Starring Spencer Tracy, Doris Kenyon and Ralph Bellamy
Produced by Fox Film Corporation
And now, on a very special episode of 100 Years of Movies...
Young America is a message movie. For me, movies that have a "I am going to pound my theme over your head" point to get across may have the highest degree of difficulty of any genre. And despite the involvement of familiar names like Spencer Tracy and director Frank Borzage, this just does not come close to clearing the bar.
The film starts with Judge Blake allowing Edith Doray to shadow him for a day as hears the cases of juvenile delinquents before settling in on the story of one of the boys, Arthur Simpson, who is "the worst kid in town."
It will shock no one to learn that Arthur has a heart of gold but ends up in some unfortunate situations. Edith gets Art a job at the pharmacy her husband Jack operates. But of course, that next day, a bully is getting handsy with a girl on her way to school, so Art steps in. Then in school, the bully torments Art's friend "Nutty" and Art attacks the kid leading to a suspension. The bully then pummels Art after school, making him late for his job and getting him fired.
The movie goes crazy when Nutty's grandmother falls ill and needs her medicine. It's late so after trying to find Jack, the boys break into the pharmacy to get the medicine. They end up in front of the judge who takes pity and suspends their sentence, but only on the condition that they never speak to one another again.
So a week after this, Nutty gets sick. Art goes to see him and Nutty dies. There was no typo there. The kid just dies. But not before giving us the most rote "I am about to die" speech of all time. Every cliche of that speech is there to behold.
There's a plotline that involves the Dorays taking Art into their house, but frankly this whole think is pointless. Adults don't understand kids. Okay, got it. Any solution to that you'd care to share? No? Okay, moving on...
The acting is good. Tommy Conlon plays Art and is kind of great. Ralph Bellamy on the otherhand decides to play "sympathetic judge" as "bored, overly-nonchalant judge" and it fails pretty miserably.
Young America was a three star film and then Nutty gave that speech and died and so did the film.
*1/2 out of *****
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