everything you have heard about this movie is true.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Doris Day and her two sisters all fall for composer Gig Young in Young at Heart. However, even though his last name is featured in the title, Gig Young isn't the male lead. Doris wins out over her sisters, and she and Gig become engaged. In walks Frank Sinatra. He's Gig's musical arranger, and when he visits the family to help with some music, he clashes with Doris. She's sunshine and daisies; he's a dark raincloud. They bicker and banter as he tries to impart his cynical wisdom and she tries to brighten his outlook. I think you can guess what happens next.Ethel Barrymore, Dorothy Malone, and Robert Keith make up the adult family chaperones—would you leave your three daughters alone in the house with two strange men?—and a variety of composers contribute to the songs Frankie and Doris sing, although not every one was written for the film. "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)", "Someone to Watch Over Me", "Just One of Those Things", and of course the title song, are performed in the movie. While some scenes are cute, I found an equal number of scenes to be depressing. In real life, we've all found it tempting to try and cheer up a perpetually grumpy person, but in a movie, it's a little tiring. Yes, it's Frank Sinatra so we want to forgive him, but who really wants to see Doris "Ms. Sunshine" Day struggle so much to make him smile?

At the time they made this movie, Frank Sinatra and Doris Day were both on the cusp of filling out the iconic images they'd become in a few short years and show remarkable chemistry as (potentially...seemingly?) ill-fated lovers in a picture-postcard Connecticut town who get married and move to a tenement in Manhattan. It's too bad they didn't make another film together. YOUNG AT HEART (1954) is an oddball family drama, incredibly downbeat in parts, with an ending that's 180 degrees away from the one in FOUR DAUGHTERS (1938) which, like this film, was adapted from Fannie Hurst's novel, "Sister Act." (Sinatra plays the part John Garfield played in the earlier film.) Except for a beach scene, it was all shot entirely on Warner Bros. soundstages and backlots. Sinatra and Day sing a lot but don't duet till the end. Sinatra sings more than Day and gets better songs, including some Gershwin and Cole Porter standards. Sinatra's solos are quintessential Sinatra. It's just him sitting at the piano, with his hat on, playing and singing to his heart's content, usually in a shabby club just before closing. Musically, it rarely gets better than this. I wish there'd been more of these numbers. The strange but colorful supporting cast includes Ethel Barrymore, Gig Young, Robert Keith (Brian's dad), Dorothy Malone, Lonny Chapman, and pre-Skipper Alan Hale Jr. These actors are all fine, but I would have preferred to see the two stars in something that wasn't cluttered with so many other people. This was only the second film Sinatra made after his incredible Oscar-winning comeback in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953). (In the interim, he'd played a presidential assassin—part of a hit team working for a high-level conspiracy—in SUDDENLY, 1954.) Sinatra's still a notably skinny guy here and looks much younger than his 38 years. He plays a talented musician who doesn't believe he has a chance at success. He mopes a lot and browbeats himself and resents others' success and always has a cigarette dangling from his lips. Plus, he keeps his hat on in the house. Doris almost weds Gig Young but dumps him at the last minute for his much needier friend, Sinatra. She tries to change the grumpy Sinatra, to make him happier. Good luck. Why didn't these stars ever reteam? Especially late in life, guided by a master director at the top of his game. What a film that would have made. YOUNG AT HEART's director, Gordon Douglas, went on to direct Sinatra in four films in the 1960s, including two of the star's best, ROBIN AND THE SEVEN HOODS (1964) and THE DETECTIVE (1968).

There was a total of 4 present and future Oscar winners in this film. By 1954, Frank Sinatra and Ethel Barrymore had won and within 2 years Dorothy Malone would be running down the Oscar aisle. Gig Young would follow 13 years after that.This is a highly entertaining film and the singing by Frank and Doris will just woo you to no end. The flaws have to be that no one in her right mind would accept Frank as a husband here. As Barney Sloane, he depicted an embittered, brooding person who blamed society for everything that went awry in his life. Secondly, after jilting him at the altar on their wedding day,how could Gig Young subsequently show up at the family's house for Christmas? This was rather tacky.Amazing that all 3 sisters fell for Mr. Young, but no one wound up with him.Note that David Keith would co-star with Doris Day the following year, as Barney Loomis, family friend in the fantastic "Love Me or Leave Me," and then co-star with Dorothy Malone, as her father again, in Malone's Oscar winning "Written on the Wind." Of course, Malone wasn't as sweet there; she ultimately caused his demise. (Remember the staircase scene with the loud music blaring?)Aunt Jesse, played by the venerable Ethel Barrymore, was too sweet here. She looked more like Wistler's Mother in the scene on the beach with that huge hat.

FRANK SINATRA followed up his "From Here To Eternity" triumph by starring opposite DORIS DAY in a musical remake of "Four Daughters" called YOUNG AT HEART. He gets even better song material than Day, including memorable versions of "Young at Heart" and "One for My Baby", but Day is compensated by a nice dramatic role that gets her brand of warmth and sincerity, as well as a duet with Sinatra on "You, My Love".ETHEL BARRYMORE is the elderly aunt and ROBERT KEITH is the father, while GIG YOUNG plays the young man that Day almost marries until she discovers that her sister is broken-hearted over their upcoming marriage. Instead, she runs off with the loner, Barny (Sinatra), and has a rather tumultuous marriage that she's determined to salvage. This version of the tale has her succeed, avoiding the downbeat ending of the original in which the John Garfield character (played by Sinatra)died.It's pleasant, nostalgic and the kind of musical they never make any more. Particularly sensitive performances from Sinatra, Day and Gig Young under Gordon Douglas' direction. Worth seeing for fans of Day and Sinatra especially.The only big difference between this and the original is that color and music have been added. Otherwise, the script is pretty close to the 1938 version directed by Michael Curtiz.