Too Young to Kiss (1951)

Truly Dreadful Film

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Copyright 25 October 1951 by Loew's Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 22 November 1951 (ran two weeks). U.S. release: 23 November 1952. U.K. release: 3 December 1951. Australian release: 12 March 1952. 91 minutes. Censored to 88½ minutes in the U.K. in order to qualify for a "U" certificate. Cut by M-G-M to 86 minutes in Australia.SYNOPSIS: Unable to obtain an audition appointment with Eric Wainwright, a famous concert manager, Cynthia Potter in desperation disguises herself as a thirteen-year-old girl with braces on her teeth and enters a children's concert sponsored annually by Eric.Her brilliant piano playing wins the contest and on the following day, Eric comes to her apartment with a contract. Cynthia, pretending that she is the older sister of the girl she has impersonated, tries to persuade Eric to sign her, but he refuses and even accuses her of being jealous of her successful kid sister. Furious at his attitude, Cynthia decides to continue the hoax by signing the contract as her little sister's guardian. Dressed appropriately, she arrives at Eric's office to commence her career as a child prodigy. John Tirsen, Cynthia's newspaperman boyfriend, disapproves of the hoax and tries to make Cynthia give it up. Eric comes upon them conversing, and Cynthia is forced to introduce John as her elder sister's boyfriend. Eric, however, is shocked to later find her smoking and drinking a cocktail while with John, and decides to take her to his country home to remove her from the evil influence of John and her elder sister. Cynthia deliberately proves difficult at Eric's home, by interfering with his romance with Denise Dorcet, a temperamental singer, and by insisting that he stop drinking and smoking if he does not want her to continue these vices. After weeks of practice, however, Eric becomes very fond of his child protégée, while she has secretly been falling in love with him. Nevertheless...COMMENT: M-G-M, always eager to copycat a success at another studio, have here taken a leaf from the pages of All About Eve. Of course, the idea has been considerably watered down and most of the bite has been removed. However, it still has sufficient sparkle to add up to passable entertainment.Acting is proficient. Miss Allyson has a role that takes advantage of her small stature (actually the camera cheats a bit here by making her appear taller, when she should — except for the up-swept hair style — be the same size).The direction is competent, though inclined to intersperse the musical interludes (cut, of course) with too many reaction shots. Within the limits of a very moderate budget, production values are smooth.OTHER VIEWS: A slight comedy with a theme at once hackneyed and improbable, which sometimes sparkles but has too many flat passages. — Monthly Film Bulletin.

Didn't the maid played by Esther Dale have a strong resemblance to Eleanor Roosevelt? I thought I was seeing the former first lady in the role.An absolutely delightful film with June Allyson acting as a 14 year old so that her talents could be displayed. Van Johnson is the impresario, quite a character with so many clients, that hardly anything gets done. Gig Young portrays the reporter willing to go along with the story so that he can get his girlfriend Allyson and finally get a good scoop on a fantastic story of a hoax being perpetrated.Allyson is so cute as the masquerading 14 year old. She goes along with this since when she introduces her real self, Johnson couldn't care less, only wanting the young lass for musical fame.Keeping her in line becomes a focus and the two, even though he thinks she is still a child, develop feelings for each other.

"Too Young to Kiss" is interesting to see, especially in this age of awareness towards child rights and their protection. June Allyson, looking like Judy Garland from the 1944 Meet Me in St. Louis, and hardly looking 14, does a good job impersonating a young prodigy, and Van Johnson does all right in his performance as well. However, the movie, in certain scenes, could make the viewer of today a bit uncomfortable. The audience knows in the end that June will confess her legal age, so that no one will be upset or offended. Yet the sexual tension and kisses kind of make one cringe since the plot line is not cleared up at some points with such plot devices as underage drinking and smoking, an older sister who appears to let her kid sister be taken away and cared for by an older single man, etc.... It is interesting to note the Oz music heard as the credits roll and used throughout the movie as stated by another reviewer...The film is one of those old MGM movies that is easy to take and totally forgotten by the next week. June Allyson is terrific in "Good News" and Van much better in "In The Good Old Summertime." Catch those to see them in color and at their peaks).

A pleasant film about a Midwestern girl trying to make it in the cut-throat world of professional classical music. It definitely resembles "The Major and the Minor," but it's neither as funny nor as endearing. Still, it's chock full of "popular" classical music, which makes the movie extra entertaining. (The theme that one recognizes from "The Wizard of Oz" is actually Robert Schumann's "The Happy Farmer.") June Allyson is always fun to watch, but her comic talents aren't really given full play here. Van Johnson is a bit too hyper (and a little sleazy); indeed, the whole movie seems a bit too full of nervous energy, as if everyone in it were in a big hurry to get it over with.