Young and Willing (1943) User Reviews

It's like a prototype version of Friends

[AlsExGal · 5/10 · 31 December 2022]

This comedy from Paramount Pictures/United Artists and director Edward H. Griffith has six aspiring stage performers, Norman (William Holden), George (Eddie Bracken), Tony (James Brown), Kate (Susan Hayward), Dottie (Martha O'Driscoll), and Marge (Barbara Britton), all sharing an apartment to save on expenses. They have to keep their co-habitation a secret though, so as to not upset the morals of the day and risk immediate eviction. Their situation is upended by the arrival of cousin Muriel (Florence MacMichael) who wants to spill the beans on their arrangement, and playwright Arthur Kenny (Robert Benchley), a major Broadway figure who resided in the same apartment building in his younger years, and who has returned to recharge his creative batteries.

I found this more irritating than amusing. MacMichael uses an incredibly annoying cutesy baby voice that grates on the nerves. Neither the screenwriters nor the director succeeded in opening up the action much from its stage origins, and as such the majority of the film transpires in a single room. Future big-time movie stars Holden and Hayward are fine in their roles, but neither really displays much in the way of screen magnetism. Bracken gets to do most of the silliest shtick, naturally. This reminded me of a prototype version of Friends.

Susan Hayward is Young and Willing to Work Extra Hard!!!

[kidboots · 7/10 · 22 March 2012]

Even back in her early years of stardom Susan Hayward was always willing to go that extra bit further. The plot reminded me of a bargain basement "My Sister Eileen" and was based on a play by Francis Swann who admitted the story was mostly the true experiences of his sister Lyn (Kate in the movie), a young New York actress trying to win fame. Susan knew Lyn was in Hollywood at the time so got in touch with her and obtained first hand information on how to play her role.

Even though released by United Artists, the movie looked like a showcase for up and coming Paramount players. Also making a distinct impression and singled out for praise by the critics was baby talking Florence MacMichael from the original New York play "Out of the Frying Pan".

When Dottie (Martha O'Driscoll), Kate (Hayward), Margie (Barbara Britton, later from TV's "Mr. and Mrs. North"), Norman (William Holden), George (Eddie Bracken) and Tony, all aspiring actors who share the one apartment hear that producer Arthur Kenny (Robert Benchley) has moved into the apartment below them, they all try valiantly to get his attention. This is a fun though episodic movie - Hayward as Kate is the go-getter, the one in the bunch that you know is going to make it. She is the only one prepared to put on a slinky dress and vamp producer Kenny into letting them give an audition. Margie is the small town girl, secretly married to Tony and expecting a baby, Dottie is the dizzy one whose father is paying for the apartment. When Dottie's friend, irritating Muriel (MacMichael) smells a rat about Dottie's unusual living arrangements, she sends for Dottie's father and that creates a few funny moments as the boys try to sneak out of the apartment and avoid their equally dizzy landlady (Mabel Paige) at the same time. In yet another plot twist, Kenny recognises from the kid's rehearsal, the play he had left in a suitcase many years before - it was seized by the landlady when he couldn't pay his rent. The performance he sees is such a hilarious mess - he realises it would be a huge hit if it was produced for laughs.

Eddie Bracken, a fast rising Paramount comedian, made the most of his role with a few different disguises. Another interesting bit I read - part of the wall decoration consisted of original play bills featuring Eleanora Duse, Mrs. Leslie Carter and Edwin Booth.

Screwball comedy just misses being good

[grnhair2001 · 5/10 · 25 April 2015]

This is, in spirit if not release date, a late 30's movie about a group of struggling stage actors who share an apartment. Young viewers today won't understand why it's shocking to anyone that it's a co-ed apartment, but that is a crucial part of the plot, starting the ticking clock counting down to when the kids lose their chance to impress the producer with their acting in the mystery play they've discovered.

What's enjoyable here are a couple of the performances and the jokes about method acting. Eddie Bracken being an apple (no, you're not acting LIKE an apple. You ARE the apple) was my main reward for watching the film, but I also enjoyed Mabel Paige's turn as the loopy but goodhearted landlady. Florence MacMichael's voice is irritating to the modern ear, but she has a couple good moments as the corpse.

The young good-looking actors play rather bland characters and end up being, unfortunately, rather forgettable while the character actors get the juicy moments. The ending is not quite what you'd expect, which also earns it my respect.

