High Time (1960)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Simply A Masterpiece

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

"High Time" is a decent little time passer--pleasant but also not especially deep or significant. It begins with a rich older man, Harvey Howard (Bing Crosby) deciding to go to college. His snobby kids are dead against it but surprisingly the kids at the college take to Harvey very well and he forges many friendships as well as spends time with a pretty French teacher.Like most films about college, you rarely see the folks going to classes, though there is more studying than usual! My only gripes about this film are two...the ending where Harvey 'flies' is pretty dumb and the relationship with the French teacher is oddly flat and unsatisfying. Not a bad film by any means but not one you should rush to see.

The problem with films where an older person decides to go back to college is that they obviously can't rely on academics that much and bring out the idea that college is for fun, dances, and other nonsensical things. "High Time" falls for this as well. As always, you never saw the academic year to go by so quickly.Bing Crosby first sings a little more than an hour, as he croons Love's Even Lovelier the 2nd Time Around. Nicole Maurey, who co-starred with Crosby in the wonderful "Little Boy Lost," is his romantic interest in this film. She's the French-literature teacher, who might have to leave when Crosby's jealous daughter tries to create the usual scandal.Needing a break from the intense "Diary of Anne Frank," Richard Beymer was probably happy to be in this film. Other than a little dancing, he contributes very little as is the case with co-stars Tuesday Weld and Fabian.Gavin MacLeod is the idiotic chemistry teacher. Isn't the case with most chemistry teachers?Crosby dresses up in drag and he looks like a civil war Agnes Morehead in the process. With confederate dressing and a band wearing wigs of George Washington's era, the whole thing is one silly mess.Crosby's valedictorian speech at the end is uplifting, but by then, you can't wait for this film to end.

Restaurateur Bing Crosby enrolls as a freshman in college. One-idea comic concept is as flimsy as it sounds, with Bing--living in the boys dormitory--ingratiating himself to the students by passing out the occasional cigar, acting younger than his age, participating in the pep rally bonfire, and by doing chin-ups in Phys Ed (which, the filmmakers tell us, is mandatory in college!). The real teenagers all act like they're still in grade school, and the university's faculty fare no better. Before you can even begin to wonder why director Blake Edwards was attracted to this material (except for, perhaps, the money) comes the proverbial comical dream sequence and, worse than that, a high society ball which requires Crosby to dress in drag. It's a drag, all right. * from ****

Although I have not seen this film for more years than I can recall, it was so memorable that I think of it frequently and wish that I could see it again. Too bad that so few (if any) films of this quality and calibRE seem to be made any more. The theme song, "Love is lovelier the second time around" was an Academy Award nominee or winner I believe and deservedly so. High Time would be one of fewer than a dozen films that I would rate a "10."