''Youth Takes a Fling'' is a 1938 American
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
directed by
Archie Mayo
Archibald L. Mayo (January 29, 1891 – December 4, 1968) was a film director, screenwriter and actor.
Early years
The son of a tailor, Mayo was born in New York City. After attending the city's public schools, he studied at Columbia Unive ...
and starring
Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he beca ...
.
McCrea plays Joe Meadows, whose only ambition as a Kansas farm boy was a life at sea. He moves to New York to try to get a job as a sailor, finds it more difficult than he thought, and meets Helen Brown, who falls for him and uses her feminine wiles to try to prevent him leaving.
One of Leeds relatively few films, both she and McCrea were loaned to Universal from
Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn (born Szmuel Gelbfisz; yi, שמואל געלבפֿיש; August 27, 1882 (claimed) January 31, 1974), also known as Samuel Goldfish, was a Polish-born American film producer. He was best known for being the founding contributor a ...
.
Cast
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Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he beca ...
as Joe Meadows
*
Andrea Leeds
Andrea Leeds (born Antoinette Lees, August 18, 1913 – May 21, 1984) was an American film actress. A popular supporting player of the late 1930s, Leeds was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in ''S ...
as Helen Brown
*
Frank Jenks
Frank Jenks (November 4, 1902 – May 13, 1962) was an acid-voiced American supporting actor of stage and films.
Biography Early years
Jenks was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and his mother gave him a trombone when he was 9 years old. By his ...
as Frank Munson
*
Dorothea Kent
Dorothea Kent (born Dorothea Jane Schaeffer; June 6, 1916 – December 10, 1990) was an American film actress. She appeared in more than 40 films between 1935 and 1948. A former model, she often played dumb sidekicks of the heroine, and rarely ...
as Jean
*
Isabel Jeans
Isabel Jeans (16 September 1891 – 4 September 1985) was an English stage and film actress known for her roles in several Alfred Hitchcock films and her portrayal of Aunt Alicia in the 1958 musical film '' Gigi''.
Early life and career
Bo ...
as Mrs. Merrivale
*
Virginia Grey
Virginia Grey (March 22, 1917 – July 31, 2004) was an American actress who appeared in over 100 films and a number of radio and television shows from the 1930s to the early 1980s.
Biography
Grey was born on March 22, 1917, in Edendale, Calif ...
as Madge
*
Grant Mitchell as Duke
*
Henry Mollison
Evelyn Henry Mollison (21 February 1905 – 19 July 1985) was a British theatre and film actor. He was the brother of the actor Clifford Mollison.
During World War II, he was held as a Prisoner of War for five years by the Nazis, after his ...
as Dunham
*
Brandon Tynan
Brandon Tynan (born James William Tynan; April 11, 1875 – March 19, 1967) was an Irish-born American stage and screen actor. In his early stage career he appeared with Alla Nazimova on Broadway in her early years after migrating from Russia. He ...
as Tad
*
Oscar O'Shea
Oscar O'Shea (8 October 1881 – 6 April 1960) was a Canadian-American character actor with over 100 film appearances from 1937 to 1953.
Early years
O'Shea was born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
Acting
O'Shea was a comic actor who earne ...
as Captain Walters
*
Granville Bates
Granville Bates (January 7, 1882 – July 8, 1940) was an American character actor and bit player, appearing in over ninety films.
Biography
Bates was born in Chicago in 1882 to Granville Bates, Sr., a developer and builder, and Adaline Bates ...
as Mr. Judd
*
Roger Davis as Floorwalker
*
Marion Martin
Marion Suplee (born June 7, 1909 – August 13, 1985) known professionally as Marion Martin was an American film and stage actress.
Biography
Martin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a Bethlehem Steel executive. She became ...
as Girl on Beach
*
Olaf Hytten
Olaf Hytten (3 March 1888 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish actor. He appeared in more than 280 films between 1921 and 1955. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and died in Los Angeles, California from a heart attack, while sitting in his car ...
as Dunham's Butler
*
Willie Best
William Best (May 27, 1913 – February 27, 1962), known professionally as Willie Best or Sleep n' Eat, was an American television and film actor.
Best was one of the first African American film actors and comedians to become well kn ...
as George
* Catherine Proctor as Mrs. Aspitt
* Yvonne Boisseau as Miss Beaton
*
Arthur Housman
Arthur Housman (October 10, 1889 – April 8, 1942) was an American actor in films during both the silent film era and the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Career
Arthur Housman was one of the first screen comedians known to the public by name, and on ...
as First Communist
*
John Sheehan as Second Communist
*
Chester Clute
Chester Lamont Clute (February 18, 1891 – April 2, 1956) was an American actor familiar in scores of Hollywood films from his debut in 1930. Diminutive, bald-pated with a bristling moustache, he appeared in mostly unbilled roles, consi ...
as Salesman
*
Wade Boteler
Wade Boteler (October 3, 1888 – May 7, 1943) was an American film actor and writer. He appeared in more than 430 films between 1919 and 1943.
Biography
He was born in Santa Ana, California, and died in Hollywood, California, from a heart ...
as Tugboat Captain
*
Tom Dugan as Bum
*
Eddie Acuff
Edward DeKalb Acuff (June 3, 1903 – December 17, 1956) was an American stage and film actor. He frequently was cast as a droll comic relief, in the support of the star. His best-known recurring role is that of Mr. Beasley, the postman, in ...
as Bum
References
External links
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1938 films
Films directed by Archie Mayo
Films produced by Joe Pasternak
American black-and-white films
American comedy films
1938 comedy films
Universal Pictures films
1930s American films
{{1930s-comedy-film-stub