Young at Heart is a great romance/music/drama but it features good performances from its three leads, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and Gig Young but otherwise it’s just a nice little movie that, no doubt I will forget in a day’s time.
Young at Heart
(1954)
Genre(s): Drama, Romance
Olive Films | NR – 117 min. – $29.95 | April 8, 2014
 |
MOVIE INFO: Directed by: Gordon Douglas Writer(s): Julius J. Epstein and Lenore Coffee (screenplay), Liam O’Brien (adaptation), Fannie Hurst (story) Cast: Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Gig Young, Ethel Barrymore, Dorothy Malone, Robert KeithTheatrical Release Date: December 1954DISC INFO: Features: None Number of Discs: 1Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 1.0) Video: 1080p/Widescreen 1.66 Subtitles: None Disc Size: 18.0 GB Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Region(s): A |
THE MOVIE
Plot Outline: Young at Heart centers on a family headed by a music-loving patriarch (ROBERT KEITH) and his musically inclinced daughters looking for romance including the youngest, Laurie (DORIS DAY). Along for the ride is composer Alex Burke (GIG YOUNG) who comes for an extended visit and eventually wins the hearts of all three sisters and Barney Sloan (FRANK SINATRA) is a cynical songwriter hired by Alex to do arrangements for an upcoming Broadway show.
The praiseworthy cast includes Dorothy Malone and Elisabeth Fraser as the older sisters, Ethel Barrymore (Great-Aunt to Drew Barrymore) as the family’s matriarch and Alan Hale, Jr. as Robert Neary, a successful businessman engaged to the oldest daughter (MALONE).
Young at Heart was directed by Gordon Douglas (Only the Valiant) and beautifully shot in color by the great Ted D. McCord (The Sound of Music, East of Eden).
SPECIAL FEATURES – 0/5
Sadly, but not surprisingly, no features were included in this release.
VIDEO – 3.5/5
Olive Films releases Young at Heart onto Blu-ray shown in its original 1.66 widescreen aspect ratio and sporting a 1080p high-definition transfer. The picture here might not be perfect and even by the standards of a 60 year old film doesn’t look the best but colors are mostly vibrant, there are a time or two where appears a tad faded, and the detail level is at least half decent if not somewhat splotchy at times with the film grain. On the downside, I did notice more than a few scratch marks so it’s not a pristine transfer.
AUDIO – 3.75/5
The movie has been given an adequate if not unremarkable 1.0 DTS-HD Master Audio track which instead of being relegated to the center channel, is spread evenly across the front and rear channels as well. Dialogue levels sound good and the music comes across pretty well considering the track’s limitations.
OVERALL – 3.0/5
Overall, Young at Heart is a great romance/music/drama but it features good performances from its three leads, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and Gig Young but otherwise it’s just a nice little movie that, no doubt I will forget in a day’s time. The Blu-ray released by Olive Films is like their other releases, expensive and barebones with features.
Published: 04/10/2014