat for playboy about town, Raymond Harding (Warren William makes the most of a supporting role) and his latest flame (Claire Dodd). Nothing comes of it but when Sophie announces she is fed up with Alf and wants a divorce, Margie remembers Raymmond's kindness (he sent her mother some flowers) and goes to him for a loan (the lawyer has asked for a $200 fee). She goes to his penthouse - he happens to be throwing a pool party and after a few "suggestive" scenes including bathing suits and peignoirs, Jimmie (Regis Toomey) bursts in. He is angry and goes to give Margie a good slap, then decides to hit Raymond instead. Raymond falls to the ground and suddenly it looks as though Jimmie is facing a murder charge!!

The movie juggles it's moods between high drama and hijinks. For a movie made before the code it did not deliver on it's promises. For every scene of Marsh in a moral conflict, the next shows her snuggling contentedly up to Jimmie in the front seat of his bread van, whistling "Happy Days Are Here Again". Talking pictures showed up Page's limitations as an actress. The hysteria and dramatics that worked so well and got her noticed in "Our Dancing Daughters" and "Our Modern Maidens", didn't seem to work in "Under Eighteen". I also recognised beautiful, but uncredited Lillian Bond as a disheveled girl in an elevator.

Recommended.

Super-entertaining and fun to watch despite not exactly being an aesthetically great film

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 1 January 2007]

This is a very entertaining film and I enjoyed it very much, though I am quick to admit that it was far from sophisticated or polished. In so many ways, this is a wonderful example of a so-called "pre-Code" style of film--since it features story lines and dialog that would have been forbidden in Hollywood just a few years later thanks to pressure to actually enforce a rigid code of conduct and standards in film. Much of this pressure was not just from civic groups, but also due to flagging ticket sales, as the often explicit pre-Code films did well in urban areas but alienated so many other viewers. By today's standards, this film is relatively tame, but it's jaded views on marriage and sex may catch many today by surprise due to its frankness!

The film starts with the younger sister (Margie) seeing her older sister get married and set off on the perfect life. However, soon afterwords, her father dies and she and her mother are forced to move to a low-rent apartment and life is a struggle. A bit later, her happy older sister and her husband and baby arrive--apparently the husband is really a lazy good-for-nothing and married life for sis is a living hell! In fact, throughout the first half of the movie, Margie is bombarded with so many messages that being a "nice girl" just doesn't pay and the way to get ahead is to sleep your way out of poverty! Granted that most times there is a friend or co-worker or boyfriend Jimmy who insists that in the long run this isn't true, but this view is definitely hard to believe based on how happy and successful the "bad girls" all seem to be! So, eventually, Margie feels compelled to try her hand at being bad--or at least by being a bit bad--by chasing rich playboy, Raymond Harding. Harding appears to be a very rich lecher and he seems so smitten with Margie that she seems sure to get the $200 she needs for her sister to divorce her rotten husband.

The end of the movie is very satisfying to watch on one level but intellectually it seems like it was all very contrived. In other words, in the last few minutes of the film, the viewer was bombarded with a ton of wonderful endings that wrapped everything up too well to be believed. Few of these elements could rationally be believed, but for EVERYTHING to work out perfectly is a bit hard to accept. Plus, the final message of "nice girls really DO finish first" is muddled, as for so many bad girls in the film, they really did seem to end up better than the average nice lady!

By the way, despite the title, there is no indication from the film that Margie or anyone else is underage and committing some sin! While Marian Marsh ("Margie") does look young, she seems to be playing a woman about 18 (her actual age at the time) and there's no mention of her being underage. I think the title was applied rather randomly--just in a jaded effort to encourage ticket sales due to salacious expectations by the audience! Also, Ms. Marsh just died last November--at the ripe old age of 93. Her older sister in the film, Anita Page, from what I can determine is still alive and as of 1/07, is in her 96th year!

Happy Days are Here Again!

