Never Too Late

Before Bud Yorkin and Norman Leer shot to fame for films such as "Start the Revolution Without Me" or TV shows like "All in the Family", they had a big stage success with "Never Too Late". And, unlike most Broadway shows that make it to the big screen, the starts of the play, Paul Ford and Maureen O'Sullivan, starred in BOTH!

The story is very simple. Edith is in her 50s and finds herself pregnant. However, oddly, her husband just seems to be in a very foul mood throughout the film...complaining about pretty much everything! You'd think he'd be happy and initially shocked...but his reaction just seemed bizarre and inappropriate. And, speaking of inappropriate, when the daughter and her husband hear about it, suddenly the daughter (Connie Stevens) insists she also wants a baby and her husband (Jim Hutton) also then spends the rest of the film complaining! And, after a while, I just got tired of it!

While the story is fun, at least initially, it just didn't seem the least bit realistic nor enjoyable. Yelling isn't comedy...and this is pretty much yelling from start to finish. It has some good moments here and there...but overall it left me flat.

By the way, if you watch the film, notice that they never use the word 'toilet' in the scene with the toilet. They also act as if it's something unmentionable. Too weird.

Since this film followed a successful Broadway play, I can only conclude that the play must have been funnier. I found Paul Ford's character completely repugnant. He is a blowhard who has no appreciation for anyone around him. This is supposed to be hilarious but I just found it irritating and sad. The idea that a lovely, charming woman like Maureen O'Sullivan would be married to the crude, unattractive Paul Ford strains credulity. Not the fault of the actor - he is very funny in other movies - it is instead the result of the hostile screenplay.

... as this film clearly demonstrates. This is a cute little film about a 50 year old woman (Maureen O'Sullivan) and her 60 year old husband (Paul Ford) who find out they are going to be parents a second time. Their first and only child is a 25 year old married daughter (Connie Stevens) who, along with her 27-year old husband, lives with her parents in their large home. Her husband works for her father in his lumber supply business. This was produced by the team of Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin, and you can't help but feel they were warming up for "All in the Family" with this one, there are so many similarities. The middle-aged wife is named Edith, and prior to the pregnancy being discovered, she is running around the home at a manic pace doing housework. The son-in-law is constantly being kicked around and disrespected by his father-in-law, and the daughter is constantly bursting into tears and becoming hysterical. All that's missing is the social commentary of All in the Family.

Maureen O'Sullivan's character feels a new-found pride and femininity in her condition. Ford's character, however, is embarrassed beyond belief. After all, it proves at their advanced age they're still having sex! What's worse, they live in a small New England town where everyone knows them and stops and stares at them on the street. The grown daughter is unhappy because at the tender age of 25 she has to grow up. Mom is too old to be keeping such a large house in her condition and now it is the daughter's turn to do the cooking, the cleaning, etc. No more sleeping late, handing her dirty laundry to mom, and heading off for an afternoon of tennis. Her solution - if she gets pregnant too, her cheapskate father will have to spring for a paid housekeeper.

Sure, many of the values demonstrated here are quite dated and even sexist, but it's a cute romp with lots of humor, and who would ever have thought that the 60's could be looked back upon with nostalgia as a simpler time. Well, in this film they can be.

Warner Bros. Business plans seem to go like this produce a Frank Sinatra movie (with Sinatra having his own building on the lot, a Troy Donahue movie, and having the movie version of a hit play: My Fair Lady, Camelot, Music Man, A Majority Of One, Gypsy etc.

Jack Warner bought the movie rights to this play and Never Too Late WB wanted Spencer Tracy and Kate Hepburn to star but Tracy declined to to health and Kate wanted to be with Tracy. Other actresses such as Roz Russell, Susan Hayward,were considered for the role Maureen O Sullivan played.on the stag. The film was produced with Paul Ford and Maureen O' Sullivan with Connie Stevens getting 2md billing behind Ford. The Film was produced starring Paul Ford, and Connie Stevens and Jim Hutton and two lovely professional actresses Maureen O Sullivan and Jane Wyatt. Ms. Stevens worked her way up the ladder at WB first being Cricket Blake on Hawaiian Eye and then a series of WB movies with Troy Donahue: Parrish, Susan Slade and Palm Sprigs Weekend. This film brought Connie over the title star billing. She is gorgeous in this movie and was cast because she was lovely to look at and a fine actress. And because Ford and O Sullivan had no pull with teenage audiences. This comedy is enjoyable but not laugh out loud funny.

Jim Hutton free of his MGM contract worked steadily around town and was fine in this film. I can't say Jim Hutton ever gave a bad performance. Hutton worked with the best: Cary Grant, John Wayne, Steve McQueen, Burt Lancaster, Charlton Heston, Bob Hope, Roz Russell, George Peppard Lana Turner. Jane Fonda Yvette Mimieux, and most successfully Paula Prentiss.

This film was the subject of a lawsuit as the creators of this film objected to All In The Family as a riff off this storyline; they lost.

PS. This has nothing to do with Never Too Late but both Hutton and Stevens wanted to play they young couple in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf at WB. Jack Warner gave no encouragement to Hutton but told Stevens to talk to Mike Nichols to no avail.

I have to put this one on my personal top 10 list. Its quaint and very well cast. Maureen O'Sullivan is awesome, and Paul Ford, well what can you say about him, he is magnificent. They play the expecting middle-aged couple to perfection. Everything about this movie is classy, especially the ladies outfits. Women knew how to dress back then, and looked like ladies. The dialogue is snappy & funny, and the film never drags, but is funny from start to finish.

If you want a nice little movie to watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon, to cheer you up, this is one DVD to pop in the machine and watch.