These Wilder Years ** (1956, James Cagney, Barbara Stanwyck, Walter Pidgeon) – Classic Movie Review 7798

Director Roy Rowland’s 1956 drama These Wilder Years is the only teaming of great stars James Cagney and Barbara Stanwyck, who are very welcome, of course, if alas slightly beyond their prime and not in the best vehicle for their talents.

Cagney stars as rich, middle-aged steelman Steve Bradford, who searches for his long-lost illegitimate 20-year-old son, in a soap opera that is remarkably dull for one that teams Cagney with Stanwyck as Ann Dempster, the understanding boss of an orphanage where Bradford placed his son. Bradford now hopes to persuade Dempster to help him find his son, but she refuses.

Somewhat dull it may be, but nevertheless, These Wilder Years does warm up and eventually even transcend its apparently rather humble ambitions, and there is considerable interest in the stars’ professional playing. But it is such a shame that they were not paired in the Thirties.

The screenplay is by Frank Fenton and Ralph Wheelwright wrote the original story. George J Folsey shoots in black and white.

Michael Landon appears as a boy in the pool hall. Also in the cast are Walter Pidgeon, Betty Lou Keim, Don Dubbins, Edward Andrews, Dean Jones, Tom Laughlin, Basil Ruysdael, Grandon Rhodes, Will Wright, Lewis Martin, Dorothy Adams, Herb Vigran, Jack Kenney, Elizabeth Flournoy, William Forrest, Edna Holland, Janet Lake, Lois Kimball, Ruth Lee, John Maxwell, Russell Simpson, Sid Tomack, Harry Tyler, Leon Tyler, Louis Towers, Herb Vigran, Billy Wayne, Emmett Vogan, Charles Herbert, Jimmy Hayes, Ruth Lee and Luana Lee.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7798

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