Okay, I'm a big sap.
Ethel Barrymore stars in "Johnny Trouble," a 1957 film with Stuart Whitman, Cecil Kellaway, Carolyn Jones, Jack Larson, Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, Nino Tempo, Jim Bridges, Jesse White, and Sam Colt (Ethel Barrymore's son).
Barrymore plays Mrs. Chandler, who lives in a residential hotel being turned into a boys dormitory. She refuses to leave, and they can't make her - she owns the apartment and hasn't sold it to them. The college agrees to allow her to stay, and it's not long before she's charmed the boys.
One of them is named John Chandler, and Mrs. Chandler's own son left 27 years ago and was never heard from again. Mrs. Chandler believes that this John, a boozer and womanizer who is always in trouble, is her grandson. When he's about to be expelled, she intercedes for him, and the agreement is that he will live with her, and then they will both move to another place after the semester.
This was Ethel Barrymore's final film. As always, she was very dignified. Cecil Kellaway was delightful as her assistant, and Jesse White was appropriately exasperated.
I thought this was a sweet and sentimental story. My big complaint is that these college kids didn't look like any college kids I've ever seen - they were for the most part too old.
Carolyn Jones is a knockout as Johnny's girlfriend - beautiful and sexy, with her unusual sleek haircut for those days and her blue eyes. She was a fine actress and very enjoyable in this.
Stuart Whitman was okay and since he had been a Marine, maybe the fact that he looked like he was about 30 was okay - if some of these guys were in the Korean war, I suppose looking a little older was fine, if distracting.
The actor in this film listed as "Jim Bridges" has a separate listing from the director "James Bridges," but I think they are one and the same.
By the way, the 1940 film "Johnny Apollo" supposedly started these "Johnny" films. In looking over the films with the name "Johnny" and a last name, Johnny Apollo seems to have been the first one.
