Never Too Late (1965) User Reviews

The people of the 60's were still living in the 50's in most parts of America...

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 11 December 2010]

... as this film clearly demonstrates. This is a cute little film about a 50 year old woman (Maureen O'Sullivan) and her 60 year old husband (Paul Ford) who find out they are going to be parents a second time. Their first and only child is a 25 year old married daughter (Connie Stevens) who, along with her 27-year old husband, lives with her parents in their large home. Her husband works for her father in his lumber supply business. This was produced by the team of Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin, and you can't help but feel they were warming up for "All in the Family" with this one, there are so many similarities. The middle-aged wife is named Edith, and prior to the pregnancy being discovered, she is running around the home at a manic pace doing housework. The son-in-law is constantly being kicked around and disrespected by his father-in-law, and the daughter is constantly bursting into tears and becoming hysterical. All that's missing is the social commentary of All in the Family.

Maureen O'Sullivan's character feels a new-found pride and femininity in her condition. Ford's character, however, is embarrassed beyond belief. After all, it proves at their advanced age they're still having sex! What's worse, they live in a small New England town where everyone knows them and stops and stares at them on the street. The grown daughter is unhappy because at the tender age of 25 she has to grow up. Mom is too old to be keeping such a large house in her condition and now it is the daughter's turn to do the cooking, the cleaning, etc. No more sleeping late, handing her dirty laundry to mom, and heading off for an afternoon of tennis. Her solution - if she gets pregnant too, her cheapskate father will have to spring for a paid housekeeper.

Sure, many of the values demonstrated here are quite dated and even sexist, but it's a cute romp with lots of humor, and who would ever have thought that the 60's could be looked back upon with nostalgia as a simpler time. Well, in this film they can be.

Menopause Was Late

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 25 March 2012]

In those early Sixties Kennedy years this play and film were big hits with an across the board appeal to generations, but particularly the senior citizen crowd. Paul Ford and Maureen O'Sullivan who repeated their roles from the 1007 performance run Broadway play show that those thought past their prime can still do some things totally unexpected.

Menopause was late coming in the Lambert household of Concord, Massachusetts because Maureen O'Sullivan has announced after a 20 year span after the birth of her daughter Connie Stevens that she is pregnant again. She and Paul Ford are about to be parents again at an age when they should be expecting their first grandchildren. That is of particular interest to Connie Stevens and her husband Jim Hutton who are trying ever so hard to get Connie in a family way.

But in general Ford who is a conservative man by nature is getting all kinds of Ooohs and Ahs from the town for his unexpected virility. His neighbor and rival Lloyd Nolan who is the mayor of the town is really ribbing him something awful.

Sight gags abound in Never Too Late usually involving Ford and his middle age paunch. There's a scene in the pediatric waiting room where Ford is sitting with a bunch of young fathers to be. There's another one in an elevator with Ford and a little girl and some pregnant women with the young girl drawing all kinds of conclusions.

In the non-visual category Ford and Hutton both really tie one on and a bit of truth telling emerges from the booze.

I remember seeing this in the theater back when it first came out and the timeless family situations make Never Too Late as fresh as it was when I first saw it. This could get a remake today and not lose a thing. But until then this fine version will suffice.

A comedy of life situations in "the good old days"

[SimonJack · 8/10 · 16 July 2017]

The comedy in "Never Too Late" comes fast and furious. It comes in dialog that ranges from one-line zingers to feuding repartee. It comes in situations, exaggerations and overacting that fuels the humor of scenes. It comes in the audience identity with one or more of the characters, and the situations in life.

This is a film made from a successful Broadway Play that had more than 1,000 performances from November 1962 to April 1965. The two leads from the stage reprise their roles. Paul Ford is Harry Lambert, and Maureen O'Sullivan is Edith Lambert. The Broadway play itself was a revised summer run play, "Cradle and All," by Sumner Arthur Long. Long also wrote the screenplay for the film. Noted Broadway director, George Abbott, saw the summer tour production and took the play to the big stage under a new title and with the original leads. It was O'Sullivan's return to performing after some years of raising a family with seven children.

