This pre-code film was not quite as scandalous as I'd expected based upon the title, but it still delivers some pre-production code bits you wouldn't see on film for another 40 something years, including divorce, ladies undressing, drunken parties and wife beating. Archie Mayo directed this story a about the young Marian Marsh who refuses to marry her milk truck driver boyfriend because she doesn't want to live in poverty like her older sister. Forgettable, but the pre-code elements made it worth watching.

Pretty fun story, but I wasn't really sure what the plot of the story was for most of the film; Margie (Marian Marsh) helps her sister (Anita Page) get married off; then we flash back to a hot city street, with Margie, her boyfriend Jimmie (Regis Toomey) and the neighbors squawking about how hot and miserable they are; it's 1929, everyone is suffering during the depression. Margie is working to get by , but we see everyone around them is either very rich and getting richer, or very poor and getting poorer (just like today. not much has changed.) We spend an awful lot of time talking about how hard it is to get by these days. I guess its a set up for things to come. She almost gets her big break modeling a fur in her salon, where she meets wealthy Mr. Harding (Warren William). Where were we? Oh yeah, the sister Sophie gets walloped by the husband, and wants a divorce. Margie runs all over town asking everyone for a loan for the divorce lawyer. She seems to be more concerned about getting the money than her sister is. Bad stuff happens. Good stuff happens. Strong, clever ending, which kind of redeems the film. It's kind of a "week in the life of Margie" story. Directed by Archie Mayo, who directed comedies (A Night in Casablanca) and serious films (Petrified Forest). He had started in 1917, pretty near the beginning of the film industry. Story by husband and wife team Frank Dazey and Agnes Johnston. Looks like they wrote some of the later adventures of Andy Hardy.

Marian Marsh should have had a bigger career - she had a doll-like prettiness, was sweet and when the role called for it (ie "Five Star Final" (1931)) a good little actress. "Under 18" had been given a lot of publicity but failed dismally at the box office and when Marian rebelled, Warners unceremoniously dumped her. She then started the uncertain path of freelancing. It"s not hard to understand why the public stayed away. The theme was typical of a lot of movies at the time - the plight of the poor working girl, faced with mountainous problems and no money - what's a girl to do? The publicity may have talked this up, the title "Under 18" was lurid but a tease and had nothing to do with the plot. Were Warners really going to let their sweet little ingenue, Marian Marsh, find the money she needs (for her sister's divorce) "the easiest way" - not on your life!!! The movie promised much but didn't deliver, anyway Constance Bennett had the market cornered on these types of movies - at least she really sinned before she saw the light!!!Margie Evans (Marian Marsh) hopes, some day, to find the same happiness as her sister, Sophie (Anita Page) who is about to marry her dream man Alf (Norman Foster). A few years down the track, Alf is a loafer who is allergic to work and if ever a wife could drive her husband around the bend it is Sophie, who has turned into a nagging drudge. They turn up at Margie and her mother's flat and within a few days have turned Margie from a contented, soon to be married (to Jimmie) starry eyed girl to one who desperately wants to escape the drudgery of tenement life. (A weird thing - when Sophie arrives at the flat she is carrying a baby in her arms but the next morning the baby has turned into a toddler!!!)When all the girls are at lunch, Margie, who is a seamstress, is asked to model a fur coat for playboy about town, Raymond Harding (Warren William makes the most of a supporting role) and his latest flame (Claire Dodd). Nothing comes of it but when Sophie announces she is fed up with Alf and wants a divorce, Margie remembers Raymmond's kindness (he sent her mother some flowers) and goes to him for a loan (the lawyer has asked for a $200 fee). She goes to his penthouse - he happens to be throwing a pool party and after a few "suggestive" scenes including bathing suits and peignoirs, Jimmie (Regis Toomey) bursts in. He is angry and goes to give Margie a good slap, then decides to hit Raymond instead. Raymond falls to the ground and suddenly it looks as though Jimmie is facing a murder charge!!The movie juggles it's moods between high drama and hijinks. For a movie made before the code it did not deliver on it's promises. For every scene of Marsh in a moral conflict, the next shows her snuggling contentedly up to Jimmie in the front seat of his bread van, whistling "Happy Days Are Here Again". Talking pictures showed up Page's limitations as an actress. The hysteria and dramatics that worked so well and got her noticed in "Our Dancing Daughters" and "Our Modern Maidens", didn't seem to work in "Under Eighteen". I also recognised beautiful, but uncredited Lillian Bond as a disheveled girl in an elevator.Recommended.

This is a very entertaining film and I enjoyed it very much, though I am quick to admit that it was far from sophisticated or polished. In so many ways, this is a wonderful example of a so-called "pre-Code" style of film--since it features story lines and dialog that would have been forbidden in Hollywood just a few years later thanks to pressure to actually enforce a rigid code of conduct and standards in film. Much of this pressure was not just from civic groups, but also due to flagging ticket sales, as the often explicit pre-Code films did well in urban areas but alienated so many other viewers. By today's standards, this film is relatively tame, but it's jaded views on marriage and sex may catch many today by surprise due to its frankness! The film starts with the younger sister (Margie) seeing her older sister get married and set off on the perfect life. However, soon afterwords, her father dies and she and her mother are forced to move to a low-rent apartment and life is a struggle. A bit later, her happy older sister and her husband and baby arrive--apparently the husband is really a lazy good-for-nothing and married life for sis is a living hell! In fact, throughout the first half of the movie, Margie is bombarded with so many messages that being a "nice girl" just doesn't pay and the way to get ahead is to sleep your way out of poverty! Granted that most times there is a friend or co-worker or boyfriend Jimmy who insists that in the long run this isn't true, but this view is definitely hard to believe based on how happy and successful the "bad girls" all seem to be! So, eventually, Margie feels compelled to try her hand at being bad--or at least by being a bit bad--by chasing rich playboy, Raymond Harding. Harding appears to be a very rich lecher and he seems so smitten with Margie that she seems sure to get the $200 she needs for her sister to divorce her rotten husband.The end of the movie is very satisfying to watch on one level but intellectually it seems like it was all very contrived. In other words, in the last few minutes of the film, the viewer was bombarded with a ton of wonderful endings that wrapped everything up too well to be believed. Few of these elements could rationally be believed, but for EVERYTHING to work out perfectly is a bit hard to accept. Plus, the final message of "nice girls really DO finish first" is muddled, as for so many bad girls in the film, they really did seem to end up better than the average nice lady! By the way, despite the title, there is no indication from the film that Margie or anyone else is underage and committing some sin! While Marian Marsh ("Margie") does look young, she seems to be playing a woman about 18 (her actual age at the time) and there's no mention of her being underage. I think the title was applied rather randomly--just in a jaded effort to encourage ticket sales due to salacious expectations by the audience! Also, Ms. Marsh just died last November--at the ripe old age of 93. Her older sister in the film, Anita Page, from what I can determine is still alive and as of 1/07, is in her 96th year!