We Who Are Young (1940) Studio heads of the late 1930s mostly concerned themselves with writers' storytelling skills, not their personal politics. Yet when asked to find evidence of leftist influence in Hollywood, researchers often cite screenwriter Dalton Trumbo's uplifting personal drama about a young couple struggling against financial problems. Margy and William Brooks (Lana Turner & John Shelton) have married against the policy of the company where they both work; when they're discovered she is fired. John's single salary isn't enough, especially after his company reorganization plan is rejected, nixing chances of a promotion. With Margy now pregnant John foolishly borrows from a loan shark. When his debt is discovered he forfeits his job, the furniture is repossessed and they're forced to pawn Margy's engagement ring. Idle and frustrated, John is arrested for trespassing at a construction site. He then steals a car to rush Margy to the maternity hospital. An atypical MGM film concerned with the problems of the disadvantaged, We Who Are Young was a change of pace for its star Lana Turner, away from her 'tight sweater' image. The contrived screenplay is a thematic update on King Vidor's the silent The Crowd, except that the same arbitrary forces that darken the Brooks' future, regroup to produce an equally arbitrary happy ending. John's recovers mainly because he attracts the attention of an enlightened contractor, Braddock (Jonathan Hale). Dalton Trumbo's anti-capitalist dialogue has Braddock blame a greedy system for the troubles of honest workingmen. He also implies that in a more cooperative future, undefined new friends will help John, "people you've never heard of." Reclaiming his business plan, John lectures his old boss that "money isn't everything." Despite its forced conflicts and trite resolution, MGM's We Who Are Young was the beginning of Trumbo's most productive screenwriting period, that includes the popular successes Kitty Foyle, A Guy Named Joe and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.

By Glenn Erickson