Accent on Youth (1935) User Reviews (7)

This one seems like it's Pre-Code but it isn't.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 27 February 2018]

Steven Gaye (Herbert Marshall) is a famous playwright who has just written a play about a May-December romance. However, as he works on the story, real life begins to intrude as the actress starring as the young lady in love with the older man, Linda (Sylvia Sidney), begins to actually fall in love with Steve. But Steve is a practical man and sees little future in this and encourages a young beau to pursue her as well. Sadly, when Steve and Linda get what they want, they don't seem to want it any more. What exactly does this mean? See the film.

This is a mildly enjoyable old film that surprised me. The ending seems pretty much in line with Pre-Code sensibilities...so imagine my surprise when it turns out to be a Production Code movie...coming out the year following the implementation of the tough Production Code. Worth seeing and quite interesting, mostly because Marshall is great in most anything.

First movie version of Samuel Raphaelson play

[kevinolzak · 5/10 · 19 August 2013]

1935's "Accent on Youth" was the first film adaptation of Samuel Raphaelson's 1934 Broadway play, the story of a wealthy 50 year old playwright, Steven Gaye (Herbert Marshall), whose latest offering, intended as a tragedy following 19 straight comedies, depicts a romance between a young woman and an older man. Yet for the previous three years, he has never noticed that his loyal young secretary, Linda Brown (Sylvia Sidney), has been in love with him. Life imitates art when Linda decides to marry her co-star in the play (Phillip Reed), much like her character does, but soon regrets the whirlwind decision. Rarely does the film leave Herbert Marshall's home, a static presentation that the cast tries hard to overcome. Among the smaller roles are Dick Foran and Lon Chaney, as Butch and Chuck, buddies of the young groom, who really only figure in the denouement. Foran was still billed as 'Nick Foran,' while this was the very first time that Creighton Chaney was credited on screen with his new moniker, 'Lon Chaney Jr.' (Chaney would be strangling Foran seven years later in "The Mummy's Tomb"). Later versions of this story include Bing Crosby in 1950's "Mr. Music" and Clark Gable in 1959's "But Not for Me."

Sophisticated but not dead

[ecaulfield · 7/10 · 31 August 2008]

Playwright Steven Gaye (Herbert Marshall) puts great emphasis on youth. You see, there is something "grand" about being young, so grand that all youth deserve to experience young love. Thus, he spends the whole of the film debating with himself about the propriety, apparent unseemliness, and selfishness of a fifty-year-old man falling in love with a woman in her twenties. But Linda (Sylvia Sidney) enlightens him. What if woman chases man rather than man chasing woman? In that case, a May-December affair is okay, at least for a play. You'll see that in his personal life, Steven feels differently and thus tries to spare Linda the mistake of latching onto him when she is "so darn young." Thus, we get the obligatory improbable romance between Linda and a young man who really isn't much to her (or probably any woman's) liking. Although it's 1935, Linda isn't forced to remain with this overbearing man to prove she is good. Happily, the writers knew irreconcilable differences when they saw them and thought, perhaps an unorthodox pairing really is best for some!

The film is aided by consistent touches which show that it does not take itself too seriously: Ernest Cossart as the butler is every bit as much Marshall's friend as his servant. Strictly speaking, he remains very proper ("very good sir"), but his familiarity with his master and his decidedly knowing character make his conduct seem almost as if he is mocking propriety itself. Another help is Marshall's ability to effortlessly play the sophisticate, a man who never says anything wrong and who you are likely to find wearing a bow tie, even under his robe. This is a slice of the upper crust, but here, etiquette is matched by personality.

I've Said I Wanted To See Sylvia Sidney In A Comedy, But...

[boblipton · 5/10 · 16 November 2022]

Herbert Marshall is a successful Broadway playwright, with 19 hits under his belt. Now he's working on a tragedy about a middle-aged man who falls in love with a young girl, but is aced out by a younger man. It's not turning out right, so he decides to run off to Finland with Astrid Allwyn. He changes his mind when his secretary, Sylvia Sidney, admits that she loves him. A year later, the play concludes its triumphant Broadway run with Miss Sidney as the girl, and is about to go on tour. It's then that Phillip Reed, who plays the young lover in the play, asks for Marshall's help in wooing Miss Sidney.

Samson Raphaelson's play had been successful on Broadway -- less so in London, where Greer Garson had the ingenue role -- but this sophisticated comedy lacks something in the filmed version. Perhaps it's the fact that two-thirds of the movie is spent setting up the situation, with an awful lot of dialogue and little business or visual variations in a one-set venue. The final third picks up a bit, with most of the comedy honors going to Ernest Cossart as Marshall's butler; his unflustered correctness combines well with Marshall's informality. But it ends up pretty close to where it began, with little to show in the interval. With early roles for Dick Foran and Lon Chaney Jr.

