Accent on Youth (film)

Accent on Youth is a 1935 American comedy film directed by Wesley Ruggles and written by Herbert Fields and Claude Binyon based on the 1934 play of the same name written by Samson Raphaelson. The film stars Sylvia Sidney and Herbert Marshall and features Phillip Reed, Holmes Herbert, Catherine Doucet, Astrid Allwyn and Lon Chaney Jr. The film was released on August 23, 1935, by Paramount Pictures.[1]

Accent on Youth
Directed byWesley Ruggles
Screenplay byHerbert Fields
Claude Binyon
Produced byDouglas MacLean
StarringSylvia Sidney
Herbert Marshall
Phillip Reed
Holmes Herbert
Catherine Doucet
Astrid Allwyn
CinematographyLeon Shamroy
Edited byOtho Lovering
Music byFriedrich Hollaender
Tom Satterfield
Production
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Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • August 23, 1935 (1935-08-23)
Running time
77 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

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When Steven Gaye, a successful New York playwright, turns forty he thinks he's too old for romance. But when he falls in love with his secretary Linda, he experiences the strongest emotions of his life. Feeling that he is too old for Linda, he decides to fix her up with Dick Reynolds, the young lead actor in his play. But while Dick is young and handsome, he is also dumb and immature. Tiring of the younger man, Linda longs for Steven's maturity and understanding.

Cast

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Reception

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Andre Sennwald of The New York Times said, "Samson Raphaelson's pleasant little stage comedy of middle-aged love spends a good deal of its time being a garrulous bore in its motion picture version at the Paramount Theatre. Never notable for any startling excesses of invention, it slows down to a succession of dialogues as it reaches the screen, and is content to be a faithful photographic study of its original. It is still a mild delight, though, to contemplate the fresh and amusing point of view which is the basis of Accent on Youth. Mr. Raphaelson has written a comedy which might serve as a sort of amorous supplement to Walter Pitkin's hymn of encouragement to the middle-aged. He performs a definite service for the emotional bankrupt, even if he does not call it "Love Begins at Fifty."[2]

Writing for The Spectator in 1935, Graham Greene described the film as a "dreary comedy", and characterized the acting of Marshall as the "usual canine performance of dumb suffering". Greene noted that there was one good scene toward the end of the film, but advised readers not to wait for it.[3]

References

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  1. ^ "Accent on Youth (1935) - Overview". TCM.com. Retrieved 2015-07-07.
  2. ^ Sennwald, Andre (1935-08-12). "Movie Review - Accent on Youth - THE SCREEN; The Paramount Offers a Screen Edition of Samson Raphaelson's Stage Play 'Accent on Youth.'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-07-07.
  3. ^ Greene, Graham (22 November 1935). "Arms and the Girl/Accent on Youth". The Spectator. (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. p. 37. ISBN 0192812866.)
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