Screenwriter Sumner Arthur Long adapted his own hit play about a small town middle-aged woman who is giddy upon learning she's pregnant--and puzzled by the indifference or anxiety shown by her disgruntled husband, daughter, and son-in-law. Casting original Broadway leads Maureen O'Sullivan and Paul Ford as the expecting-oldsters was probably a no-brainer, and both players are light on their feet, though O'Sullivan is truly too mature for this scenario. Of course, the character has to be an older woman--that's the point of the whole picture--yet the sight of O'Sullivan sporting a baby bump is far more strange than funny (she's a pregnant grandma). As for Ford, he isn't the cute old codger he's meant to be; he looks more like a drunk you'd see hanging out at the local pool-hall. Connie Stevens (in groovy pale-pink lipstick) does what she can with the very thin role of the couple's married daughter, and she tries finding hubby Jim Hutton adorable, but the hard work shows (Hutton was a notch lower than even Dean Jones on the romance-meter). The production values are more than adequate, and there are a few laughs here and there, but the overall results are of forced gaiety--and infernal insults bandied about at top volume. *1/2 from ****
Review of Never Too Late
