I’ve watched a number of films for this podcast so far that I suppose could qualify as rom-coms, but this is the first that truly embodies that genre. This isn’t a romance that happens to have some funny moments, but rather a romantic comedy built around bringing two similar people, who imagine they aren’t similar at all, together through zany coincidences and situations. This is Roman Holiday, 1915 style. Except it feels more like it has been done in a 1919 style. None of the comedies I’ve watched to this point have been anywhere near as nuanced or sophisticated as this, at least when it comes to the romances and comedies. Many advances had been made in dramas, but the romantic comedies were still mired in a very primitive form of expression in 1915. Not this one! Had I watched this without knowing when it was made, or who made it, I would not have guessed it was from 1915, for I’ve seen nothing else from 1915 remotely like it. It’s light years, or rather, about four years, ahead of its time.
I may also have wondered if it was a Cecil B. DeMille in the director’s chair, rather than George Melford, as DeMille would corner the market on these sorts of films in a few years’ time. I’d have almost been right, as DeMille’s brother William wrote Young Romance. I wonder if Cecil lent a hand? You can certainly see his fingerprints on it, from the pacing and editing down to the film’s exploration of how media shapes and drives aspirational fantasies about class mobility among the common folk.
The film starts by introducing our main characters, Nellie (Edith Taliaferro) and Tom (Tom Forman). They both work in the same department store, but on different floors, and they don’t know one another. As is the case in a rom-com, the coincidences begin to pile up. They both read the same serialized romance adventure in the daily paper, and both decide on the same day to blow their savings on a week-long spree during which they will pretend to be wealthy. They both see the same advertisement in the paper, touting a nearby coastal hotel as being a destination for wealthy vacationers, and make plans to go there the following week.
Nellie assumes the name of a wealthy young woman who was a customer in the department store, and checks into the hotel. Tom, on the other hand, ends up in a cheap boarding house next door. After a series of encounters, they being to fall for one another. However, chaos ensues when friends of the young woman whose name Nellie is using show up and recognize her name in the hotel register. Luckily, they’ve not seen her since she was a child, and are fooled into believing Nellie is the real deal. The situation escalates mid-week, however, when the newspaper reports that the woman Nellie is impersonating has just inherited a fortune. That draws the attention of a villain who has been prowling the hotel. He kidnaps Nellie and strands her on a nearby island, and forces her to write him a check for $10,000. He leaves her stranded while he goes to cash it, but Tom learns of the plot and rescues her. The villain is arrested trying to cash the bogus check.
At the end of the week, Tom and Nellie are in love, but neither feels he deserves the other and they dejectedly part ways. Come Monday, both show up to work miserable, regretting their entire adventure. Tom gets some good news: he’s been promoted to a new department on another floor. Of course it’s Nellie’s department, and they are amazed to reunite, and realize that neither is actually wealthy. They can fall in love! The film ends as they go on a date that mirrors one they went on while pretending to be rich, only this time it’s a much better date, as they can be themselves.
I really enjoyed this movie. It’s not epic in scope, nor does it address a societal ill, but it certainly entertains. If you enjoy lighthearted romantic comedies, give this one a try.
I watched it on a DVD that also contains a second film that I’ll be watching soon, so it is double bang for the buck. If The Regeneration is anywhere near as good as Young Romance, then that DVD will be well worth its price.
Next I’m watching: The Birth of a Nation [1915], directed by D.W. Griffith.
Young Romance (Jan. 21, 1915)