[Alix1929 · 10/10 · 3 January 2003]

This song was popular in the depression, so it's not a big surprise that one of the characters in this movie whistles it on the way to work. By the end of this movie, "happy days ARE here again," but for most of the picture you sure wouldn't think so! Directed by the capable Archie Mayo, this movie offers a chance for viewers today to see a wonderful contrast between the have and have nots of the 1930's.

Young Margie (played by Marian Marsh) who must be "under eighteen," works to help support her family now that her father has died. The family now consists of her older sister Sophie (Anita Page), her husband Alf, and their little baby. Margie is a seamstress in a NYC shop that makes and sells fashionable gowns. Margie's nobody's dummy--she sees the beautiful models attracting rich sugar daddies and dreams of the life she could have...if only! Her poor-but-honest-and-hard-working boyfriend, Jimmy (Regis Toomey) offers her stability and respectability , which she accepts until Sophie shows her a side of married life that is undesirable. One day at work, she meets ladies man Howard Raymond (Warren William), gets the opportunity to model a beautiful fur coat for him, and he charms her. A swiss cheese sandwich, an invitation to his penthouse, and a desperate need for money lead to trouble for Margie.

This pre-Code is rich in 1930's flavor. Raymond's penthouse apartment is an Art Deco delight, while the apartment where Margie's family lives is the exact opposite. Warren William is an absolute standout as the seducer of young women, a role he played many times, but no time better than in this movie! When young Margie shows up at his penthouse, he is outside on the roof, swimming in his pool. He invites her to stay and swim with the comment, "Take off your clothes and stay awhile." I was lucky to accidentally catch this movie on TCM. It doesn't show very often, but would be certainly worth your time, if it appears in the line up again.

a week in the life of Margie

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 2 December 2014]

Pretty fun story, but I wasn't really sure what the plot of the story was for most of the film; Margie (Marian Marsh) helps her sister (Anita Page) get married off; then we flash back to a hot city street, with Margie, her boyfriend Jimmie (Regis Toomey) and the neighbors squawking about how hot and miserable they are; it's 1929, everyone is suffering during the depression. Margie is working to get by , but we see everyone around them is either very rich and getting richer, or very poor and getting poorer (just like today. not much has changed.) We spend an awful lot of time talking about how hard it is to get by these days. I guess its a set up for things to come. She almost gets her big break modeling a fur in her salon, where she meets wealthy Mr. Harding (Warren William). Where were we? Oh yeah, the sister Sophie gets walloped by the husband, and wants a divorce. Margie runs all over town asking everyone for a loan for the divorce lawyer. She seems to be more concerned about getting the money than her sister is. Bad stuff happens. Good stuff happens. Strong, clever ending, which kind of redeems the film. It's kind of a "week in the life of Margie" story. Directed by Archie Mayo, who directed comedies (A Night in Casablanca) and serious films (Petrified Forest). He had started in 1917, pretty near the beginning of the film industry. Story by husband and wife team Frank Dazey and Agnes Johnston. Looks like they wrote some of the later adventures of Andy Hardy.

A missed opportunity

[1930s_Time_Machine · 4/10 · 9 September 2022]

I expected this to be better. It's an old-style melodrama but misses its mark in contrasting the lives of the haves and the have-nots of depression drenched New York. It's not boring but it feels very superficial and lacks the grit, dirt and despair which you know was really there. Everyone is a just little too nice.

It was made to cheer folks up, it wasn't meant to be a scathing attack of social inequalities and government incompetence which is understandable considering when it was made. It wasn't made for us, it was made to a standard formula for a very different population who wanted uplifting. As such, other than as a snapshot of the bland pulp fiction being served up in 1931, there's not much in this for us.

One thing which is totally unforgivable is the stylist who put Warren William in that absurd swimming costume -surprised he ever worked again after wearing that!

Great old time movie, goofy ending. Nice fashions throughout

[mitchflorida · 9/10 · 8 December 2006]

First of all this was a Warner Brothers film.

