Well, I didn't have to wait long to find a Borzage film to grab onto and enjoy. I picked Young America because, at a svelte seventy minutes, it's the shortest film in the collection, but also because I like to keep things fresh, and this is one of the few sound offerings in the package.
The film provides a refreshing and different spin on the usual tales of trouble youths: where most films show them as wayward toughs just looking to rob and steal and start fights, and maybe have them be unconvincingly converted to goodness at the end, our protagonists here, Art Simpson (Tom Conlon) and 'Nutty' Beamish (Ray Borzage), are not bad kids, they're just don't think of the consequences of their actions, and while Art's known as the "worst kid in town", many of their scraps come as a result of attempting to do good, exhibiting "a good deed never goes unpunished." We begin in juvenile court, where the judge (played perfectly by a young, wiry Ralph Bellamy, almost a decade before he would grow tired with Hollywood, getting typecast so thoroughly that it became known as a "Ralph Bellamy type") is sentencing kids to state school and the like, before we're introduced to Art, who stole a car but claimed he was just moving it because it was neat a fire hydrant. From there, he gets into other scrapes (such as getting suspended for a fight after defending a girl he liked from a bully who was harassing her) and when Nutty's grandmother comes down ill and can't afford the medicine, Art and Nutty, trying to do something good but not thinking of the consequences, break in to Jack Doray (Spencer Tracy)'s drug store. Doray is unsympathetic, so flippant and sure of this kid's bad credentials that Bellamy finds himself in contempt of court several times, but his wife Edie (Doris Kenyon) has seen the kids and shares the judge's disposition that it's not punishment but loving support that these children need, and once Art's aunt (Sarah Padden) abandons him and he can begins weeping because he's sure he's going to be put into state school, Edie steps up and decides to adopt him, much to Jack's chagrin.
From there, the film proceeds a little more predictably, with Edie setting up Art with tests of goodness that he ends up failing with good reasons, but because of Jack's negativity about him, he ends up being misunderstood or fleeing, before he inevitably finds a chance to redeem himself and Jack sees the error of his ways. Both the failure of the test and the eventual redemption are over-the-top and outlandish contrived (his young friend inexplicably dies of nothing, and after being kidnapped by robbers he witnessed at Doray's drug store, he crashes their car when they attempt to shoot at Jack, following behind in a police car), but it gets the point across, and the characters are so well-developed, and you want to see it conclude happily that you don't mind how much they cheated to get there.
This film gives me hope for Borzage because, as much ordinary TCM early morning fare that they may be (the packaging and former unavailability make the films seem more rare and special and desirable than they really are), Young America showed that Borzage can make an interesting, entertaining, worthwhile film, and have it be different enough that it's worth putting in the Benemoth Box Set, and personally, I'm really looking forward to seeing what the other eight Borzages have in store.
{Grade: 7.5/10 (B-) / #9 (of 15) of 1932}
The film provides a refreshing and different spin on the usual tales of trouble youths: where most films show them as wayward toughs just looking to rob and steal and start fights, and maybe have them be unconvincingly converted to goodness at the end, our protagonists here, Art Simpson (Tom Conlon) and 'Nutty' Beamish (Ray Borzage), are not bad kids, they're just don't think of the consequences of their actions, and while Art's known as the "worst kid in town", many of their scraps come as a result of attempting to do good, exhibiting "a good deed never goes unpunished." We begin in juvenile court, where the judge (played perfectly by a young, wiry Ralph Bellamy, almost a decade before he would grow tired with Hollywood, getting typecast so thoroughly that it became known as a "Ralph Bellamy type") is sentencing kids to state school and the like, before we're introduced to Art, who stole a car but claimed he was just moving it because it was neat a fire hydrant. From there, he gets into other scrapes (such as getting suspended for a fight after defending a girl he liked from a bully who was harassing her) and when Nutty's grandmother comes down ill and can't afford the medicine, Art and Nutty, trying to do something good but not thinking of the consequences, break in to Jack Doray (Spencer Tracy)'s drug store. Doray is unsympathetic, so flippant and sure of this kid's bad credentials that Bellamy finds himself in contempt of court several times, but his wife Edie (Doris Kenyon) has seen the kids and shares the judge's disposition that it's not punishment but loving support that these children need, and once Art's aunt (Sarah Padden) abandons him and he can begins weeping because he's sure he's going to be put into state school, Edie steps up and decides to adopt him, much to Jack's chagrin.
From there, the film proceeds a little more predictably, with Edie setting up Art with tests of goodness that he ends up failing with good reasons, but because of Jack's negativity about him, he ends up being misunderstood or fleeing, before he inevitably finds a chance to redeem himself and Jack sees the error of his ways. Both the failure of the test and the eventual redemption are over-the-top and outlandish contrived (his young friend inexplicably dies of nothing, and after being kidnapped by robbers he witnessed at Doray's drug store, he crashes their car when they attempt to shoot at Jack, following behind in a police car), but it gets the point across, and the characters are so well-developed, and you want to see it conclude happily that you don't mind how much they cheated to get there.
This film gives me hope for Borzage because, as much ordinary TCM early morning fare that they may be (the packaging and former unavailability make the films seem more rare and special and desirable than they really are), Young America showed that Borzage can make an interesting, entertaining, worthwhile film, and have it be different enough that it's worth putting in the Benemoth Box Set, and personally, I'm really looking forward to seeing what the other eight Borzages have in store.
{Grade: 7.5/10 (B-) / #9 (of 15) of 1932}
