The Young Runaways

I enjoyed the film -- a 1968 scared-straight, after-school ditty with some ridiculous elements. But it also includes some really good songs -- songs that could've come from the pen of Love's Arthur Lee. I'm writing this today because Jim Weatherly -- who wrote those songs -- done died a few days ago. His best-known song is "Midnight Train to Georgia", recorded by Gladys Knight & the Pips, but the couple that are here are memorable, too. When I first saw this film about six or seven years ago on TCM and noticed the songs, I emailed Weatherly and we talked about the tunes. That wouldn't have happened with John Williams.

I don't know why they call this the YOUNG runaways.

Most of the actors are mid 20s to early 30s. Richard Dreyfus runs away at age 32. He's a draft dodger who speaks only in hippie lingo. Patty McCormick is lovely as a girl who meets the wrong guys. Brooke Bundy is always great to watch because she doesn't act, she just WHINES her way through every project. It is good the girls brought along their false eyelashes because jobs are scarce - except for "modeling." Brooke lost her suitcase and is taken in by two girls working as "models" willing to get her in the business. Uh oh. Entertaining. Dated. Moderate camp value. Watch for the always fabulous Isabel Stanford in a small role. Be careful out there people!

The Metro Goldwyn Mayer studio was by the late 1960s in serious decline due to a number of factors, so much so that they eventually started to experiment with product that just a decade or so earlier they never would have touched. "The Young Runaways" was one of those experiments, an attempt to tap into the growing youth market. But I'm sure that any youths back then that saw this movie probably found it somewhat unbelievable and unrelatable. The movie plays out in an extremely dated way even by 1968 standards. It doesn't understand that most youth runaways were fleeing households that were truly abusive and unlivable - the problems facing the youth runaways in this movie seem really insignificant. And the lives of youth runaways in this movie seem really cushy compared to the hellish life youth runaways typically have on the street. All this is somewhat silly, but it isn't inspired enough to make the movie true unintentional comic gold. Most of the movie feels really bland and predictable instead. By the way, if you think that you might be getting the opportunity to see some serious exploitation due to the fact that the movie got an "R" rating in 1968, be warned - by today's standards, the movie would (barely) get a "PG" rating, and could play on prime time network television without any edits at all.

This movie is a good cautionary tale... for filmmakers! See this movie and try, try, try your best not to make anything this dumb and hopelessly out of touch. This is "Rebel Without A Cause" on pablum, baby! The best thing about this movie is watching Richard Dreyfuss putting his all into these horrible, meaningless lines. I mean, this is my bag, know what I mean? I mean, I'm all hung up in my own hassles, baby! The dialogue is screamingly funny, baby, and Mike Myers' vision of the Sixties is more accurate! And he wasn't even there! Neither, obviously, was the screenwriter, because Orville Hampton was fifty-one when this gigglefest was released in '68. My advice: get together with some real Sixties veterans (they should be at least fifty years old), have a few beers (low-carb, if they insist) and laugh, laugh, laugh. Turn down the volume and make up your own dialogue. You won't miss anything.

Terrible writing, directing, acting, music, and plot combined to form an unintentionally funny pile of garbage!

It's worth watching for laughs, but it's also full of notable actors and actresses. Isabel Sanford, Duck Sargent, Richard Dreyfuss, Brooke Bundt, Norman Fell, et al.

Horribly out of touch film attempting to draw young people back to the movies.

Even the theme song seems like a spoof of itself!