Very Cool!!!

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Watching As Young As You Feel I got the impression that this was a film originally meant for that other Fox contract player Clifton Webb. It seems like just the kind of material that Webb would be doing throughout the 50s.Woolley plays a 65 year old man who is mandatorily retired from his job at a large company as a printer. He lives with his son Allyn Joslyn and his wife Thelma Ritter and their daughter Jean Peters. Woolley works with David Wayne at the company who is going out with Peters.Other than job and family Woolley's only other diversion is playing the piccolo in an orchestra. Feeling he still has a lot to contribute he decides upon an audacious plan. Putting some dye into that famous beard of his, Woolley gets some expensive threads and masks himself as the visiting head of Consolidated (General) Motors which owns the small firm he's employed at. He makes the boss Albert Dekker really jump to his attention and Dekker's wife Constance Bennett start looking in Woolley's direction. OK because Dekker has been looking at his secretary Marilyn Monroe quite lasciviously. Marilyn has only a couple of lines, but she's dressed to accent her best features.The whole thing is kind of silly, but entertaining. Good thing the real head of the firm Minor Watson has a sense of humor because Woolley was flirting with some fraud charges.Either Clifton Webb was not available or he passed As Young As You Feel By. What he passed on Monty Woolley makes adequately amusing.

The theme of this unusual comedic drama is that the policy by many companies of the time of mandatory retirement at a certain age(commonly 65 or 70) is of questionable advisability for the company and robs many still quite capable seniors of some of their potentially most productive years, as well as an opportunity to help support themselves and perhaps others. There are, of course, various reasons why a company might feel it benefits from a mandatory age cut off.. Older workers typically cost more in salary and health insurance. They generally have much more health issues. Many will have lost their youthful zip or feel burned out. So, which policy is likely to be best for the company? Monty Woolsey, as John Hodges, argues that it's best to have some capable elderly workers around, with more work and life experiences than younger ones. Should a company's managers decide who is capable and who is not, rather than one shoe fits all?There are basically 3 personal happy endings dramatized that result from Woolley's masquerading of the CEO of the parent company of this very complex multicompany conglomerate(Consolidated Motors).Firstly, Woolley does manage to convince the president(McKinley) of his own company: Acme Printing, to rescind the policy of mandatory age-based retirement, which means that he, as a recent retiree is allowed to return to his job if he wishes. Also, 2 couples are indirect beneficiaries. His granddaughter's fiancée(Elliott) gets a promotion because his rival claimed to McKinley that Cleveland, the CEO of the parent company, was the victim of an imposter, causing McKinley to conclude that he must be crazy. Also, McKinley, was 'forced' into a reconciliation with his wife of 20 years, after she announced she would file a divorce so that she could marry the more charming and flattering Woolley(Cleveland), who was a widower. Seems McKinley had been neglecting her in recent times in favor of his young curvaceous secretary(Marilyn Monroe). But Woolley convinced her that, in the long run, she would be better off with her same-aged husband, if he reformed.So, where is the comedy, as some reviewers have asked? True, it's not a belly laugher. Partly, it's the idea that Woolley succeeded beyond his wildest dreams in not only lobbying to do away with the age cut- off, but in becoming an overnight celebrity within his company and even the newspapers, because of his superficial pronouncements on how to keep the country out of depressions and inflationary spirals. The lack of recognition of either Woolley or Cleveland by McKinley serves as a sarcastic take on the growing anonymity of workers, and even bosses, in huge plants and in huge conglomerates. Then, there's the blast of condemnation by both McKinley and other manager, when Erickson(Elliott's rival for a promotion) claims that the man they were convinced was Cleveland was an imposter. Also, when McKinley arrived at the Hodges home, looking for his wife, when the real Cleveland there claimed he was such, McKinley flew into a rage, calling him another imposter.Of course, in reality, it's implausible that a man with such a distinctive look and style of talking would be missed by his president. This is a significant, but necessary, weakness of the script.Besides Woolley, middle-aged Constance Bennett, was nearing the end of her Hollywood days. Both would find some work in TV dramas. Woolley had most often been cast as a character actor, although he had a few other leading man roles. For a man brought up in the high society of Manhattan, a graduate of Yale and Harvard, his erudite aristocratic persona came naturally. Thelma Ritter, although first billed among the women, didn't have much of an impact on the proceedings. Easily recognized by her Brooklyn accent. ...Jean Peters, as Woolley's mature granddaughter, would again be cocast with Marilyn Monroe in the popular "Niagara". Marilyn appears several times in the present film ,as McKinley's secretary and apparent lover.Did you notice that the president of Acme Printing Company and the CEO of the parent company both have the name of a US president of the late 19th century.Available as part of the Marilyn Premier DVD Collection

This is one of those conventional comedies of the '50s in which the righteous triumph over big bad corporate America, with MONTY WOOLLEY as a man who becomes indignant when forced to retire and goes about hatching a plan to draw attention to the subject of forced retirement.The theme isn't conventional, but the treatment is. Woolley gets to strut his stuff in scene after scene until the point becomes so obvious that you're willing to watch others in the cast who seem to be watching him on the sidelines. And there are some new faces to watch. David WAYNE, JEAN PETERS, RUSS TAMBLYN and newcomer MARILYN MONROE, who already had such a publicity build-up from Fox that many flocked to see the film because Marilyn was in it. She has a small, but choice role, as a curvy secretary who knows her effect on men. She shines (glows is a better word) in a charming small role.If you're a Monty Woolley fan and like his particular style of emoting (acid-tongued and quick witted most of the time), you'll enjoy this, although it's certain a lesser work considering that it was written by Paddy Cheyefsky, who was then at the height of his writing powers.

Seeing that this was adapted from a story by Paddy Chayefsky, I expected a little more venom. But I guess this is before Chayefsky started sharpening his pen. At the end of the film when a good jab at big business could be given, all we get was something along the lines of make sure you enjoy your work. It didn't quite convince my wife as she was rooting for Monty Woolley to do the opposite. Woolley does a splendid job as John Hodges but truth be told, he played these type of characters many times before. Also notable is Marilyn Monroe in a small role but already stealing her every scene.