I was never bored, and I laughed a few times, and I don't resent the 90 minutes I spent with it.

before they were stars

[skiddoo · 3 September 2011]

The movie went along well enough when they weren't acting out parts that were supposed to illustrate they were still neophytes with very little talent. There were many elements of a screwball comedy but as much as I was interested in seeing the cast at this stage in their careers, this movie was so amateurishly written almost any of us could think of ways to improve it substantially. And Florence MacMichael's voice gave me a headache.

There was a bottle of medicine that figured in the plot that was supposed to be helpful for an expectant mother. It seemed to be a mystery substance known only to fictional doctors.

I'd suggest that a 1943 audience would be annoyed, even angered, that the guys weren't all in the military and the gals were totally uninterested in anything but acting. This movie would have gone over a lot better before Pearl Harbor.

I prefer Robert Benchley's writing to his movie roles but I always find him enjoyable and he worked well with Mabel Paige as the two responsible adults with all these immature young people.

If you are a very tolerant and easy-going person who laughs readily, you might enjoy this movie as a light-hearted romp. If you want to know what these people were like then, you might want to see this movie. Everybody else would be happier avoiding it.

A Comedy?

[phawley-251-115921 · 6/10 · 24 October 2021]

The movie is a fast paced comedy, action oriented and a clear plot. Star power in the actors, and everyone delivered a fine performance. But for whatever reason, it wasn't funny.... and I love comedies. Perhaps it was the writing and plot. It didn't seem to have many funny scenes.

Fast-paced Nonsense Might Do for High School Play

[sobaok · 2/10 · 28 October 2002]

I found it hard to believe that a studio would waste the talents of William Holden and Susan Hayward on such an embarrasing, sophmoric script. Ms. Swann (screenwriter) capped her career writing for the dreadful TV series DARK SHADOWS. Holden and Hayward and the rest of the players put their heart and souls into this hard-to-watch comedy. They all play it to the hilt, but got no laughs out of me. Eddie Bracken did his usual shtick -- and Robert Brenchley (who I find more irritating than funny) does his usual thing. Breezy, likeable Barbara Britton is nice to watch and we get to see handsome James Brown in his underwear. Martha O'Driscoll is way over-the-top. This MIGHT have worked if the players were kids (17-20)-- instead we have actors in their mid-twenties looking pretty ridiculous. I usually don't like writing negative reviews, but I'm upset that I actually had to sit through this, based on a highly recommended review on IMDB. I actually BOUGHT the video. Yikes!

"I'm living here incognito." ... "I'll have you know this is a respectable house!"

[moonspinner55 · 2/10 · 3 September 2011]

Francis Swann's play "Out of the Frying Pan" becomes manic, cringe-inducing screwball comedy, completed in 1941, featuring William Holden and Susan Hayward in early career roles. Robert Benchley gives the witless proceedings a little kick portraying a theatrical producer who rents a room in a New York City boarding house under an alias, but is soon discovered by six would-be actors (guys and gals living together!) who share the apartment upstairs. Hayward, already possessing a distinct spark and a keen awareness of herself as a screen personality, shows up all the other young people in the cast, Holden included. Sub-plot about the ditzy blonde roommate whose father wants to take her home to Rhode Island is agonizingly unfunny, matched only by Florence MacMichael's grating performance as a helium-voiced relative of the girl who's anxious to put the kibosh on the male-female arrangement. One or two funny lines in the first act, otherwise a creaking, wheezing bore. * from ****

A little bit of comedy goes an awful long way.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 10 August 2015]

Overly talkie and filled with more ham than an Easter dinner, this variation on "Stage Door" has a group of actors and actresses sharing rooms in a boarding house and promising to remain chaste until they succeed on Broadway. Little do they realize that there's a famous producer living there as house chef, and between all the silly romantic complications and truly annoying characterizations, nothing much happens.

Future superstars William Holden and Susan Hayward add some curiosity value to this and do fine, while the eternally youthful Eddie Bracken is easily confused with Donald O'Connor as the comic relief of the group. Mabel Paige is adorable as the dotty landlady, but Florence MacMichael will make you pray for temporary deafness as the non-stop chatty Muriel who deserves that drug that they give to cats to keep them from meowing constantly. Robert Benchley adds his droll comedy as the producer in disguise. Apparently, Paramount studios filmed this and sold it to United Artists for distribution. Something makes me think that they were not too sad to be rid of it.

It's so much better than you'd think!

