An age-old question (quite literally)..

One thing to remember is that it was a family mansion so it would naturally pass on to the eldest son and become his home. As for me, if I were living in a place like that it would take dynamite to move me out.

I think there's not really much of a taboo even now - it's not often done but just for natural reasons. People marry those they know, and usually marry in their 20s when they just don't know many eligible people in their 50s and 60s. So it's just unlikely. But I don't think there's a real taboo. I bet for most, Jew and Christian marrying one another is a much bigger thing than a 30 year age difference.

Moreover, it doesn't seem that rare among celebrities and wealthy people - someone mentioned the 27 year age difference between Bogart himself and Lauren Bacall (who was 19 when they married).

So, why would it be normal for Bogart to marry someone 27 years younger in REAL life - but strange in the movie for his Linus (one of the wealthiest men on the East Coast) to marry someone 30 years younger?

I really don't think it is very strange or taboo today.

Just think of some of the age gaps in marriages today.

Billy Joel was 55 when he married 23 year old Katie Lee in 2004.

Rod Stewart's two marriages (to Rachel Hunter and currently to Penny Lancaster) have been to those 26 and 25 years younger than he.

Paul McCartney's just ended marriage was to someone 26 years younger.

Clint Eastwood was 62 and Dina Ruiz 27 when they became a couple.

The "Right Stuff" test pilot Chuck Yeager remarried in 2003 (his wife had died).

He was 80 in 2003 - and his wife 44 (Victoria Scott D'Angelo).

Cary Grant was 77, bride Barbara Harris 30, when they married. In fact, he'd been 61 years old when he married before (the 28 year old Dyan Cannon in 1965, and the two had their daughter.

Former Senator Strom Thurmond 66, married Nancy Janice Moore 23.

Supreme Court Justice William Douglas 67 married bride Cathleen Heffernan 23.

Nobel Prize winning novelist Saul Bellow 74, and bride Janis Freedman 31 wer wed ten years ago.

Actor Tony Randall was 75 when he married the 25 year old Heather Harlan. Amazingly, after his first wife (in their 54 years of marriage) hadn't been able to conceive a chid - Tony Randall had two kids in his late 70s with his second wife!

Charlie Chaplin at 54 married the 17 year old daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neil (Oona)

Publisher and 20th Century Fox mogul Rupert Murdoch married Wendy Deng in June 1999. She's 38 years younger.

After Evita died, Juan Peron remarried - to Isabel who was 36 years younger.

Woody Allen's wife Soon-Yi Previn is 35 years younger.

Bing Crosby was 30 years older than wife Kathryn (the one in all those Christmas specials and Minute Maid commercials) and they had several children together.

South African leader Nelson Mandela and former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau were both 28 or 29 years older than their wives.

Bo Derek's husband, John Derek, was 30 years older.

Rodney Dangerfield's wife was 30 years younger.

Eric Clapton is 29 years older than his wife. So was Frank Sinatra than Mia Farrow when they were married - so was Peter Sellers.

Rod Stewart has been 25 or 26 years older than both his wives. Paul McCartney was 25 years older tan his recent wife Heather Mills.

Michael Douglas is 25 years older than Catherine Zeta-Jones

Celine Dion is 26 years younger than her husband Rene Angelil.

Warren Beatty is 21 years older, after all, than Annette Bening (and they've had four kids).

In 2005, Robert Duvall married again at 74 to an Argentine woman Luciana Pedraza, age 33, with whom he'd been living since 1997.

There are just SO many STILL marrying with huge age gaps. The Sabrina example of 30 years just doesn't seem strange at all. Geez, compared to real life examples like Robert Duvall or Woody Allen or Charlie Chaplin or Tony Randall, it seems like nothing!

Childbearing is between 15 and 30? Maybe in 1854, but not 1954. If it were up to nature, women would start having babies at 12 and wouldn't stop until they're 45. It has never been typical or common for a woman to marry a man 30 years older. Ten years, even 20 years older, back then, but the casting for this movie is gross....it reflects typical male fantasies and Hollywood sexism. Actresses were done at 30 and old fart actors could keep chasing 20 year olds because 50 year olds were making the movies. Most attractive women in their 20s date attractive men in their 20s, sometimes in their 30s.

The problem was not that Bogie was 55. You can be 55 and still look fit and virile. Cary Grant or Burt Lancaster at 55 still looked good, good enough to credibly steal a twenty something woman from a man much younger than themselves. Bogie at 55 looked at bit spent.







Absurdity: A Statement or belief inconsistent with my opinion.

I don't have a real problem with the age difference in the movie.

But man seriously hollywood studios were obsessed with matching Audrey Hepburn with Male Leads who were way older than her. The fact that she looked a lot younger than even people her own age made the whole thing kind of icky.