(Richard Wallace, US 1938, 90 min., 35mm)
Janet Gaynor’s last released feature before her retirement from the movies is a witty, heartfelt, screwball comedy from super-producer David O. Selznick. Gaynor stars as George-Ann, the wily daughter in a family of high-class con artists, intent on fleecing a kindly old widow (Broadway veteran Minnie Dupree in her show-stopping screen debut) out of her vast fortune. New Preservation Bonus: Followed by rare screen tests recently preserved by George Eastman House!
Program Notes
The Young in Heart
~Anthony L’Abbate, Stills Archivist, Motion Picture Department
The Young in Heart, concludes our two month long centenary celebration for Janet Gaynor. The The Young in Heartwas Gaynor’s last starring film role, she would return to the screen only once more, in the 1957 film Bernadine, in which she played Pat Boone’s mother.
The Young in Heart was produced by David O. Selznick for his own independent production company Selznick International Pictures, the studio that also made Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Star is Born, Rebecca and of course Gone With the Wind, among others. Of all the films made by Selznick, The Young in Heart is one of the best, but the least known.
The story by I.A.R. Wylie originally serialized in The Saturday Evening Post was adapted to the screen by Charles Bennett is a simple one of a family of con artists, wonderfully played by Roland Young, Billie Burke, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Gaynor, who befriend a very lonely and very rich old lady by the name of Miss Fortune.
Selznick’s first choice for the role of Miss Fortune was legendary stage actress Maude Adams. Adams had been in retirement from the stage for 22 years, she had triumphed in the plays of J.M. Barrie. She was best remembered for her role of Peter Pan, which she first played in 1905. Her last Broadway role was in Barrie’s A Kiss for Cinderella in 1916. Adams was convinced by Selznick to make a screen test, but she declined the role of Miss Fortune when it was offered to her.
The next person to test for the role was another stage legend, Laurette Taylor. Taylor was known for her completely natural style of acting and was revered by many, including Spencer Tracy. It is rumored that Taylor did not get the role because studio executives did not feel she was acting and that she was too ordinary. That makes a good story, but the real reason behind Taylor not getting the role, is like Adams she declined the part. Plus it is absurd to think that a producer as savvy as Selznick would not recognize great acting by one of the greatest actresses of the 20th century. Stage actress Minnie Dupree eventually played the part of Miss Fortune. Dupree had been on the Broadway stage since 1896. The Young in Heart was one of only four films in which she appeared.
Paulette Goddard plays Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.’s love interest in the film, this was only her second leading role, her first important part was opposite her then husband, Charlie Chaplin in his 1936 film Modern Times. Goddard was under contract to Selznick International at this point in her career, and at the time she was making The Young in Heart, she was the leading contender for the role of Scarlet O’Hara in Gone With the Wind. But because she either couldn’t or wouldn’t produce proof of her marriage to Chaplin she lost the role to Vivien Leigh, who had lost the role that Goddard plays in tonight’s film. Paulette Goddard would become a major star the next year, in 1939, when she signed with Paramount and starred in the remake of The Cat and the Canary with Bob Hope.
Finally The Young in Heart features some wonderful sets by Lyle Wheeler who also designed a futuristic streamlined car that is featured prominently in the film the fictitious Flying Wombat. The car cost $12,000 (approximately 140,000 in today’s dollars) and it belonged to the son of H.J. Heinz, the pickle king.
