The Truth About Youth is based on a Victorian era play called When We Were Twenty One by Henry V. Esmond. Today Esmond is far better known as the father of Jill Esmond than for this or anything else he wrote in his career. When We Were Twenty One was first scene in New York in 1900. The incredibly dated material make this one an unlikely candidate for revival.
Conway Tearle has brought up an old friend's son played as an adult by David Manners. As an adult he's referred to as 'the Imp' which should give you some idea of his character. Manners is a likable enough chap, but incredibly weak and addicted to high living and the family fortune won't take the strain of his partying much longer.
Loretta Young is housekeeper Myrtle Stedman's daughter and she and Manners have grown up in the same household and it's the fondest wish of Tearle and Stedman that they be eventually wed. But when Manners takes one look at nightclub singer and vamp Myrna Loy it all goes out the window.
Loy's goldigging dame is far more of a Thirties character than one which belonged at the turn of the last century. She's great, but she's also jarringly out of place from the rest of the cast. Myrna probably figured also it was the best way to be noticed in this old fashioned and turgid drama in which title cards were still used though it's an all talkie picture.
The ending will surprise you, but think of Ronald Reagan and Shirley Temple in That Hagen Girl for a hint. That was a worse film.
Conway Tearle has brought up an old friend's son played as an adult by David Manners. As an adult he's referred to as 'the Imp' which should give you some idea of his character. Manners is a likable enough chap, but incredibly weak and addicted to high living and the family fortune won't take the strain of his partying much longer.
Loretta Young is housekeeper Myrtle Stedman's daughter and she and Manners have grown up in the same household and it's the fondest wish of Tearle and Stedman that they be eventually wed. But when Manners takes one look at nightclub singer and vamp Myrna Loy it all goes out the window.
Loy's goldigging dame is far more of a Thirties character than one which belonged at the turn of the last century. She's great, but she's also jarringly out of place from the rest of the cast. Myrna probably figured also it was the best way to be noticed in this old fashioned and turgid drama in which title cards were still used though it's an all talkie picture.
The ending will surprise you, but think of Ronald Reagan and Shirley Temple in That Hagen Girl for a hint. That was a worse film.