Widower and self-made millionaire hamburger restaurateur Harvey Howard (Bing Crosby) decides to go to college at the age of 51 to get the education he missed earlier in life.
Enrolling as a freshman at Pinehurst College, he sets off on a four-year sojourn filled with the usual romps and rigours of college life, plus the predictable problems of being an Old Man on the Campus.
His three dorm-mates (including teen idol Fabian) and their girlfriends (including Tuesday Weld) accept him as an equal and he joins them in all their college adventures, often to his own discomfort but always with success.
As the years pass, and he gets involved in study sessions, fraternity initiations, and sporting events, he begins falling in love with Professor Helene Gautier (Nicole Maurey), his beautiful French teacher.
Harvey persuades her to coach him during the vacation but Harvey’s sour-puss daughter Laura (Nina Shipman) – jealous of Helene’s influence over her father – reports the incident to the college authorities, and Helene is asked to resign.
The students intervene and she is reinstated.
After three years, Helene proposes to Harvey but he refuses on account of his age. On graduation day, however, Harvey makes an oration to the whole college and in it proposes to Helene, who accepts.
As hackneyed as the story is, High Time is a sprightly film with a good deal of easy humour and has an airy appeal about it. The script avoids most of the Hollywood college movie cliches.
Harvey Howard
Bing Crosby Gil Sparrow
Fabian Joy Elder
Tuesday Weld Prof. Helene Gauthier
Nicole Maurey Bob Bannerman
Richard Beymer TJ Padmanagham
Patrick Adiarte Robert Higgson
Jimmy Boyd Randy ‘Scoop’ Pruitt
Yvonne Craig Professor Thayer
Gavin MacLeod President Byrne of Pinehurst
Kenneth MacKenna Laura Howard
Nina Shipman
Director
Blake Edwards
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As the years pass, and he gets involved in study sessions, fraternity initiations, and sporting events, he begins falling in love with Professor Helene Gautier (Nicole Maurey), his beautiful French teacher.