Ford and O'Sullivan weren't the first choices for the lead roles in the film. Apparently, the leads were offered to a number of other actors, especially the role of Edith. The Trivia Section on the IMDb Web site here says that the Spencer Tracy was the Warner Brothers' choice for the part of Harry. But, he was ill at the time. And having seen the film with Paul Ford as Harry, it's hard to imagine anyone else in the role.

Ford's treatment at times appears exaggerated, as one would be on the stage for delivery to the back seats in the theater. But that makes it all the more humorous. He is a cantankerous, irascible, self-centered old codger who takes for granted his wife and her doting care for him and his household. And, O'Sullivan as Edith plays the part of the wife who gradually turns a new leaf. That and much of the comedy thereafter is brought on by Edith's pregnancy in her late age.

The story has a mix of real-life situations. Many people may be able to identify with one or the other. They combine in this film for a warm, funny, film about life and family. Of course, it's all because of the character of Harry Lambert. Harry is a self-made owner of a lumber company in a New England town (Calverton, or Calvertown as one store sign spells it), who always buys the best-made things for his home, but who otherwise is a real tightwad. He's a rich man who gives his wife a household allowance and grocery money. He's old-fashioned and reluctant to change, and a skinflint even in his business. His secretary has to ask him for postage stamps to mail out six bills.

And, Harry has relative problems. His daughter, Kate Clinton, has never had to work and she doesn't know how to cook. She and her husband, Charlie, have lived at home with Harry and Edith since their marriage three years ago. Harry sees Charlie as a freeloader, and Charlie can't move out because of Harry's pittance of a pay. Oh, yes. Charlie works for Harry; and in spite of a college degree and seeming good sense, Charlie can't seem to do anything right in Harry's eyes. Jim Hutton and Connie Stevens are very good in the roles of Charlie and Kate.

The rest of the main cast add more to the humor. Lloyd Nolan is Mayor Crane, a next-door neighbor and antagonist to Harry. Henry Jones plays Dr. James Kimbrough and Jane Wyatt is his wife, Grace. The movie was filmed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I wonder how many towns in America – small or large, had helicopters for their mayors.

This is a funny comedy with a warm message about how a new addition to a family, even late in life, can bring changes for the better. A very funny scene is when Harry puts his foot down and won't go shopping with Edith in the Pink Di-Dee shop. The writers took pokes at other things of the day, including the daytime soap operas. We hear a TV program break when an announcer says, "Another episode of 'The Ugliness of Life.'" Here are some samples of funny dialog. For more humor, see the Quotes section here on the IMDb Web page of the film.

Harry, "Yes, well I've got a head on my shoulders too. Don't talk to me about space."

Grace, "A man's only entitled to what he can get away with."

Edith, "Kate eats lunch." Harry, "What you mean is, she eats breakfast. But she just doesn't get up until it's time for lunch."

Harry, "Of course they're happy. They've got me. I make them happy."

Paul Ford in Role of a Lifetime

[drednm · 10 August 2016]

Film version of the hit Broadway play that ran for over 1,000 performances. Original stars Paul Ford and Maureen O'Sullivan repeat their stage performances as the middle-aged couple dealing with a surprise pregnancy.

Filmed in Concord, Massachusetts, this movie perfectly captures "small town" America just before the 60s went nuts. Affluent Harry and Edith Lambert live in a big house where Harry rants and fumes about everything, especially his daughter Katie (Connie Stevens) and her husband Charlie (Jim Hutton) who live with them. The young marrieds are just big children, depending on poor Edith to do everything for them (cook, clean, do laundry), until Edith breaks the news of her pregnancy.

