The Age of Consent

Dir. Gregory La Cava

63 Minutes

USA

1932

Starring: Dorothy Wilson, Arline Judge, Richard Cromwell, Eric Linden, John Halliday

***/*****

Quick La Cava pre-code that on the surface feels an odd entry in his filmography, but gives a nice sense of his attempts of narrative experimentation. The simple narrative explores the relationship between Betty (Dorothy Wilson) and Mike (Richard Cromwell in a typically wet blanket performance) and their personal trepidations about abandoning youthful freedom and tying themselves down to each other. The conflict is pushed when Mike spends a night with a young waitress who he discovers is just under the age of consent, and her father threatens him with jail unless he marries her (under an apparent law? what?). While the narrative leading up to the climax rings of outdated and antiquated politics, the film has a number of interesting things to say about the push of young people to progress from the ideas of their grandparents (a refrain on a couple of occasions), and performances by Wilson, Arline Judge, and John Halliday (as a professor mentor of Mike) are lovingly and carefully done. And much of that seems to be related to La Cava's genuine attention towards his characters, even with material that may on quick glance be out of his wheelhouse, but again exploring the ramifications of an outside party into an established routine (though in this case it is an introduction from urge, desire, and confusion rather than comedic circumstances (see My Man Godfrey or 5th Ave Girl). The film does not entirely land, and its impact is questionable (though all of the characters end up in a position better than originally rather than going a forced tragic route as it seemed to be headed), but it is more than an interesting curiosity in La Cava's work.

April 24, 2020