I just caught this film on TCM. It must has escaped because I was the unfortunate one to catch it. I couldn't believe my eyes and ears when Gloria Warren comes on the screen as a 3rd rate Deanna Durbin. And she is on a boat (like THREE SMART GIRLS) then gets off the boat and gets on a bike to sing (every other Durbin film). The rest of the musical numbers done by groups of harmonica playing buffoons are torture to watch and more tortuous to listen to. The plot which is about Walter Huston an ex-con and Kay Francis his ex-wife gives them probably no more than an half hour of screen time. This was not remade as YOUNG AT HEART as it states in Trivia. YOUNG AT HEART was a remake of FOUR DAUGHTERS. If this was ever remade, someone forgot to take their pills that day. Slap-dash, moronic, ruined by over acting children and house keeper Una O'Conner. And Anthony Caruso dancing like a follies chorus boy with 2 left feet. And to think we have lost the negatives to such great films but this one survived. What a pity.

Horrible screenplay hardly worthy of a great talent like Walter Huston, who plays a man apparently wrongly imprisoned for years. His wife, mediocre actress, Kay Francis, divorces him and tells the children their father died. Years later, when they're in their teens, Huston is inexplicably pardoned and hitchhikes to California to see his son and daughter. Could have been an interesting drama, but completely misses every opportunity for thoughtful character development.The better part of the movie is nothing more than musical "filler" with the caterwauling daughter played by ingenue, Gloria Warren, either endlessly practicing her scales or launching into some totally forgettable song. Also, much screen time is devoted to the bratty antics of what must be the most annoying child star in the history of movies, Patty Hale.

There is enough "story" in the movie to fill a 60 minute feature but no more. The rest is padding, most of it extended and largely pointless musical numbers. Gloria Warren may indeed have had an unusually high vocal range, but her voice is painfully thin and painfully annoying, even allowing for the sound recording limitations of the period. She sounds like a church soprano whose voice will not mesh with the others in the choir. Her charisma matches her voice.The ending of the movie is inevitable, and it is inevitable from the early prison scene between Kay Francis and Walter Huston. There is not even a mildly divergent sub-plot to move things along except for the perfunctory story concerning Frankie Thomas and his girlfriend. I kept expecting some unexpected plot points to develop around Sydney Blackmer, but none did.However....Kay Francis and Walter Huston are very appealing and very charming. Their roles were hardly a stretch for either one of them, but they are worth watching. They make the whole thing, as tired and pointless as it is, watchable and even - almost - enjoyable. But not quite. I will watch anything with Kay Francis in it; no one else, ever, conveyed warmth and generosity as she did. This movie, sad to say given its limitations, is one of her better Warner Brothers films. She's terrific; her movies were not.

This must have been a play at one time. What an interesting romantic story about a family torn apart, because of bad/unlucky circumstances. I like all of Kay Francis' movies. I am learning more about Walter Houston. What a good looking and great actor. The story ends the way it should. It is a good romance without all the "love making"....A very talented singer is Gloria Warren. I am sorry I didn't know about her sooner. Frankie Thomas is so good looking and an impressive actor. I will have to find out more about him. As expected, Sidney Blackmer has always been good and I look forward to his movies. Thank you for listening. Florence Forrester-Stockton , Reno, Nevada