[Gypsy1962 · 9/10 · 24 March 2014]

I dearly love this movie -- it's been a favorite of mine for years. It's no Gone With the Wind, to be sure, but it's entertaining, witty, and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. The cast not only contains a pre-stardom William Holden and Susan Hayward, which alone is enough of a recommendation, but it has some absolutely priceless performances from Mabel Paige, Robert Benchley, Eddie Bracken, Martha O'Driscoll, and Florence MacMichael. The whole film, from start to finish, offers an implausible, screwball-type plot and performances, and it is absolute fun. There is truly never a dull moment -- and the more you see it, the more you'll appreciate it.

Aspiring Thespians

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 27 March 2013]

Paramount made this film in 1941, but the movie-going public didn't see Young And Willing until 1943 when the film was sold to United Artists to help them fulfill booking commitments. That it was held up for two years is always a bad sign.

It's not a horribly bad film, but not all that good. It concerns six people who are aspiring thespians who share an apartment. Bills such as they are are paid by Martha O'Driscoll who has a rich dad. The others living there are William Holden, Eddie Bracken, Susan Hayward, James Brown and Barbara Britton. It was agreed no romance, but Brown and Britton have already broken that rule, they are secretly married.

The young folks do struggle and when O'Driscoll's father learns she's been living coed he threatens to take her back to their small Illinois home town where family values prevail. The six of them pull all kinds of schemes to both keep O'Driscoll around and get a big break from playwright Robert Benchley.

One thing that truly drove me up the wall as much as it did to the characters on screen was Florence MacMichael's baby talking voice. She's a high minded young woman who finks on the arrangement to O'Driscoll's dad. That woman was hard to take from the moment she opened her mouth until the rest of the film was over. She made me glad when it was over.

This had to be the ultimate of what Bill Holden called his 'Smiling Jim' roles before Sunset Boulevard which he ached to get out of. But at least Young And Willing being the last film the public saw Holden in before he joined the Army Air Corps kept him in the public eye. The public wouldn't see him again until 1946 in Blaze At Noon.

Beware of Florence MacMichael.

Hilarious gags and fast-paced wit

[HotToastyRag · 8/10 · 2 August 2018]

In the 1940s, it simply wasn't proper for a man and a woman to cohabitate without being married. Let alone three men and three women! Although they've all taken a pledge not to get romantically involved with each other until their acting careers have taken off, young love just can't be stopped. When one of the girls' father stops by for an impromptu visit, the boys are forced into a hasty exit to pretend they don't live in the apartment.

The entire film takes place in the one-room apartment, so it's easy to imagine Francis Swann's original play onstage. It feels like one lengthy Frasier episode, with gags, mistaken identities, and situational comedy, so if you like that sort of fast-paced hilarity, you'll probably like this one. I couldn't stop laughing. I love fast-paced wit, and it's always funny to laugh at fledging actors if you once were one yourself.

While William Holden and Susan Hayward play two of the roommates, it's Florence MacMichael who stays in my memory as the funniest one in the show. She's the thorn in everyone's side, and while she might annoy some audience members with her constant baby-talk, I found it adorable. Young and Willing isn't a classic most people remember, but it's certainly funny enough to rent during a fun girls' weekend.

Watched a very poor print of a very Good comedy

[au561 · 8/10 · 14 October 2019]

I found this on Youtube in multiple clips and downloaded it and put it together in one file. I'm very glad I did. It's one of the brightest, funniest, and original comedies I've seen in a long time. The cast is filled with young up and coming future stars and they shine wonderfully. The first half is well setup and the laughs in the second half come fast and often. The old hands give the movie a solid foundation for the newcomers to play on. I would love to find a good print because this film deserves to be seen as good as new. Track it down and forgive the print quality and enjoy the show.

top notch film

[sventimiglia23582 · 10/10 · 10 October 2000]

william holden stars in his last film before going to war. the film did not get the credit it should have so i'm giving it now. it is a near perfect comedy that keeps going and never slows down. william holden susan hayward martha o'driscoll and eddie bracken all turn in fine performances but the always great robert benchley steals the show. this film is well worth a four star treatment.

Very good movie

[bobcarolan-1 · 8/10 · 12 November 2009]

I love this movie but I fear that it is now, possibly, lost forever. If there is a print of this movie, I hope that it can be restored and put back out. I last saw it on Night Owl Theater, on TV, in the 1960's. You can see that I have remembered it for a very long time. I know that "Out of the Frying Pan" is still periodically revived, but I really want to see the 1943 movie. I understand that this movie is unavailable. I was unaware that William Holden and Susan Hayward were in it. I do recall Eddie Bracken. It would be great if this movie could be put on the list for restoration. There are few other movies that would be more suitable for restoration