"Art and Nutty are flying across the Pacific": a drawing made by one of the boys at school and you have understood that Frank Borzage,probably the greatest American director of the era,who made more masterpieces than anyone in the thirties ,can move you with anything.I wrote once that if they had given a Nobel Prize of cinema,Borzage would have won it hands down.
The movie begins,in a way,just when Wellmann's extraordinary "wild boys of the road" (1933) left.The judge could have been the same who took pity on Tommy and Eddie.Spencer Tracy may be the star of the movie,he is actually eclipsed by the two young brats and the grandma;Raymond Borzague speaks "like silence" ,and in the scene in which he is dying ,he reaches a peak of emotion and pathos;no one directed children as Borzage did:just think of this sublime scene in "no greater glory" when the young boy ,with his eyes bright with fever ,wants to join his "army" and become an officer and a gentleman.The grannie is also deeply moving when she she implores" let me my little boy!I've got only him in this world.
"Young America" deals with the incommunicability between the children and the grown-ups: all they do backfires against them ,although their intentions are good.Some adults will never know (Art's aunt) ,some have already understood (Tracy's wife) and some eventually made up their mind and open their heart(Tracy).The only weakness of this movie,IMHO,is the hold-up with hostage-taking which seems out of place in a story so delicate and so intimate .
Frank Borzage was a candid soul,all that he made came straight from the heart.I wish we had a director like him today!
The movie begins,in a way,just when Wellmann's extraordinary "wild boys of the road" (1933) left.The judge could have been the same who took pity on Tommy and Eddie.Spencer Tracy may be the star of the movie,he is actually eclipsed by the two young brats and the grandma;Raymond Borzague speaks "like silence" ,and in the scene in which he is dying ,he reaches a peak of emotion and pathos;no one directed children as Borzage did:just think of this sublime scene in "no greater glory" when the young boy ,with his eyes bright with fever ,wants to join his "army" and become an officer and a gentleman.The grannie is also deeply moving when she she implores" let me my little boy!I've got only him in this world.
"Young America" deals with the incommunicability between the children and the grown-ups: all they do backfires against them ,although their intentions are good.Some adults will never know (Art's aunt) ,some have already understood (Tracy's wife) and some eventually made up their mind and open their heart(Tracy).The only weakness of this movie,IMHO,is the hold-up with hostage-taking which seems out of place in a story so delicate and so intimate .
Frank Borzage was a candid soul,all that he made came straight from the heart.I wish we had a director like him today!