To make matters worse here, Charlie works for Harry in his local business. As Harry and Edith grapple with the pregnancy, Katie and Charlie are forced to grow up and accept responsibility for their own lives. Sweet and funny, the domestic situations ring a bell even today with the trend of grown children who continue to live with their parents.

Ford and O'Sullivan are excellent. Hutton and Stevens are good. Co-stars include Lloyd Nolan as the mayor, Jane Wyatt as a family friend, Henry Jones as the doctor, Jesslyn Fax as the saleslady, Claude Stroud as the out-of-town friend, and Timothy Hutton as the boy.

When Warners bought the rights to the play, they intended to get big-name stars but eventually went with the original Broadway stars and it's a good thing. Ford and O'Sullivan know their characters inside out.

Never too Late-The Stork Comes in ***

[edwagreen · 7/10 · 17 May 2014]

Middle-aged parents Paul Ford and Maureen O'Sullivan discover that their about to become parents again after over 20 years. The news doesn't exactly thrill Ford, a cantankerous businessman who is always arguing with son-in-law Jim Hutton, married to his daughter Connie Stevens.

O'Sullivan utters a funny line in the film: "We'll be making changes such as voting Democratic rather than Republican." Lloyd Nolan is the Democratic mayor of the town who beat Ford for the position some years later. Through political pull, Ford is able to turn the tables on Nolan at the end of the film.

Stevens and Hutton want to have a child of their own, but everything comes in time as the picture shows.

The ending brings all in harmony.

generations

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 14 September 2023]

Crotchety Harry Lambert (Paul Ford) owns a small lumber yard. He is not happy with his new-thinking employee son-in-law Charlie Clinton (Jim Hutton). He is pushing his daughter Kate (Connie Stevens) to start a family. His wife Edith (Maureen O'Sullivan) receives surprising news. She's pregnant.

It's a fun concept especially for the older couple. It's based on a 1962 play. The younger couple is a little off. They are playing more immature especially Connie Stevens. She's in her late twenties. The character plays more early twenties. Charlie shows that he's forward thinking early on, but he retreats back to the 50's. The younger couple is more annoying than funny. The two couples are far too similar. I kept thinking of Norman Lear doing All in the Family. I like the first half a lot. The second half takes a couple of awkward turns where it could funny but somehow it's not that funny. It becomes a bit too angry without the humor.

A 60's Best!

[jctbeantown · 10/10 · 6 July 2008]

One of my favorite movies from the 60's. Classic fun and comedy ...dealing with a sensitive subject, especially for that time. The cast is wonderful.. Paul Ford is hilarious as he finds out and deals with, the fact that his wife (in her early 50's) is going to have a baby! Jim Hutton and Connie Stevens do a wonderful job of showing the angst of infertility. Maureen O'Sullivan, the expectant mom, is awesome as she finds her way through the gift she is about to receive and standing up for herself, too. The rest of the cast just adds to the fun. One of the best from my childhood,I laughed my way through it each time it was on. Wish I knew where to get my hands on this movie -- have been looking for years. If you get the chance to see it -- enjoy! (just realized it was done by Norman Lear -- always ahead of his time)

One of my favorite romantic 60's comedies

[orthodox10000 · 10/10 · 4 July 2011]

I have to put this one on my personal top 10 list. Its quaint and very well cast. Maureen O'Sullivan is awesome, and Paul Ford, well what can you say about him, he is magnificent. They play the expecting middle-aged couple to perfection. Everything about this movie is classy, especially the ladies outfits. Women knew how to dress back then, and looked like ladies. The dialogue is snappy & funny, and the film never drags, but is funny from start to finish.

If you want a nice little movie to watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon, to cheer you up, this is one DVD to pop in the machine and watch.

Is it just me or was there way too much yelling in this one?!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 1 July 2021]

Before Bud Yorkin and Norman Leer shot to fame for films such as "Start the Revolution Without Me" or TV shows like "All in the Family", they had a big stage success with "Never Too Late". And, unlike most Broadway shows that make it to the big screen, the starts of the play, Paul Ford and Maureen O'Sullivan, starred in BOTH!

The story is very simple. Edith is in her 50s and finds herself pregnant. However, oddly, her husband just seems to be in a very foul mood throughout the film...complaining about pretty much everything! You'd think he'd be happy and initially shocked...but his reaction just seemed bizarre and inappropriate. And, speaking of inappropriate, when the daughter and her husband hear about it, suddenly the daughter (Connie Stevens) insists she also wants a baby and her husband (Jim Hutton) also then spends the rest of the film complaining! And, after a while, I just got tired of it!

While the story is fun, at least initially, it just didn't seem the least bit realistic nor enjoyable. Yelling isn't comedy...and this is pretty much yelling from start to finish. It has some good moments here and there...but overall it left me flat.

By the way, if you watch the film, notice that they never use the word 'toilet' in the scene with the toilet. They also act as if it's something unmentionable. Too weird.

I LOVED it!!

[ellery99 · 10/10 · 5 July 1999]

I thought this movie was GREAT! And I also thought Jim Hutton & Connie Stevens were great as well...I was sorry to see it end! Very enjoyable.....

Average comedy brought down by bitter tone

[michellek10 · 5/10 · 17 May 2019]

Since this film followed a successful Broadway play, I can only conclude that the play must have been funnier. I found Paul Ford's character completely repugnant. He is a blowhard who has no appreciation for anyone around him. This is supposed to be hilarious but I just found it irritating and sad. The idea that a lovely, charming woman like Maureen O'Sullivan would be married to the crude, unattractive Paul Ford strains credulity. Not the fault of the actor - he is very funny in other movies - it is instead the result of the hostile screenplay.

Connie Stevens and Jim Hutton Make A Great Couple in WB Comedy

[adventure-21903 · 10/10 · 27 June 2020]

Warner Bros. Business plans seem to go like this produce a Frank Sinatra movie (with Sinatra having his own building on the lot, a Troy Donahue movie, and having the movie version of a hit play: My Fair Lady, Camelot, Music Man, A Majority Of One, Gypsy etc.

Jack Warner bought the movie rights to this play and Never Too Late WB wanted Spencer Tracy and Kate Hepburn to star but Tracy declined to to health and Kate wanted to be with Tracy. Other actresses such as Roz Russell, Susan Hayward,were considered for the role Maureen O Sullivan played.on the stag. The film was produced with Paul Ford and Maureen O' Sullivan with Connie Stevens getting 2md billing behind Ford. The Film was produced starring Paul Ford, and Connie Stevens and Jim Hutton and two lovely professional actresses Maureen O Sullivan and Jane Wyatt. Ms. Stevens worked her way up the ladder at WB first being Cricket Blake on Hawaiian Eye and then a series of WB movies with Troy Donahue: Parrish, Susan Slade and Palm Sprigs Weekend. This film brought Connie over the title star billing. She is gorgeous in this movie and was cast because she was lovely to look at and a fine actress. And because Ford and O Sullivan had no pull with teenage audiences. This comedy is enjoyable but not laugh out loud funny.

Jim Hutton free of his MGM contract worked steadily around town and was fine in this film. I can't say Jim Hutton ever gave a bad performance. Hutton worked with the best: Cary Grant, John Wayne, Steve McQueen, Burt Lancaster, Charlton Heston, Bob Hope, Roz Russell, George Peppard Lana Turner. Jane Fonda Yvette Mimieux, and most successfully Paula Prentiss.

This film was the subject of a lawsuit as the creators of this film objected to All In The Family as a riff off this storyline; they lost.