One of several Pre-Code dramas helmed by Warner Bros. contract director Archie Mayo in 1932, Under Eighteen is a cautionary tale for the working girl that was lost in the shuffle of too many similar programmers released that same year. Seen today, it provides a unique window into the past when studios like Warner Bros. catered to blue collar audiences, particularly women, with movie plots that mirrored situations and circumstances in the lives of their audience.

Under Eighteen opens on a hopeful note with Sophie (Anita Page) getting married to Alf (Norman Foster) and moving out of the cramped tenement apartment she shares with her sister Marge (Marian Marsh) and her mother. The mood quickly changes to despair as Marge considers her circumstances and realizes that marriage is not necessarily the answer to the grinding poverty she experiences day after day. This becomes even more pronounced when Sophie, Alf and their newborn baby move back in with them because Alf lost his job and won't look for a new one; he keeps blowing the little money they have on billiard tournaments in bars, hoping he'll win the big cash prize. The situation becomes unbearable for Sophie once she realizes she is pregnant with a second child. She begs Marge to help her raise the money for a divorce lawyer, all of which helps convince Marge that she won't make the same mistakes. Her fiancé Jimmie (Regis Toomey), a delivery boy who aspires to start his own delivery service, wants to tie the knot and doesn't share Marge's dismal view of matrimony. In her opinion, "Marriage is a bunk, at least for poor people." Soon Marge postpones her wedding plans with Jimmie and sets her sights on raising money for her sister's divorce lawyer by using herself as collateral in a deal she proposes to Howard Raymond (Warren William), a well-known tycoon and notorious ladies' man. Marge goes to his penthouse apartment, where a decadent rooftop party is in full swing, and begins to succumb to the inhibition-free atmosphere. When Marge and Howard finally retire to his private suite, however, their rendezvous takes a surprisingly unexpected turn.

More than anything else, Under Eighteen is an impressive showcase for Marian Marsh (best known for her role as Trilby in Svengali [1931]), who displays both fearless determination and raging self-doubt as the desperate Marge. The film builds suspense and a growing tension over what lengths Marge will go to help her sister. And it offers a grimly realistic view of the options available for women born and raised in the slums. This isn't an escapist fantasy but the flip side of the working girls glimpsed in Gold Diggers of 1933. For most of the film, the camera captures the squalid details of tenement life: people sleeping on fire escapes on sweltering summer nights, the congested sidewalks and never-ending street traffic, the rented rooms with walls so thin you can hear the neighbors through them.

Though not as sordid or as entertainingly racy as other Pre-Code movies such as Baby Face (1933) or Employees' Entrance (1933), Under Eighteen has its share of frisky behavior and sexual innuendos, particularly during the penthouse pool party scene. Warren William, who specialized in playing lecherous employers and rich philanderers, is right in his element here. When he welcomes Marge to his alcohol-fueled roof party, he says, "Why not take off your clothes and stay awhile?" Prior to that, he is glimpsed bobbing up and down suggestively in the water with a drunken female guest on a phallic-like float so we know his intentions are strictly dishonorable.

For a Pre-Code film, Under Eighteen does have a surprisingly false and unrealistic denouement that smacks of studio compromise and Breen Office censorship. The movie, however, was actually made before the Code was strictly enforced so that was probably the result of screenwriters Charles Kenyon and Maude Fulton trying to give the movie a happy ending. Marge emerges from Raymond's penthouse with her virtue intact because he has a change of heart and decides to not take advantage of such a pure innocent. She now happily accepts her fate and agrees to marry Jimmie and move to New Jersey. And most astonishing of all, Alf finally wins the big billiards tournament and whisks his pregnant wife, child and mother-in-law off to Atlantic City for a vacation followed by an undeniably bright future. Audiences won't be fooled though. We know Alf will be back to his old tricks as soon as the money runs out and that Marge will always wonder what her life would have been like if she had actually acted on her defiant promise to herself: "I've made up my mind that anytime I hand myself over to a man for life, it's cash on delivery."

