Under Eighteen

I expected this to be better. It's an old-style melodrama but misses its mark in contrasting the lives of the haves and the have-nots of depression drenched New York. It's not boring but it feels very superficial and lacks the grit, dirt and despair which you know was really there. Everyone is a just little too nice.

It was made to cheer folks up, it wasn't meant to be a scathing attack of social inequalities and government incompetence which is understandable considering when it was made. It wasn't made for us, it was made to a standard formula for a very different population who wanted uplifting. As such, other than as a snapshot of the bland pulp fiction being served up in 1931, there's not much in this for us.

One thing which is totally unforgivable is the stylist who put Warren William in that absurd swimming costume -surprised he ever worked again after wearing that!