Touches You

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Best movie ever!

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Someone said on this board that they liked the film but were uncertain was to the plot for most of the film. Actually, that person is correct, now that I think about it. I read the plot so I knew what it was supposed to be, but actually that plot didn't unfold right away.Margie, played by the beautiful Marian Marsh, lives with her mother and wants nothing more than to get her out of the hot apartment and into someplace cool. It's summer in New York - I've lived there, and for those who have "summer in New York" needs no explanation. Just add, "in 1929" and you have an idea of the suffering of these people.Margie's boyfriend Jimmie is relentlessly cheerful, which aggravates Margie even more. Then the final blow -- her sister Sophie (Anita Page), her sister's unemployed husband, and their baby move in with them. The couple bickers constantly because Sophie's husband can't seem to find a job.Margie ends up modeling a fur for a wealthy man, Mr. Harding (Warren William) in the salon where she works, and really catches his eye. The coat went for $16,000. I looked it up in today's money. Six figures. Well, $16,000 isn't exactly cheap now.Margie notices some of the models in the shop are kept by wealthy men. She actually starts to consider it. Then Sophie's husband hits her, and Sophie wants a divorce. But the lawyer costs $200. Margie tries to get it from her boss, who refuses; Jimmie has it but he won't give it to her so her sister can get a divorce.Finally, she goes to see Mr. Harding, who is in the midst of a wild party. This is the best scene in the film. Boy, were they having fun.This is an okay movie, but supposedly the studio had high hopes for it. When it didn't become a massive hit, it hurt Marsh's career. However, I don't believe she cared all that much about acting. She was in it to help her family, and once she married, she retired.The end of this film is fun but strange. Warren William as usual is marvelous. He could be sly, mean, funny -- he's one reason I love TCM as it gives people an opportunity to see him. He died in 1948 at the age of 53.Marian Marsh is adorable here, with an angelic and doll-like beauty which she showed to good advantage as Trilby in Svengali. When John Barrymore asked her if anyone had commented on her resemblance to his then wife, Delores Costello, she said yes, the butcher who gave her liver for her cat had remarked upon it.Worth seeing for the performances.

Under 18 (1931-22)A light-hearted comedy drama with a few very serious moments. It's a sincere and touching story about two sisters trying to make it in the poor tenements of New York. They each have a man from the same neighborhood, one a loafer (and pool shark) and the other a sweet and goofy grocery delivery driver. Mom lives with one of the sisters who is the title character, a bit young to know what she wants.But not too young for the rich ladykilling man who sees the girl modeling an expensive fur. Which leads, roundabout, to the highlight of the movie, and twenty minute frenzy on the roof of a tall building in Manhattan. This pool party is a real height of the Roaring Twenties as they were winding into the early Depression. It's pure wild decadence, and director Archie Mayo really knew how to ramp it up without getting totally obscene. Great stuff.And a great contrast with the humble lives of the impoverished stars. None of the leading ladies or their men are names most of us recognize (the main star, Marian Marsh, has several great films to her name, namely "Svengali" and "Crime and Punishment"). It's Warren William, the rich fellow, who is the most famous of the bunch, and he's always a hoot to watch, slyly winning over women despite (or because of) his age. But there is another serious side to all of this, and that is the trap women faced then (far less than now) in having to find a man to help survive economically. The Depression has clearly made jobs scarce, even in New York (which was still humming in some ways). When Marsh's sister realizes her new husband would rather play pool than work, things go bad—and get worse when she has a child. So Marsh sees the folly of marriage even though her own boyfriend is a decent chap with a job. This fairly realistic portrayal of life at the time is the largest part of the movie.The party, however, is the most fun, and I would say you could, if impatient, skim ahead to that section, a little after halfway, and just see the craziness of the times. It reminded me of "Madame Satan" which uses the same kind of party—in a blimp—that is so wild and compelling it makes you wonder why these kinds of scenes disappeared by the time of the Hays Code.There is a slightly awkward feel to the script throughout the film, unfortunately, and the acting of some of the lesser characters is fair but not great, bringing the whole thing down to earth. Still, the best of it…well, give it a shot. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Under 18 (1931) ** (out of 4) A rather bland Pre-Code from Warner doesn't live up to any of its hype especially when you see the cast, the story and the innuendo in the title. Margie Evans (Marian Marsh) lives in poverty and thinks that marriage is the one way out but when her older sister (Anita Page) gets married and still lives poor, she sees another chance of making good. At her factory she learns that rich men can give women what they want with a few "favors" and Margie meets a possible candidate in the womanizing Raymond Harding (Warren William). The story, the title, the suggestive language and throw in Marsh, Page and William and yet the end result is still rather bland and boring. I was really surprised to see how tame and uninteresting this Pre-code was and it really does seem like the studio was trying to do a Pre-code without all the naughty stuff. When I say naughty there's certainly not going to be anything X-rated but if you're a fan of this genre then you know Warner was the king and could deliver perfect entertainment. Several things struck me about this production and the majority of it goes back to the screenplay. The story is rather tame and for the life of me I couldn't understand some of the twists and turns in the story. I won't give away the ending but what happens to the William's character is just downright silly and it gets even double with yet another twist. The main female character is just as confusing because she sells herself so that her sister can get a divorce and you have to wonder what the point of this was since you could have had the sister being unhappy and going into the arms of William to get a divorce. At just under 80-minutes there's quite a bit of dialogue with some of it being funny but the majority of it just doesn't contain enough spice to make up for everything else going on. Marsh is pretty good here even though the screenplay doesn't offer her too much. Those who have seen the Edward G. Robinson film FIVE STAR FINAL will remember the charming Marsh. William is doing William like no one else could and Page is always entertaining even if she spends most of her screen time just fighting with the husband. The sexuality level is pretty low throughout even though it's hinted at at times. UNDER 18 has all the elements for a good Pre-code but sadly the screenplay gets lost one scene after another and in the end you can't help but see it as a disappointment.