It was successful enough that it was remade twice.

A comedy so good it was remade twice!

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 9 May 2019]

The original Broadway play has even been revived on Broadway in the past 10 years! Of course, the story of an older man and a younger woman has been told many times over and over but not with such sophistication and panache. Herbert Marshall is a successful Broadway playwright who has depended on his longtime secretary Sylvia Sidney and is unaware that over the years, she has fallen in love with him because they are truly made for each other. Of course he hasn't realized it, and when she makes the confession, he's flattered but unsure of how to proceed due to the difference in their ages. Realizing that he's never going to commit to her, Sidney agrees to marry Philip Reed, the young juvenile in his play even though she is not in love with him. But circumstances bring Marshall and Sydney back together (along with Reed home Sidney has become completely bored with), and assistance from Marshall's droll butler Ernest Cossart helps as well.

When this was remade later with Bing Crosby and Nancy Olson and later with Clark Gable and Doris Day, the results were box office hits due to the popularity of the leading actors. But in retrospect, the only one that really stands the test of time as a sophisticated look at two intelligent people of different generations who start off with a working relationship, learn to admire each other and eventually work their way into love.

it's nice to see Sylvia Sidney playing a character who is not a tenement resident or suffering due to the man in her life (although there are definitely issues with her men here!), and movie fans who only know her as old ladies in "Beetlejuice" and "Mars Attacks!" Will be surprised by her charm as a young leading lady. Marshall is light and charming and sophisticated, and perfect for this role, the age not as noticeable as it would be with Crosby and Gable years later. Cossart steals much of the scenery, getting laughs with his emotional responses to employer Marshall. Astrid Alwyn is delightful as a dizzy dame who makes a play for Marshall when Sylvia is out of the picture. The forgotten but brilliant Wesley Euggles directs this smart comedy with sophistication and light wit, turning this into a classic that truly is worth rediscovering.

Interesting and rather absurd comedy romance

[istara · 10/10 · 27 March 2017]

It's hard to know what to make of "Accent on Youth". So many things happen in it that just seem odd to to the point of implausible.

The basic plot is that:

1. Secretary Linda is in love with her older boss, playwright Steven, who has been oblivious to her feelings.

2. An old girlfriend suddenly appears, Steven decides to retire and go off with her to Finland

3. He discharges Linda, who then declares her love for him.

4. Suddenly Steven un-retires and hires Linda to star in his new play. (No mention of how his old girlfriend takes this).

Confused? That's only the start of this weird journey. The script ranges from melodrama through romance to sheer wincing awkwardness. It's at times arch, at other times pretentious, at other times simply implausible. "Hey! Let me look at you! Linda, you're strange, grand, lovely. No, no, no, don't go away. Let me look at you some more!" Even the legendary velvet tones of Herbert Marshall can't de-cringe this.

Linda does the play. Then there's another mix-up, where Steven thinks young actor Dickie is involved with her. He storms home, Linda storms to his place, they have a row, and then they make up. They decide to get married. Perfect. Had the film ended here, it might have been reasonably pleasant and plausible.

But wait, there's more...

Dickie pops around and whinges to Steven. Steven clears out, Linda comes round, and in a few minutes is kissing Dickie passionately (bear in mind she's had every chance to do so before) and then marries him rather than Steven. What follows is a bizarre honeymoon where he spends all his time trying to get her to exercise, accompanied by his two friends. Although maybe there's a really obvious subtext here that I missed? There were presumably more than a few Hollywood marriages where the groom's "close friend" popped along for the ride.

Anyway, Linda flees back to Steven and they end up together. Again. For what appears to be the third time in this bizarre story.

Don't get me wrong, I loved this movie for all its absurdity. It has endless dialogue from Herbert Marshall for starters, which makes anything watchable/listenable.

It's just hard to know how to take it.

Bonus observation: the kissing by Herbert Marshall AWFUL, when kissing either Sylvia Sidney or Astrid Allwyn. (Sylvia does just fine with Phillip Reed/Dickie). I realise the Hay's Code had likely kicked in by the time this movie was released, but seriously. Check out the embrace about thirteen minutes in. "How was it?" Herbert Marshall asks. "Not bad!" Astrid Allwyn replies.

No, Astrid. It was bad. It was very very very bad. Be glad you didn't end up going to Finland with him.

May December Romance

[winstonchurchill-93755 · 8/10 · 1 August 2018]

Herbert Marshsal could carry a script and Sylvia Sidney could stop a train with her eyes. Well written and well acted.