Jeunesse indomptée

While the story may seem contrived (hitchhikers arrested and forced to do farm labor) , it was a fact that certain rural agricultural California towns did exactly that, for decades. Farmers who grow crops that must be hand-picked always need cheap labor and are never too fussy about where they get it. Mamie Van Doren steals the show. OK, the musical numbers are a bit silly but the cast members can dance. Some of them are doing goofy dance steps for laughs, but watch the other couples - that is a demonstration of 1950s teen dancing as good as you will see in film. If you just watch the musical scenes, you won't miss anything because the plot is predictable, and nothing really interesting happens when Mamie isn't singing and the kids aren't dancing.

Okay, I confess to paying money to see this exploitation flick back in '57. No doubt the juicy title plus mammary goddess Van Doren is what pulled this horny teenager in. Then too, it's likely my standards haven't risen much in the meantime. Anyway, back then, I thought the movie just plain weird—after all, the sight of super stud John Russell passion kissing a frumpy 50-year old Irene Tuttle was like seeing him, oh my gosh, passion kiss his mother. But now I think the movie's just plain goofy.

It's really two films badly stitched into one, like some mismatched two-headed critter that can't make up its mind. On one side is the rock-and-roll skin show, with kids in trouble but having a lot of fun anyway. The wild rebellious dance scene is still a grabber and could stand for that teen era, as a whole. Now, however, Van Doren looks more like a cartoon than anything real as she keeps slipping sideways for the camera.

The other half is a serious type expose with Russell showing no sense of humor or fun, at all. And he's backed up by a lot of corrupt county officials and thuggish henchmen who keep threatening the kids. Too bad the movie guys in charge didn't split this serious side from the R&R. With a little work and that monster cotton-combine, they might have had a follow-up to the classic farm-nightmare of Border Incident (1949).

Instead, this flick leaves us to ponder the eternal question of why Calypso didn't replace R&R as record exec's of the time expected. Oh well, some cosmic mysteries just aren't meant to be solved. In the meantime, I guess I'll have to hunt down more of these silly old teen flicks.

The story of an unscrupulous cotton farm owner who uses the local correction system for his personal profit, the focus of "Untamed Youth" is really the unbridled sexuality of rock and roll, then in its infancy.

Consider this tagline: "Starring the girl built like a platinum powerhouse-- Mamie Van Doren." The film offers some scenes of rock and roll dancing awkwardly shoehorned into the scenes of dramatic social injustice. And those scenes of dancing are not bad, despite the corny gyrations of Van Doren. The story as a whole is a mess.

Best viewed as a novelty, "Untamed Youth" fits perfectly into the genre of low-grade drive-in movie fare.

On their way to seek fame and fortune in Los Angeles, top-heavy singer Mamie Van Doren (as Penny Lowe) and her guitar-strumming accomplice Lori Nelson (as Janey Lowe) are caught hitch-hiking. The sisters are brought before a small-town southern judge. Apparently, filmmakers decided the shapely pair would be more alluring skinny-dipping than hitch-hiking, so this is how the film opens. The script says hitching, but the visual suggests nudity (of course, their naughtiest body parts are hidden). Looking sexy and sexier, Ms. Nelson and Ms. Van Doren are sentenced to pick cotton on a farm...

They are treated very poorly by dastardly John Russell (as Russ Tropp). He is secretly involved with matronly judge Lurene Tuttle (as Cecilia Steele). Her handsome son Don Burnett (as Bob Steele) arrives to set things right and romance Ms. Nelson. "Untamed Youth" features a tightly-attired, ample-bodied and highly arousing Ms. Van Doren. She sings pseudo-rock 'n' roll in a slip, swinging and swiveling. The soundtrack highlight is Eddie Cochran (as Bongo) performing Les Baxter's derivative "Cotton-picker". The song arrangement doesn't really rock, but Mr. Cochran makes it seem authentic.

***** Untamed Youth (5/10/57) Howard W. Koch ~ Mamie Van Doren, Lori Nelson, John Russell, Don Burnett

Law and Order! Law and Order! How often have we seen and heard those words wreak untrue but in the bitter end the film Untamed Youth deserved a rightful ending and yes, the bad guys get their just reward and are put behind bars. Mamie Van Doren starred in this low budget black and white crime film and she got to show off her singing and dancing chops and of course she would not be Mamie Van Doren if she didn't deliberately open up her top to allow the male hormones a better gander of her singing and swinging lungs (no nudity).

Don't expect much when two sisters Penny (Mamie Van Doren) and Jane Lowe (Lori Nelson) are unceremoniously caught skinny dipping in a pond while 'en route to a paid singing gig when the local dirty sheriff arrests them for vagrancy and a forlorn female judge who is smitten by the ranch owner puts them on a cotton farm to pick cotton for him as cheaper labor than even the Mexicans would work for otherwise.

A romance begins brewing between Jane Lowe and a new ranch foreman Bob Steele (Don Burnett) who was recommended by his mother the cheating judge Judge Cecilia Steele/Tropp (Lurene Tuttle) to work for her secretly married husband the thieving cotton ranch owner Russ Tropp (John Russell) who runs his ranch patrolling his farm with two vicious Doberman Pincher dogs to keep both his prisoners and the farmhands in line.

Mamie Van Doren sings and dances as the girls are eventually freed from their wrongful imprisonment, and her sister Jane falls in love with the gentleman foreman Bob Steele who came to the prisoners rescue. So sing and dance your way as these young women and men are freed from their wrongful imprisonment and accept their fate as law and order eventually prevail.

I give the film a decent 6 out of 10 IMDB rating.