You see an interesting variety of movies in the dead of the night on Turner Classic Movies. Case in point is this film, The Age of Consent.

The plot is centered around sex, which I found somewhat surprising for an old movie until I realized it was released eight years before they Hays Code was adopted. The most surprising aspect of this movie, however, is the way that the subject matter is dealt with – openly.

Dora: Oh, I ain’t complainin’—not as long as YOU think I’m goodlookin’.
Mike: What’s that got to do with it?
D: Oh, it just helps me go on.
M: Don’t look at me—I’m gonna be a missionary.
D: You’d make a swell missionary.
M: What do you mean by that?
D: Oh, you arouse my savage instincts.

Scandalous!

The plot goes a little something like this:

Mike and Betty are college students who are dating one another. Betty, although she’s in love with Mike, is seen hanging around Duke, the campus stud. What a tart. When Mike confronts her about this she tells him unapologetically, “I’m not my grandmother. I like to have fun. I’m modern!”

Despite all this, the two get engaged. Mike wants to marry right away – I’m guessing so he can have nonscandalous married sex with Betty – but she wants him to finish two more years of school first.

Mr. Sexual Frustration ends up sleeping with Dora, a smart-talking waitress at a local diner he frequents. They get caught in the act by her father, who reveals that Dora is underage. Oops.

Dora’s father gives Mike two options: marry Dora or go to jail. Not surprisingly, he chooses the former. However, at the last possible second, Mike gets a call – Betty and Duke were taking a ride in Duke’s snazzy car (Probably the source of his popularity with the ladies.) and got into a horrible accident.

Everyone rushes to the hospital, just in time to witness Duke’s death. Dora, seeing how much Betty and Mike are in love, refuses to marry him.

In the end, Mike gets to sleep with the hot underage waitress, and he gets to marry the love of his life. The moral of the story? Have premarital sex and you’ll get to have your cake and eat it too!