As Young as You Feel

As Young As You Feel (1951) is a Marily Monroe film from her 1951 pre-stardom era, but is a departure from her usual fare in that era. It's not a "battle of the sexes" romantic comedy, but a light drama with two themes. The first is the issue of mandatory retirement, and the second is the relative importance of career and love life.

Monty Wooley is given a mandatory retirement notice when he turns 65. He notices that the policy quoted in the notice is from some corporation he has never heard of. After much research, he discovers first, that they are, indeed, the parent company, and second, that nobody in his subsidiary knows the identity of the president of the parent company. Taking advantage of that, he pretends to be the corporate president himself, and sends a letter to the head of his own small printing company, announcing that he will arrive for a plant tour. During this visit, he magnanimously reverses the mandatory retirement policy, and thinks he has pulled off the perfect scam until he discovers that they have scheduled him to speak to the chamber of commerce. He delivers a rousing speech, which gets nationwide press coverage. This puts the parent company in a real bind. They can't fire him or even unmask him because their stock goes sharply up, the unions get more cooperative, etc.

Meanwhile, Wooley lives with his son, daughter, and granddaughter. His would-be son-in-law works for the same company, and is holding off on marriage until he gets a promotion and can support them properly. As is always the case in films of this era, there is a happy ending for all.

Marilyn Monroe plays the secretary of the head of the printing company. It is interesting to watch the sexist way her boss treats her, but this is still not a major role for her. She is just barely pre-stardom.

NUDITY REPORT

None. We see Marilyn Monroe showing a hint of cleavage in three different dresses.

DVD info from Amazon

barebones, full screen only

Your enjoyment of this film will have a lot to do with whether you enjoy Monty Wooley's acting style, and frankly, I didn't enjoy this one as much as the 1951 romantic comedies with Marilyn in small parts, but As Young as You Feel is still popular, possibly because the themes are still relevant, or because the iconoclasts among us enjoy watching grandpa beat the corporate machine.

The Critics Vote ...

TV Guide 3/5

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 6.2/10

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, this is a C.