Old

Siscal and Ebert Review - "Old"

In my opinion

the break-out scene

was the one where the son (played by Jackie Coogan)

said to his father (played by Edward G. Robinson)

-you remember he was lying on the couch

his wife (played by Myrna Loy)

was on the other couch knitting-

Coogan said

“…an old man…”

“How old?” asked his father.

Indignantly, or a bit too off handedly,

“I don’t know!

Like you.  Sixty four or sixty five.  Old.”

Robinson sat up slightly and

brushed his hand over his

beard and then through his thinning hair.

“That’s not old”, he said, “I am not old.”

“Yes it is.” 

Myrna Loy could not help herself

and could not conceal

a slight smile. 

The camera caught it in a fleeting close-up

of her lips.

As Coogan gathered his coat

and made for the door

to his car outside,
 to meet his friends.

The camera came to rest

on Robinson’s face.

The most expressive face God ever formed

and without a word

it said,

“I am old.”