"Over 21" is a curious film for the subject and the time. World War II was nearly over when filming began. By the film's release, the war had ended in Europe and was about to end in the Pacific. Between its July 25 premiere and its Aug. 8 theater release in 1945, the U.S. had dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (Aug. 6). And it would be dropping the second bomb on Nagasaki the day this movie opened in theaters.
Although the film is a comedy (a sophisticated one at that), it seems strange that it was made at all, and then released as it was. By the late summer of 1945, there was much soul-searching and grieving over the losses of lives and toll of the war. Sure, people were happy it was finally coming to an end, but this gave time to reflect on the war years without worrying about the future.
The movie is based on a 1944 play written by actress and writer Ruth Gordon. She starred in the role of Polly Wharton in the Broadway run of 221 performances that year.
But, as if the subject and timing weren't strange enough, the premises of Gordon's plot surely seemed strange. A 39-year old newspaper editor decides to enlist (in 1943) so he could get close to the action and have first-hand knowledge and experience to write about it for his newspaper in the future. But that thought seems to have come late for Max Wharton. By the time he finished basic training (boot camp) and six months of OCS (Officers Candidate School), the U.S. would have been two years into the war. As of December 1942, the Selective Service required registration of all males, 18 to 64, with those 20 to 44 liable for induction. Max apparently missed the draft drawings before this time, and didn't think about volunteering the first year.
So much for the strangeness of the film being made and then released as Japan was being brought to its knees. The movie has Max attending OCS at a fictional Army "field" in Florida. Since OCS was established in 1940, the training for infantry and most officers has been at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Alexander Knox plays Max Wharton, managing editor of the fictional New York Bulletin. Charles Coburn is Robert Drexel Gow who owns the paper and is sure it will go out of existence without Max at the helm. Irene Dunne plays Paula "Polly" Wharton. She worked for a time for the paper, then married Max and has since had a flourishing career as a novelist and screenwriter. She and Max have been separated for nearly three months while she finished a screenplay in Hollywood. But she is going to go with Max to be there for him at OCS. That is, even though she'll have to live in a bungalow off base and may only be able to see Max for short spurts a couple times a week.
That's the setting. The comedy comes mostly from the complaining and conniving of Gow to get Max to continue writing the editorials for the paper, while Max succeeds in dodging him. Of course, Polly gets caught in the middle and winds up being the solution for both men, though neither of them know it until the end.
The film does give a good picture of what military life was like in attending OCS, and for wives who followed their husbands on assignments. But, considering that the U.S. was deeply into the war, it seems strange that there was almost no reference at all to the war in the military scenes and setting. The only slight reference was by Gow for the war-related editorials that only Max could write.
The performances are all very good. The name of Knox may not come readily to mind among movie fans, but he won a Golden Globe for his performance as Woodrow Wilson in the 1944 film, "Wilson." He also played Harry Stimson several times, as Secretary of the U.S. War Department during WWII, and in other positions. He had a distinguished film career.
Irene Dunne gives her best to any role she has, and Charles Coburn was his usual irascible self. This is a rare film though, in which Coburn gives a huge smile, right at the end. This is a good comedy and film about home life and OCS training during World War II.
Here are some of my favorite lines from the film. For more dialog, see the Quotes section under this IMDb Web page of the movie.
Robert Gow, "Do you have to polish your own shoes?" Max Wharton, "And press my pants and sew on my buttons. Anything wrong?" Polly Wharton. "Max loves it." Max, "I love it." Robert Gow, "Well, love makes the world go round."
Max, "You never liked him." Robert Gow, "I still don't He eats too loud." Max, "Don't eat with him."
Colonel Foley, "I don't try to outguess Washington, Wharton." Mrs. Foley, "Ted, you can say more without saying anything."
Polly, lying on her bed at night alone, prays, "Please let Max graduate
Oh no, maybe you'd better flunk him out
That is, if you can do it without breaking his heart
Or, if you could pass Max and still not let Robert sell the paper
Or maybe
Oh, I don't know. Just do the best you can. I really don't know."