Snappy dialog and strong cast, but horrible ending

[gbill-74877 · 7/10 · 28 May 2017]

What a ridiculous title. Ignore it, it has nothing to do with this movie about two sisters, one of whom (Anita Page) is married to an abusive deadbeat (Norman Foster), and the other of whom (Marian Marsh) is dating a humble deliveryman (Regis Toomey). As Marsh witnesses Page's marriage and her need for money for a divorce, she resolves to marry for money instead of love, and later catches a rich man's eye (Warren William) when she fills in for a model. She goes up to William's wild penthouse pool party where William practically salivates over her, asking her to swim in his suave voice by saying "Why not take off your clothes and stay awhile?" He's great in the film, and it's a pretty strong cast. There are the seemingly requisite pre-code underwear scenes, as well as some pretty snappy 30's dialog between the couples, which keep the film entertaining, but I hated the way the film played out, so it's a mixed bag for me.

Pre-code elements save bland melodrama

[a_chinn · 5/10 · 8 April 2017]

This pre-code film was not quite as scandalous as I'd expected based upon the title, but it still delivers some pre-production code bits you wouldn't see on film for another 40 something years, including divorce, ladies undressing, drunken parties and wife beating. Archie Mayo directed this story a about the young Marian Marsh who refuses to marry her milk truck driver boyfriend because she doesn't want to live in poverty like her older sister. Forgettable, but the pre-code elements made it worth watching.

A Charming pre-Code Story

[atlasmb · 9/10 · 2 December 2014]

"Under 18" is a charming pre-Code film that includes the best of the genre: beautiful art deco sets, stunning period fashions, and scenes that were titillating for their time.

According to notes in the bio of Ms. Marsh, the film was not a critical success, but I do not understand why. The film's best asset is the performance of Marian Marsh herself, who is cute as a Kewpie doll. She plays Margie, a seamstress in the back room of Maison Ritz--a couture fashion house--where she is enthralled by the happenings in the front salon, where rich men bring their women to select expensive gowns and furs.

Margie's friends and relatives exist on the lower end of the financial spectrum, trying to get ahead. Her boyfriend, Jimmy, is an optimist. He always tells her that good times are just around the corner. But when times get worse, Margie is tempted to take a short cut.

In 1931, as skyscrapers captured the imagination of the public, it must have felt like there were two worlds--the life of penthouse luxury that existed in the sky and the life of the hoi polloi down on street level. This film captures that concept very well (similar to Fitzgerald's vision of a distant, unattainable East Egg in "The Great Gatsby").

There is nothing about this film that I would criticize. It offers a wonderful view of the life and times of the early thirties, including the changing mores that some saw as opportunity and others saw as the demise of traditional values.

A Pre-Code Without Any Fire

[Michael_Elliott · 27 June 2011]

Under 18 (1931)

** (out of 4)

A rather bland Pre-Code from Warner doesn't live up to any of its hype especially when you see the cast, the story and the innuendo in the title. Margie Evans (Marian Marsh) lives in poverty and thinks that marriage is the one way out but when her older sister (Anita Page) gets married and still lives poor, she sees another chance of making good. At her factory she learns that rich men can give women what they want with a few "favors" and Margie meets a possible candidate in the womanizing Raymond Harding (Warren William). The story, the title, the suggestive language and throw in Marsh, Page and William and yet the end result is still rather bland and boring. I was really surprised to see how tame and uninteresting this Pre-code was and it really does seem like the studio was trying to do a Pre-code without all the naughty stuff. When I say naughty there's certainly not going to be anything X-rated but if you're a fan of this genre then you know Warner was the king and could deliver perfect entertainment. Several things struck me about this production and the majority of it goes back to the screenplay. The story is rather tame and for the life of me I couldn't understand some of the twists and turns in the story. I won't give away the ending but what happens to the William's character is just downright silly and it gets even double with yet another twist. The main female character is just as confusing because she sells herself so that her sister can get a divorce and you have to wonder what the point of this was since you could have had the sister being unhappy and going into the arms of William to get a divorce. At just under 80-minutes there's quite a bit of dialogue with some of it being funny but the majority of it just doesn't contain enough spice to make up for everything else going on. Marsh is pretty good here even though the screenplay doesn't offer her too much. Those who have seen the Edward G. Robinson film FIVE STAR FINAL will remember the charming Marsh. William is doing William like no one else could and Page is always entertaining even if she spends most of her screen time just fighting with the husband. The sexuality level is pretty low throughout even though it's hinted at at times. UNDER 18 has all the elements for a good Pre-code but sadly the screenplay gets lost one scene after another and in the end you can't help but see it as a disappointment.

