The modern film industry has a talent for taking a basic story concept and distorting it with extraneous vulgarity until its main theme is hardly recognizable. You can counteract this, however, by foregoing the latest releases in favor of movies made during Hollywood’s good old days (1934-1954), when storytelling was uncomplicated by computer generated imagery, excessive special effects, and unnecessary “adult” content.
Most people will agree that classic films were more artistic in the Golden Era of Hollywood, but few people understand why they were also more tasteful, intelligent, and decent than films from any other time. Because filmmakers had to follow the decency standards of the Motion Picture Production Code during those twenty years, those movies are the cleanest collection of entertainment ever made.
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Code films aren’t even in the same world as most movies being made today. For instance, have you heard of the film “No Hard Feelings”? There’s a chance you’ve been bombarded with ads for this new film on television, even if just on the screens of a local restaurant. It was released on June 23, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman, and Natalie Morales.Its premise is simple: two very protective parents are concerned that their 19-year-old son, Percy (Feldman), is a wallflower who has never been on a date or had a girlfriend. Eager for him to have some experience before going to college in the fall, they put an ad on Craigslist for a woman who is willing to date their son for the summer in exchange for a Buick. This ad is seen by Maddie Barker (Lawrence), an Uber driver who is out of work and out of luck since her car got totaled. This woman has no scruples, morals, or ethics, so she accepts the job of trying to bring the naïve, much-younger man out of himself. Her attempts to seduce him have comically disastrous results. It’s only a matter of time until the young man finds out that his new girlfriend was hired by his parents.
Like most current releases, this film’s trailer isn’t even worth watching; it barely even conveys the premise. Since “No Hard Feelings” is rated R, I wouldn’t watch anything more than the trailer. However, when I read an overview of the story, it reminded me of “The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer,” a fun comedy from 1947. Strange although this comparison may seem, the stories are based on a similar premise.
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“The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer” is a lighthearted comedy starring Cary Grant as the bachelor, 18-year-old Shirley Temple as the bobbysoxer, and Myrna Loy as her older sister who’s a judge. It’s easy to see why this RKO Radio Picture won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, since the story is both original and clever.The story focuses on 17-year-old Susan Turner (Temple), who is deeply impacted when famous artist Dick Nugent (Grant) comes to speak at her high school. She is immediately attracted to the handsome older man and corners him into an interview for the school paper. Susan misconstrues his encouraging words as an invitation for her to model for him, so she soon goes to his apartment to do just that. When Dick gets home, he is totally unaware of Susan’s presence until her sister, Margaret (Loy), barges in. Margaret wants to throw the book at Dick for enticing her underage sister to his apartment, but her psychologist uncle (Ray Collins) insists that Dick’s legal punishment would only worsen Susan’s infatuation by martyring him. Instead, they decide that his punishment should be to respectably date Susan long enough for her infatuation to naturally fade. Dick reluctantly complies, partly because he wants to get to know her beautiful but snobby older sister better.
In terms of style, flavor, and moral tone, these two movies couldn’t be more different. However, there are some common story themes. The biggest similarity in subject matter is the fact that a much older person dates a teenager at the request of the youngster’s guardians. In the newer movie, the younger person is a 19-year-old boy instead of a 17-year-old girl, as in the classic film. In both cases, the older person accepts the job out of necessity, to avoid going to jail in Dick’s case and to avoid losing her house in Maddie’s. Although the terms of the agreement are very different in the respective films, the motives of the guardians are the same, if somewhat misguided: to help the young person in question avoid emotional scarring and grow up to be a normal, well-adjusted adult. Both films deal with the comical results of this older sweetheart trying to fit into the teenager’s world and social life.
Funny for the Right Reasons
What people consider funny these days is pretty sad. Comedies released during the last several decades have relied on risqueity at best and blatant obscenity at worst to get a few laughs. The so-called family comedies use bathroom humor as the clean alternative to bawdiness, with some excessive violence thrown in as an occasional diversion. You have to watch an old movie to be reminded what used to be considered humorous.“The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer” is funny for the right reasons. It depicts basically decent people in unusual, extraordinary, or silly circumstances. We laugh because a character says a clever line, finds himself in a ridiculous situation, or overreacts to his surroundings, not because a character swears, makes a dirty joke, or seriously injures another character. The difference is that old movies feature the perfect blend of intelligent humor, which makes us giggle at its wittiness, and lighthearted jokes, which make us laugh at the good, clean fun.
If someone asks you, “Have you seen ‘No Hard Feelings,’” just reply, “No, but I’ve seen ‘The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer’!”
