Over 21

Max Wharton (Alexander Knox), 39, is the editor of the New York Bulletin -- or he was, until he announces to his boss over the Teletype that he's quitting to join the army. Robert Gow (Charles Coburn), who owns the paper, is furious. Wharton is the Bulletin. Without him there's no newspaper. But what Wharton wants is to be close to the war. And his wife, Polly (Irene Dunne), wants to be close to him. And so she finishes up her latest movie script and goes to live near the barracks. She suffers life in a bungalow that has no shower, lights that you have to turn on and off from the outside, a refrigerator that will make a hideous noise when she's lucky (that means it's working), moths and other niceties. Meanwhile, Max is starting to believe the saw that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Supposedly, anyone over 21 has great difficulty in learning what one needs to learn to become an officer.

It's a lie, says Polly. But she's not sure whether she wants him to graduate or not. If he fails, he can go back to the paper, his baby, the thing he's constantly worrying about when he isn't worried about his tests. Gow has been calling her constantly, trying to talk to Max, but Polly won't let him, not when he has more important things on his mind.

Finally, Gow tells Polly that he has to sell the paper. Polly stops him in the only way she can. She tells him Max will write editorials from the barracks. But there's no way Max could handle the extra work load, so she writes the editorials herself.

The British critic, Leslie Halliwell, sums up this movie in his Film Guide: "Thin star comedy based on Ruth Gordon's play about her own predicament; not for the wider audience, and not very good anyway." Irene Dunne and Charles Coburn are good, as always, but you can see them in other movies.