A sensational beginning. Opening narration by the great Ida Lupino. And we're off on a taut and poignant story about messed-up teens.
If anyone doesn't believe that parents like Melvyn Douglas and Lynn Bari actually existed off-screen, I'm here to say from experience tat they play extremely accurately drawn distracted parents from that time period.
Though Douglas is the more sympathetic of the two ultimately -- who ISN'T more sympathetic than Lynn Bari? -- there are very strong hints almost from the start that he is inappropriately interested in his daughter. The way he looks at her, the way he hugs her, the daughter's guilt over nothing she herself has done: This movie was very much ahead of its time in depicting parental abuse.
Unfortunately, a Hollywood ending is tacked on. Suddenly the self-involved mother becomes loving and concerned, and she and Douglas miraculously stop squabbling in order to help their troubled daughter.
And -- who thought up that thoroughly misleading title? It makes this sound like Abbott and Costello, which is (and surely was at the time) a great disservice to a small, serious, thoughtful movie.
If anyone doesn't believe that parents like Melvyn Douglas and Lynn Bari actually existed off-screen, I'm here to say from experience tat they play extremely accurately drawn distracted parents from that time period.
Though Douglas is the more sympathetic of the two ultimately -- who ISN'T more sympathetic than Lynn Bari? -- there are very strong hints almost from the start that he is inappropriately interested in his daughter. The way he looks at her, the way he hugs her, the daughter's guilt over nothing she herself has done: This movie was very much ahead of its time in depicting parental abuse.
Unfortunately, a Hollywood ending is tacked on. Suddenly the self-involved mother becomes loving and concerned, and she and Douglas miraculously stop squabbling in order to help their troubled daughter.
And -- who thought up that thoroughly misleading title? It makes this sound like Abbott and Costello, which is (and surely was at the time) a great disservice to a small, serious, thoughtful movie.