The Age of Consent (1932)

An Exercise In Nonsense

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Directed by Gregory La Cava and executive produced by David O. Selznick, the screenplay for this Martin Flavin play was written by Sarah Y. Mason and Francis M. Cockrell. The film is a dated drama about "free love" on college campuses. There are a couple of scenes where the characters are seen discussing this and that while sitting on a stone bench engraved with "in loco parentis".The film begins with a montage of several short, poorly acted clips with students discussing "free love", which is all the rage on this particular college campus. Grady Sutton appears uncredited as one of the students in the dormitory (Betty Grable is also listed as being one of the students on campus, uncredited, though I failed to spot her).Betty (Dorothy Wilson) can't quite decide whether she wants to participate or not. On the one hand, she's been dating a young man with high ideals, Mike Harvey (Richard Cromwell), a pretty boy whose "mentor" is Professor David Mathews (John Halliday). On the other hand, she is attracted to the rich, carefree Duke Galloway (Eric Linden). Frustrated by Betty's cavalier attitude and everyone else's "looseness", Mike retreats to a local hangout to be alone. There, he unburdens his "conservative" views to Dora Swale (Arline Judge), a young waitress.Soon, however, Betty is wooed by Mike, who gives her his college pin, and the two of them start to make plans. Mike turns to Professor Mathews for advice. However, he is obviously conflicted and fails to make a compelling case for Mike to stay in school and wait a couple of years before marrying Betty. The primary reason for his failure in this area is his own personal experience. Evidently he too had a love of a lifetime in Barbara (Aileeen Pringle), also now a teacher on campus, and they had decided to wait only to see their love fade such that they never married.Barbara also advises Betty similarly. In fact, it isn't until she is dispensing with her advice that we learn Professor Mathews's love had been Barbara (through a photograph). In a moment of passion, Mike tells Betty he is willing to drop out of college to take a job he knows he can always get in California, so they can marry, but she says she'd feel terrible if he did and that they should wait for him to finish his degree instead.One night, everything changes. A (sexually?) frustrated Mike is "seduced" into walking Dora home from Tolers, the local hangout. Arriving at her home, he discovers that her father (Reginald Barlow) works nights. Acting irresponsibly, the two drink, dance, and spend the night together (though what actually happens is open for debate). Mr. Swale gets home at 4 AM to discover the disheveled couple and invokes the shotgun wedding principle. Dora was underage?In any case, Professor Mathews tries to intervene, acting every bit the liberal one would expect on today's college campuses, and prevent Mr. Swale from ruining Mike's life. But, forced to own up to his error by the Assistant District Attorney (Frederick Burton, uncredited), Mike accepts his fate and agrees to wed Dora.A distraught Betty, upset that maintaining her ideals have earned her nothing, is consoled by Duke and then goes for a ride in his fast car. Naturally, they are in a car crash. Professor Mathews receives a call from Barbara at the Swale's just before the wedding can take place, informing him of the accident.Everyone rushes to the hospital where the doctor (Howard C. Hickman, uncredited) informs them that Duke will not survive, but Betty is expected to recover fully. We witness Duke's melodramatic passing away. Seeing Mike's love for the injured Betty, a tearful Dora refuses to force Mike to go through with it, much to her working class father's disappointment; he had hoped her daughter would marry a college graduate! The last scene shows Mike and Betty departing on a train for California with Professor Mathews and Barbara waving to them.

Quietly beautiful Dorothy Wilson first started work as a "secretary to the stars". She was taking dictation from Gregory La Cava, who was preparing to cast "The Age of Consent", when, giving her a second look, he organised a screen test. Surprisingly, she won the lead role and embarked on her short though interesting career.This was one of a series of films that purported to give the real "low down" about youth of the day (ie "Confessions of a Co-ed" (1931), "Are These Our Children" (1931)). Set on the campus of State College, it tells of the lives and loves of Nigel, Betty and Duke, plus one father figure professor of Biology (John Halliday). Nigel (John Cromwell) is a conflict of emotions - a dedicated student who feels that the youth of today has gone to the dogs. His moodiness is driving Betty (beautiful Dorothy Wilson) into the arms of campus romeo "The Duke" (Eric Linden) - so he decides to quit school and marry Betty. Before he can put his plan into action, he is caught in the clutches of Dora (Arline Judge) a mercenary waitress. He walks her home. she plies him with liquor - he wakes up to find he is charged with corrupting a minor and faces marriage to girl he doesn't love or jail!!! After an emotional scene with Betty - she decides to "go to the Devil" herself - with Duke, if he'll have her. He just takes her for a long ride and proclaims "you couldn't be bad if you tried". The ending is pretty dramatic - Nigel and Dora are waiting for a preacher, when word comes of a dreadful car accident - Duke is dying and Nigel rushes to Betty's side. When Dora sees the love and devotion Nigel shows to Betty - she tells her father that for once she wants to do the right thing and calls the wedding off. There is also a subplot involving Professor Mathews and Barbara (Aileen Pringle), a teacher and confidante of Betty's , who had faced the same dilemma when they were young, decided not to marry and lived to regret it.John Halliday made every part he played interesting viewing. The rest of the top billed cast were young up and coming stars on the threshold of fame. Arline Judge was often cast as floozies and left films (late 30s) to concentrate on matrimony and divorce. Artistic Richard Cromwell had found fame in the remake of "Tolable David" (1930) but it was with "The Age of Consent" that he found his niche, as the good looking (almost ageless) young hero. Eric Linden was definitely the most talented of the bunch and he was excellent in a variety of roles ie the hysterical young father in "Life Begins" (1932), a boy who gets into bad company and goes to jail in "Are These Our Children" (1931) and the weak mother dominated younger son in "The Silver Cord" (1933).Recommended.

At State College, while most of the young men are more interested in "free love" than marriage, handsome Michael aka "Mike" (Richard Cromwell, an exact cross between Leonardo DiCaprio and Jude Law) is full of old-fashioned ideals and he loves to get advice and talk things over with his favorite "Prof", a real sort of mentor to our young heartthrob. Meanwhile, Mike's girl Betty seems to like to flirt around, mainly with a hotshot named Duke who has a snazzy new car. As Betty chirps "I'm not my Grandmother - I like to have FUN - I'm modern!". Well - Mike and Betty really *are* in love, so he gives her his fraternity pin and proposes quitting college so they can be married. But when Betty says they should wait until they graduate before they marry (two whole years!), a "frustrated" Mike turns to flirtatious Dora, waitress at the local diner/college hangout, who he ends up getting drunk and spending the night with. Problems ensue for Mike as Dora's angry father walks in on them, then pushes marriage or prison onto poor, poor Mike (seems our little waitress was underage).This film, at first glance, seems like it is going to be a light piece of college romantic fluff, with all the college kids drooling over each other and the guys trying to convince the girls to "drop some of their morals". Instead it takes a turn toward the quite serious, and with an emotional wallop, really comes off to be quite an excellent film. There is a lot of discussion in this film about "what's right, what's wrong" and other morality issues, and most of the performances are pretty top-notch here, I thought Arline Judge especially good as waitress Dora.

Even for pre-Hayes code cinema, this one is particularly smutty. Not to say there's nudity or whatever, but the sexuality positively drips off the screen, and very little is said which doesn't have to do with intercourse of one sort or another. They probably had fun making this one. Highly recommended if you can find it. Thanks to the American Film Institute for their preserving this film.