The Youngest Profession *** (1943, Virginia Weidler, Jean Porter, Edward Arnold, John Carroll, Agnes Moorehead, Ann Ayars, Marta Linden, Dick Simmons) – Classic Movie Review 6564

Director Edward Buzzell’s pleasant 1943 movie-business-based romantic comedy is based on a book by Lillian Day.

Virginia Weidler and Jean Porter star as autograph-hunting young friends Joan Lyons and Patricia Drew, who wander around the MGM studios in search of their heroes.  Joan also works at the untroubled marriage of her parents (Edward Arnold, Marta Linden) after wrong information by meddling governess, Miss Featherstone (Agnes Moorehead). John Carroll plays side show strong man Dr Hercules, whom Joan hires to make her father jealous.

The amusing premise offers film buffs a chance to spot plenty of MGM’s stars in cameos (including Greer Garson, William Powell, Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon and Robert Taylor) and there is an excellent atmosphere of the movie-making of the day.

Perhaps the feathery wisp of a plot is not as entertaining, but the two lead performances are pleasing and spirited, offering Weidler and Porter good opportunities to shine.

It is written by George Oppenheimer, Charles Lederer and Leonard Spigelgass, shot in black and white by Charles Lawton Jr, produced by Harry Rapf and B F Zeidman, scored by David Snell and designed by Cedric Gibbons.

Also in the cast are Ann Ayars, Dick Simmons, Raymond Roe, Scotty Beckett, Marcia Mae Jones, Sara Haden, Beverly Tyler, Marjorie Gateson, Thurston Hall, Jessica Grayson, Edward Buzzell (in an uncredited cameo as Man in Theatre), Dorothy Christy, Leonard Carey, Hazel Dawn, Mark Daniels, Beverly Boyd, Hazel Dohlman, Roland Dupree, Jane Isbell, Nora Lane, Ann Maclean, Mary McCarty, Claire McDowell, Dorothy Morris, Aileen Pringle, Bob Stebbins, William Tannen, Ray Teal and Robert Winkler.

Jean Porter (8 December 1922 – 13 January 2018) is notable for her roles in The Youngest Profession (1943), Bathing Beauty (1944), Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945), Till the End of Time (1946), Cry Danger (1951) and The Left Hand of God (1956). She was married to blacklisted director Edward Dmytryk.

Jean Porter in 1945.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6564

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