The Delinquents

The opening voice-over warns "The Delinquents" will be a story of "teenage violence and immorality" in Kansas City, Missouri. Then, we meet hunky dark-eyed Tom Laughlin (as Scotty White). He and sweet-as-honey girlfriend Rosemary Howard (as Janice Wilson) - playing mid-teens - are ordered to stop seeing each other because they are too young. Upset, Mr. Laughlin goes out to a drive-in alone, and falls in with perpetually rebellious Peter Miller (as Cholly) and his sneaky sidekick Richard Bakalyan (as Eddy). They turn out to be part of what you could call the WRONG crowd. But, they act well. A closing narration pounds home the moralistic point.

Not a great film, but one obviously full of potential, which was in at least two cases, fully realized.

****** The Delinquents (3/1/57) Robert Altman ~ Tom Laughlin, Peter Miller, Richard Bakalyan, Rosemary Howard

Regardless of what some of the other uninformed reviewers here may think, this is a great little picture of the 1950s teen scene.

Of course we don't have the budget or production values of Dean's "Rebel" but the compact story and action move along swiftly.

It's interesting to watch such a young Billy Jack, and of course Dick Bakalyan turns in a great performance of, what else, a punk.

And yes some of the other cast members, besides Lauglin, DID continue on in the business quite successfully...Miller stayed busy, finally landing a recurring role in a soap, and all you have to do is turn your set on any time any day and you can find Bakalyan in something, the guy must be filthy rich.

A good flick.

After some screenwriting assignments, Altman debuted as film director in this disappointing juvenile delinquency saga. Similarly, Tom Laughlin is merely okay as the nominal good-guy hero whose unbelievable naivete gets him into trouble. His emergence as a a major independent filmmaker and icon a decade or so later was certainly not telegraphed here.

Altman brings some realism via location filmmaking and especially the Julia Lee blues singer opening but his screenplay is standard '50s corn. With Peter Miller and especially Richard Bakalyan as the stereotypical young villains, the quality and drama of say Nick Ray ("Rebel Without a Cause") is way beyond Altman's reach.

Altman's daughter playing the future Billy Jack's cute young sister impressed me, but otherwise it's a dreary, contrived movie. Add the preachy narration and it's way too dated to be an enjoyable watch.

Although United Artist released The Delinquents in 1957, it was filmed in Kansas City in the summer of 1955. That helps explain the musical choice of jazz over rock. When it was shot, the ground just been broken on the juvenile delinquent sub-genre with The Wild Ones and The Blackboard Jungle. A more timely release would likely have made it more successful at the box office and more influential on other rebelling teen films. Even with the late release, the film made a tidy profit for the studio.

Altman later said Tom Laughlin copped an attitude during the filming and was very difficult to work with.

Very seriously dated Prolog and Epilog Eisenhower era nonsense aside, there is some interesting and slick stuff in the middle of this JD (Juvenile Delinquent) Movie. The JD scare of the Fifties turned out to be mostly hype and a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of Progressive Evolution unleashed in the post War Younger Generation by Atomic Radiation (just kidding), but it did manifest itself nonetheless.

It seems the folks who fought and won the War wanted nothing more than to settle down and hatch some young-ins and enjoy the spoils. But they were not prepared for their Kids to spend their newly found pocket money on, God forbid, Monkey Music and Passion Pits (Drive-Ins). They even wanted to "go steady". So there was quite a hoopla about what and who to blame for all this "independent thought and rebellious attitudes". Kids these days.

So there was a lot of Social commentary about Rock n' Roll, Comic Books, and Communists brainwashing these innocents (no one mentioned TV, that was the flickering glue that kept good Folks home with its radiating hypnogogia).

The celebrated Maverick, Robert Altman's first Film, is better than most of its ilk. There are some touches that are remarkable. Some bloodletting and a vicious fist fight in the Kitchen and a forced liquor overdose in the Living Room (contrasting Suburban Sanctuaries). The Movie is more accomplished than other low-budget Teensploitations and is quite compelling at times and is definitely worth a view for its time-stamped allure and for the Rookie Writer/Director.