Failed to Close a Loop

[view_and_review · 2/10 · 9 February 2024]

It seems Regis Toomey was born to play the male moral voice. He's such a square (and a poor actor) that directors probably only see one thing. I've seen him in many movies and I can't think of any role in which he was other than the moral voice, usually to a woman (see "Framed" and "Shopworn"). Now, again he is the moral voice, this time to Margie (Marion Marsh).

Margie Evans was like a lot of young girls, full of dreams. She wanted to get out of the low rent part of New York she was living in. She wanted nice things and she wanted love and marriage. But, like a lot of young people, she was fickle. By that I mean she was easily persuaded. One minute she wanted to be married and the next minute the idea of marriage repulsed her. When her beau Jimmie Slocum (Regis Toomey) was telling her he loved her and that the grass isn't greener on the other side she wanted to be married. When her sister Sophie (Anita Page) was on the rocks with her husband Alf (Norman Foster), she no longer wanted to be married.

Margie didn't think it was so bad for women to hook up with people like Raymond Harding (Warren William), a rich playboy. He treated his women really well, but poor Margie didn't know what was expected with the gifts he gave.

He caught sight of her one day when she modeled a fur coat for his latest lady friend. He wanted to add her to his list and he began with gifts. It seems like everyone knew what those gifts entailed except Margie.

This was the second Warren William/Marian Marsh movie I've seen. The first one was "Beauty and the Boss" (1932) and it was so much better. This movie was terribly trite and formulaic.

Girl wants finer things. Guy tells her that the finer things aren't important. Girl chases finer things. Something happens and girl realizes guy was right. They live happily ever after.

But the biggest crime of this movie wasn't even the simple story of Jimmie and Margie, it was the story between her sister Sophie and Sophie's husband Alf.

The two of them had to move in with Margie and her mother when he lost his pool hall. Sophie was mortified that they were imposing on her poor old mother and Alf didn't show any remorse. He seemed to relish loafing and he had no plans to do anything but bet on himself playing pool. If being a loafer wasn't enough, they got into a tiff and he punched her in the eye.

That was the last straw. Sophie wanted a divorce right away. She and Margie went to a lawyer who wanted $200 for his services.

I knew where the movie was going to go with this. There's no way it was going to promote divorce even if a man punched his wife. It was only once. And I'm not going to say that the movie should've had them divorce either, but the resolution was far from agreeable.

He won a pool tournament and all was well.

They never even revisited his shiftlessness or the spousal abuse. It was as if winning money magically solved all of their problems which was the total opposite of the movie's pervasive message. How cheap and shallow was Sophie that she'd love Alf as long as he had money?

Now, it could be that Alf gave Sophie a heartfelt apology before he won the money and she took him back. It could be that they had a long discussion about the issues between them and then buried the hatchet, but none of that was shown. All we got was: Alf won a pool tournament and he and Sophie are happy again.

I've said it before, if movies back then suffered from one thing it was lack of depth. Too many of the movies then lacked nuance and depth which made them very black and white (literally and figuratively). "Under Eighteen" was no different.

Free on YouTube.

"Under Eighteen" Takes Us to the Penthouse!

