Along Came Youth, released December 20, 1930. Directed by Lloyd Corrigan and Norman Z. McLeod. Starring Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers, Frances Dee, and Stuart Erwin. Released by Paramount Pictures. Runtime 74 minutes.
Where to See It
Along Came Youth is in the public domain. Here’s a copy on YouTube.
Proof That It’s Pre-Code
- Frances Dee and Betty Boyd appear briefly looking out a window in lingerie, but with all the sexiness and care of an underwear advertisement.
- A garden of scantily clad nymph statues leads to some vaguely risque situations, from a dandy “swabbing” one to Stuart Erwin stumbling head first into another’s chest.
- Near-sighted Stuart Erwin, thinking that she is a horse, ends up enthusiastically patting Mathilde Comont’s rear end.
Along Came Youth: Steeple-chaste
“Oh, I’m living a lie.”
My New Years Resolution in the year 2026 was to write more reviews on my blog. Were the masses demanding it? No. Was I excited to dive into the newly public domain films of 1930? Long time readers will know that that answer is also no.
Is it because last year I co-wrote a book called Pre-Code Essentials and, deep down, despite seeing hundreds of movies released in this era, I’m worried that maybe I missed an essential somewhere along the way? Yes. (No points on guessing that the most emotionally insecure answer would be the correct one.) Thankfully, our first outing this year, Along Came Youth, isn’t essential or interesting or really much of anything, but I guess it’s better than nothing, though I can’t be too sure of that either.
Larry Brooks (Charlie ‘Buddy’ Rogers) is a destitute American whose life has spun out of control since arriving in England and losing his fortune sponsoring a racehorse named “Gangster.” He is eager to make money so he can romance Elinor (Frances Dee), a scion facing ruin who is being pressured to make a society match. But, most importantly, Ambrose (Erwin) is Buddy’s sidekick, a schleppy dweeb who keeps losing his glasses and can’t see anything without them. At one point, he’s told to place a clock on the mantel; he instead places a bucket of coal. When asked what time it is, he stares into the reflective metal and answers “half past.”
So it goes. Along Came Youth seems haphazard at best, a mishmash of incidents and scenes that feel improvised as if to exclusively avoid making jokes that connect to anyone with a pulse. Brooks starts off as a menswear model before taking a job as a chef to a wealthy Spaniard. He can’t cook, so he arranges various schemes, from getting the food from a local restaurant to hiring a house staff who can pieces together a meal. As part of this deal, he ends up escorting a large Spanish señora around (lots of humor coming from her girth here) plus some assorted mischief from having to deal with Dee’s quintet of identically dressed mischievous little brothers.
Comic props and situations pile up on one another until the finale, a ten-minute non-comedic steeple chase, finally puts the whole film out to pasture. There’s a certain desperation to the proceedings, as if in the process of filming both directors realized that their lead wasn’t charming or sly enough to properly entertain and that the movie needed more and more and more until they forgot everything they had. One plot point revolves around the horse loathing Erwin’s character and wanting to chase him down and murder him; if the film ends in a chase, surely you think that would come up? But, no, it’s so completely forgotten, Erwin ends the film wanting to give the horse a big congratulations. Whoever wrote one of those gags clearly wasn’t speaking with whoever wrote the other.
Charles ‘Buddy’ Rogers, at the peak of his time as “American’s Boyfriend” in the early 1930s, looks like he’s stepped out of an Arrow collar advertisement. His voice does kind of resemble that of a chipmunk, though. He’s pleasing and sweet and can take a nice tumble, but he’s very much of the eager-go-getter type that feels much more connected to the 1920s than the 30s; Cagney could eat this guy for dinner.
The available print for Along Came Youth looks good and is certainly missing a lot of pitfalls of its 1930s brethren, though, script-wise, it feels like its been assembled from scraps. There were a couple of jokes that got a smile from me– “What are you men doing here, breathing?!“– but it’s a pretty tidy slog overall, and I was genuinely surprised by the sheer number of fat jokes this movie contained. But I guess it could be worse.
Man, that ‘Indifference’ rating at the top is really doing all the hard work for this review, isn’t it?
Trivia, Links, Etc.
- I appreciate the art of using your imagination and giving into the fiction of film, but England here looks so much like Southern California that it’s downright distracting.
- I don’t always re-read my reviews before publishing (as I’m sure some of you know), but I did a double check on this one and at various points listed this movie’s title as Youth Comes Along, Youth Came Along, and Along Youth Came. I don’t think I improved upon the real title of the film, but I don’t think that title holds any particularly appealing qualities either.
- A fairly typical contemporaneous review here from Motion Picture, mostly interested in praising Stuart Erwin’s comedic chops while trying not to bag on the picture outright.
- External links:
