Both Over 21

[from Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 19 Feb 1939, byline Mary Sears]

The author of that entertaining movie, "It Happened One Night," and of those fascinating books "Gorgeous Hussy" and "Revelry," Samuel Hopkins Adams, chose a sure-fire subject for his newest novel, "Both Over 21." The theme of the story concerns two movie contest winners (an heiress, who substitutes for the actual winner, the family secretary, and a young milkman), with an all-expense cruise to Bermuda as the prize.

Complications in the story are presented by the family publicity-agent (hired to keep the family off the front page), and by the man to whom she is supposed to be engaged -- not to mention a professional dancer who has pierced the girl's identity and has designs on her money. The girl, who travels under the name of Maida McCabe, and the man, Wallis Kane, are susceptible to the beauties of the ships which make the Bermuda run, to the romance and color which make the islands glamorous, and the outcome is as expected -- happy for all concerned.

As writers go, Samuel Hopkins Adams was nothing if not versatile -- his muckraking led to the passage of the "Pure Food and Drug Act", one of his rom-com short stories ("Night Bus") kicked off Hollywood's golden age, and, per F. Scott Fitzgerald, a risque novel he published under a pseudonym (Flaming Youth, Warner Fabian) gave an "honest and elucidating" push to the 20s' Sexual Revolution.

Both Over 21 is situated squarely in screwball romance territory. It features one of the favorite tropes of the era: daughter of the industrial elite, hemmed in by social expectations, narrowed by class prejudices, but essentially sound, escapes her golden bonds, finds love and is taught a lesson. This particular installment isn't as delightful as "It Happened One Night", or as interesting as Adams's earlier The Unspeakable Perk, but it's still a solidly screwy entry. There's zingy 20s/30s slang "I seen a tootsie of yours the other night...In East Seventieth. A knock-out. A darb! She had your number, pat." (212) There's a nod to Adams' progressive politics (Wallis is reprimanded by his company for secretly covering tenement families' delinquent accounts). And there's a very funny take on fashion's absurdities with the rollout of the Milkies (milkman-inspired) menswear campaign.

Adams isn't as successful in building depth into Maida's character -- I see this with a lot of male writers in this genre: she's pretty and spirited, but there's not much there there. That said, who wouldn't sympathize with her feelings of being trapped -- by a powerful, overprotective father, by a dull, self-satisfied fiance, and by all her world's conventions surrounding class and gender. And which of us hasn't, at least once, even today, longed for "nine days [where] nothing counts" -- an "interlude without aftermath"?

Overall, like the Wondertrip itself, pure ephemeral escapism -- but decently written and reasonably fun.

Flags: Insensitive racial terms used with respect to native Bermudans and an attempted sexual assault, excused in that perp had had too much to drink and harbored only "honorable" intentions (marrying, for $).