This is a very entertaining film and I enjoyed it very much, though I am quick to admit that it was far from sophisticated or polished. In so many ways, this is a wonderful example of a so-called "pre-Code" style of film--since it features story lines and dialog that would have been forbidden in Hollywood just a few years later thanks to pressure to actually enforce a rigid code of conduct and standards in film. Much of this pressure was not just from civic groups, but also due to flagging ticket sales, as the often explicit pre-Code films did well in urban areas but alienated so many other viewers. By today's standards, this film is relatively tame, but it's jaded views on marriage and sex may catch many today by surprise due to its frankness! The film starts with the younger sister (Margie) seeing her older sister get married and set off on the perfect life. However, soon afterwords, her father dies and she and her mother are forced to move to a low-rent apartment and life is a struggle. A bit later, her happy older sister and her husband and baby arrive--apparently the husband is really a lazy good-for-nothing and married life for sis is a living hell! In fact, throughout the first half of the movie, Margie is bombarded with so many messages that being a "nice girl" just doesn't pay and the way to get ahead is to sleep your way out of poverty! Granted that most times there is a friend or co-worker or boyfriend Jimmy who insists that in the long run this isn't true, but this view is definitely hard to believe based on how happy and successful the "bad girls" all seem to be! So, eventually, Margie feels compelled to try her hand at being bad--or at least by being a bit bad--by chasing rich playboy, Raymond Harding. Harding appears to be a very rich lecher and he seems so smitten with Margie that she seems sure to get the $200 she needs for her sister to divorce her rotten husband.The end of the movie is very satisfying to watch on one level but intellectually it seems like it was all very contrived. In other words, in the last few minutes of the film, the viewer was bombarded with a ton of wonderful endings that wrapped everything up too well to be believed. Few of these elements could rationally be believed, but for EVERYTHING to work out perfectly is a bit hard to accept. Plus, the final message of "nice girls really DO finish first" is muddled, as for so many bad girls in the film, they really did seem to end up better than the average nice lady! By the way, despite the title, there is no indication from the film that Margie or anyone else is underage and committing some sin! While Marian Marsh ("Margie") does look young, she seems to be playing a woman about 18 (her actual age at the time) and there's no mention of her being underage. I think the title was applied rather randomly--just in a jaded effort to encourage ticket sales due to salacious expectations by the audience! Also, Ms. Marsh just died last November--at the ripe old age of 93. Her older sister in the film, Anita Page, from what I can determine is still alive and as of 1/07, is in her 96th year!