Life Begins at 40 (film)

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Life Begins at 40
File:Life Begins at Forty FilmPoster.jpeg
Directed byGeorge Marshall
Written by
Produced bySol M. Wurtzel
Starring
Production
company
Fox Film Corporation
Distributed byFox Film Corporation
Release date
March 22, 1935
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Life Begins at 40 is a 1935 black-and-white film starring Will Rogers and Richard Cromwell. It is based on the non-fiction self-help book Life Begins at Forty by Walter B. Pitkin.

PLOT SYNOPSIS:

Kenesaw H.Clark(Rogers) is a small town newspaper editor/publisher.He is operating on a shoestring and sometimes accepts livestock in lieu of cash.

When Rogers hires an ex-convict(Cromwell) to work on the paper,pompous town banker Colonel Abercrombie(Barbier) raises the roof. Cromwell had been jailed for a theft from his bank when he worked there as a teller.Rogers has doubts about Cromwell's guilt and refuses to fire him.Abercrombie takes revenge by calling in his loans on the newspaper. Rogers does his best to carry on,even printing the day's news on butcher paper.

Rogers responds not with anger,but with humor.He hires a group of professional hog callers to disrupt a political speech by the Colonel. These worthies do their job a litle TOO well,as a stampede of hogs answers the call and destroy the speaker's platform.

The actual thief from years ago was the Colonel's neer-do-well son Joe(Thomas Beck),who has long since lost the original money at the racetrack.One night,the Colonel surprises someone trying to crack his office safe.He shoots and wounds the intruder,not recognizing him as his son. The Colonel leads a lynch mob against the ex-convict,and Rogers has to fend them off single-handed(with some assistance from hefty neighbor Jane Darwell,who beats everybody in sight with a broom).

A policeman finally informs the Colonel that his son is in the hospital and has made a full confession.

Rogers had figured out some time ago that the Colonel's son was the thief,but couldn't figure out how to gently break it to him.

Cast

External links