"Young at Heart" on 4/28/2024 @ 3pm ET / 1pm MT
Apr 29, 2024 15:25:26 GMT
Andrea Doria, Fading Fast, and 1 more like this
Post by topbilled on Apr 29, 2024 15:25:26 GMT
Doris and Frank
What we have is a feel-good movie despite the romantic ups and downs of three sisters and an outsider who is driven to attempt suicide. Of course, we may not have ended on a sentimental note if Frank Sinatra hadn’t insisted his character miraculously survive. The original story, produced by Warner Brothers was called FOUR DAUGHTERS–– as opposed to the three in this remake–– and it had the hard-edged extended member of the family (played by John Garfield) succeeding when he tried killing himself.
I guess Sinatra felt it was too much of a downer. Or that after dying a year earlier in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, he wasn’t going to experience another on-screen death.
As a result of Sinatra’s character living at the last moment, the other romantic possibility (Gig Young) for Doris Day’s character does not get reunited with her. In fact, Young, who is coveted by all three sisters, doesn’t end up with any of them. Day stays married to Sinatra, and the other two gals (played by Dorothy Malone and Elisabeth Fraser) find other men to marry.
Although all three sisters’ love lives are featured, the focus remains on Day, then on Sinatra, to ensure musical selections get full attention. There are plenty of scenes in which Day croons solo, usually singing to her family, none of whom ever duet with her.
Sinatra has his own scenes crooning solo, often at a piano. One bit in the middle of the film has him perform a fantastic rendition of ‘One for My Baby.’
It isn’t until the movie’s coda that we finally glimpse Day and Sinatra performing a tune together. It feels like watching a series of early music videos, loosely hung on a romantic plot. Nonetheless the approach to the material is still highly effective and daresay intimate.
One thing I enjoy most about Doris Day is the love and compassion she projects on camera towards her costars. She seems particularly close to Elisabeth Fraser, and I suspect they had a strong off-camera friendship since Fraser went on to have roles in three other Doris Day pictures. Plus Day hits it off nicely with Gig Young who also turns up in more of the actress’s later films.
In addition to this, there’s good rapport between Day and Ethel Barrymore who portrays the kind spinster aunt in the story. It does feel like a family…that they all enjoyed each other’s company, and appreciated the chance to make a motion picture together.