PS. This has nothing to do with Never Too Late but both Hutton and Stevens wanted to play they young couple in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf at WB. Jack Warner gave no encouragement to Hutton but told Stevens to talk to Mike Nichols to no avail.

daughter and son in law try to get pregnant but mom gets pregnant instead

[chetpottered · 10/10 · 29 May 2005]

great movie one of my all time favorites with many stars I really like. Especially Jim Hutton. I think this movie was a bit risqué for the 60's but really great. Some very lovely moments between the parents to be and real comic ones between Jim Hutton and Connie Stevens. It also showed the hell people dealing with infertility go through. I found that out when we tried unsuccessfully. It is a very depressing time and Connie Stevens also showed that well. All the actors were excellent and very professional. Maureen O'Hara and Paul Benedict were great as the new parents, with Maureen really stepping out of her typical feminist role of fighting for her rights. In this she made being female a thing worthy of praise and they both proved that old is not dead.

A strenuous farce...

[moonspinner55 · 3/10 · 30 September 2009]

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 ****

A chore to sit through!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 22 May 2017]

SYNOPSIS: Harry Lambert, the twit-brained, extra-loudmouthed, middle-aged owner of a lumber company in the New England town of "Calverton" (actually Concord), gets his wife pregnant.

NOTES: The play opened on Broadway at the Playhouse on 27 November 1962 and ran a staggering 1,007 performances. The play starred Maureen O'Sullivan (in her Broadway debut) and Paul Ford. Supporting were Orson Bean, John Alexander, Fran Sharon, House Jameson and Leona Maricle. The play was directed by George Abbott and produced by Eliot Martin and Dan Hollywood. Although not a musical, the play was presented with a special musical score composed by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Hamick and John Kander. Miss O'Sullivan and Mr. Ford repeated their roles for the film version. Overseas, in the West End (London) stage presentation, Fred Clark and Joan Bennett starred.

COMMENT: Just as tasteless as their previous collaboration, "Come Blow Your Horn", this Bud Yorkin — Norman Lear production is a chore to sit through. This time, the main character is a splenetic blow- hard, outrageously over-acted by Paul Ford, who is completely miscast as an older man who gets his wife pregnant. Instead of being proud of his achievement as anyone would naturally expect such an egotistical windbag to be, he is instead — would you believe? — ashamed! What a ridiculous plot! To bring this turn of events off, the producers needed to cast some Milquetoast comedian like Red Skelton, not a fulminating apoplectic like Paul "Loudmouth" Ford. Normally an abominable hammy actor who has the lion's share of scenes and dialogue, would throw the other players off-stride. That is not the case here because Jim Hutton and Connie Francis are such lousy actors, there's no way they would react sensitively to another player's mugging and grandstanding. Miss Francis is further burdened with an unattractive hair style that makes her look like a reject, bargain-basement Barbie doll.

The only players that come out of this farrago with any distinction are the charming Maureen O'Sullivan (making her first film for seven years) and the ever-reliable Lloyd Nolan. The latter's role is regrettably small, but Maureen has a decent part and manages to shine brightly despite just about all Paul Ford's elephantine efforts to overshadow her.

Aside from some bright location photography in Concord, Mass., production values are strictly minor league. Yorkin's direction, as usual, is steadfastly incompetent.

Horrible Theme Song

[bbrebozo · 5/10 · 17 August 2022]

This film is a forgettable piece of fluff that's perfectly fine if, say, you're sick in bed and don't have many other options. Paul Ford plays the classic 1960's successful businessman but bumbling husband whose home life is a mess, and Maureen O'Sullivan is his long suffering wife who's gets pregnant in, I don't know, probably her mid- to late-50's. Connie Stevens is their daughter and Jim Hutton is their son-in-law, who bounce back and forth between being supportive and argumentative, whatever each particular scene requires. And apparently, the moral of the film is that political corruption pays off in the end.

If this sounds good to you, then go ahead and tee up this film. But I have to warn you: For the sweet love of all that is holy, fast forward through the horrible, horrible theme song. When I heard the opening theme, I literally started hating the movie already. The same song repeats during the ending credits, so get ready with the kill switch then, too.