[glennstenb · 8/10 · 10 May 2020]

"Under Eighteen" was undoubtedly a lurid title for motion pictures in the early 1930's, but the subject matter and depicted activities were appropriately lurid,too. A film enjoyable to watch today, the subject matter, in general, was apparently old hat to many movie-goers of the era, including Variety magazine, which in its review (Dec. 29, 1931 p.167) gave the film a fairly cool shake, saying the tour of depression-era love was just one more monotonous presentation "of this much viewed tale... both silent and in sound."

But for those of us looking at the movie as a time of historical interest 90 years removed, this film is a splendid document. The desperate drudgery of life in view for a lower rung family is presented with distressing clarity, and stands in contrast to life for folks of the snappy, devil-may-care upper echelon. Costuming, street scenes, and interior decor from 1931 are all on wondrous parade here. The story's culminating opulent and debauchery-filled 40th-floor penthouse party is breathtaking and truly not to be missed. In such parties did young women really dance the fox trot to society orchestras in dripping-wet bathing suits right after having bobbed in the swimming pool on giant rubber ducks? And with random male partners, to boot? The Variety review kind of casts doubt on that.

I enjoyed the performance of Marian Marsh in what was heralded as her first starring role. Her eyes are sumptuous and for me helped her portray many an emotion, although Variety said she failed to impress and would not benefit from being in this film. But I enjoyed her portrayal of youthful innocence and optimism changing to suspicion and dismay as she realized the quality of relationships in the adult world around her portend a cloudy future.

Variety also felt that Warren William wouldn't benefit from his time in this film, but I thought he came on with a highly convincing turn as a potentially sinister presence (although his selectivity for victimization as evidenced by his miserly pouring of seducing drinks for Marian was a step leading to a muddled and apparently rushed wrap-up ending). Regis Toomey as Marian's love interest did a good enough job, but his role had limitations in that what he stood for was inconsistently presented. And wow! That big kiss between Marian and Regis is really something! Kisses between men and women in the 1930s was often just one tightly closed mouth on the other, but 18 year old Marian was romantically liberal with her offering here!

Distinct and interesting characters with great faces abound in this film, even though the story admittedly has some limitations in logic. But for fans of early 1930's films this is a valuable entry in the array and should be given a chance by all fans of older film.

But what is great about this film is that it is not preachy. We learn what life is all about along with Marian Marsh.

[ronrobinson3 · 9/10 · 11 December 2023]

Despite the title and the "suggestive" picture to promote the film, the movie is not about a girl "going bad" as much as it is about a girl becoming wise and trying to survive in a world of men and the Depression.

Marian Marsh is perfect in the role of the innocent who watches life taking place around her and tries to figure out what is right for her and her future. Regis Toomey plays her loving boyfriend. At first, he is a little too "up" and happy, but he transitions during the film to a believable and important character.

Marsh sees her sister, played by Anita Page, marry and then end up miserable with a free loading husband, babies, and actual physical abuse. Marsh decides that marriage is not for her even though she adores her sweet boyfriend who keeps asking her to marry him.

Marsh works in a high-end dress shop and sees how the models who work there use their charms and looks to get ahead. They have become mistresses to many of the clientele. But later, when Marsh needs to borrow some money, she finds out they are really broke despite the jewels, limos, and lifestyles. They are nothing more than a dog on a leash and have no finances of their own. Also, Marsh learns how short the happiness of such a lifestyle is. Youth doesn't last. Looks fade. Then the "sponsors" lose interest in their "pet" and move on to another.

But what is great about this film is that it is not preachy. We learn what life is all about along with Marsh. We wise up as she wises up. We see what she sees. It is really a great presentation so we can all make our own judgements.

The film moves along very well so you won't be bored. I won't give more of the story away. It should be experienced along with Marsh in order to enjoy.

Marian Marsh is classy in this. So check her out and this Classy Classic. Learn, experience, and enjoy!