Young Ideas

Academy Award-winner Mary Astor stars as a widow whose grown children try to break up her romance with a college professor in this charming, offbeat comedy directed by the legendary Jules Dassin. When Susan (Susan Peters) and Jeff Evans (Elliot Reid), the adult children of widowed author and lecturer Jo Evans (Astor), discover that their mother has fallen in love with staid professor Michael Kingsley (Herbert Marshall), they intervene to try to end what they believe is an inappropriate relationship. Susan is briefly distracted from her mission when she falls for handsome drama professor Tom Farrell (Richard Carlson).

YOUNG IDEAS is a deliberately "small" MGM feature designed as a trial balloon for up-and-coming director Jules Dassin. Hardly in the league of Dassin's later NAKED CITY, RIFIFI or NEVER ON SUNDAY, the film nonetheless satisfies within its own modest limits. Susan Peters and Elliot Reid play Susan and Jeff Evans, the grown-up children of widowed author-lecturer Jo Evans (Mary Astor). When mom falls in love with staid professor Michael Kingsley (Herbert Marshall), Susan and Jeff do their best to break up the romance. Susan is briefly distracted from her dubious mission when she herself falls for handsome drama prof Tom Farrell (Richard Carlson). Ava Gardner appears in an uncredited bit role; like director Dassin, she would do rather better for herself in later years.