The Young Lovers

Art student Eddie Slocum (Peter Fonda) meets Pam Burns (Sharon Hugueny) who is studying to be a teacher. They begin a relationship.

This movie tries to tap into the new freedom of 60's college kids. This feels like a movie trying to be edgy but times may be quickly moving past it. The book was published in 1955 after all. It tackles some important issues. He is an artist and tries to be a rebel without a cause. Fonda shows elements which will make him an important figure in the coming decade. On the hand, I wish the girl is a bigger name. I'm not in love with this couple and their melodrama is sometimes interesting. In the end, I don't care that much about them.

Mixed up college kids try to figure out what to do next in life in this solid attempt to make a dramatic film to appeal to the drive-in crowd. Takes on some serious issues -- abortion, war, marriage... all with a nice cast of the early 60s' best up and comers. Adams and Walley are there at the beginning mostly for laughs, and the film only touches on their situation, which is unfortunate because to me they're the more appealing couple and their situation is more realistic (whereas Fonda and Hugueny's is pure melodrama).

Solid, but unexceptional; a worthy effort.

Sometimes the real value of a fictional work (insert film here) lies in the historical clues provided about the sociological attitudes prevalent at the time it was produced. "The Young Lovers" (1964) offers a reasonably accurate glimpse into the life of a typical college student in the early 1960's. It makes for an especially good comparative viewing experience when paired with "Getting Straight" (1970). The plot, the themes, the setting, and the characters in the two films are virtually identical. Yet in the six years between their production the challenges and concerns of the college student changed to a incredible degree.

Imagine being a high school student in the mid to late 1960's with aspirations of attending college after graduation. Your mindset and expectations formed by films like "The Young Lovers" but your reality after matriculation much closer to "Getting Straight".

Both films are told from the point of view of a somewhat unconventional California college student on the verge of graduation. They are coming of age stories in which the hero gradually becomes aware that his luxury of being a rebellious free thinker is rapidly coming to an end. They are being forced to make the hard choice between a conventional-responsible adulthood and continuing their somewhat free- spirited existence. A certain degree of conformity will be required if they are to successfully pass out of the institution. But "The Young Lovers" Eddie Slocum (Peter Fonda) faces a conventional choice about marriage and family. Harry Bailey (Elliott Gould) in "Getting Straight" is spared this (by 1970 marriage was old-fashioned), his decision is a political one about compromising his principals to conform with straight society.

For Eddie, Tarragoo (Nick Adams), Pam (Sharon Hugueny), and Debbie (Deborah Walley) the principle conflict in their lives is sexual frustration. Six years later the "free love" movement presumably allowed college students to focus on more substantive issues. Eddie's on-again off-again relationship with Pam would be recycled with very different results in three late 1960's films; "Goodbye Columbus", "The Graduate" , and "Adam at 6AM".

Despite being "Sam Goldwyn Jr.'s sole directing effort, "The Young Lovers" is a very modest budget black and white film. Although it has some spots of nice cinematography, it has several too obvious in-studio outdoor sequences. They go out on a nice shot of Eddie following Pam down a long outdoor stairway, but the scene loses much of its power because cut into it are shots of Eddie standing in front of a projected campus background.

Watch for the symbolic use of balloons throughout the film (which are even seen in the final shot); they are probably there to represent freedom but their juxtaposition by the film's editor is so forced that the meaning (if any) is never clear.

The pre - "Easy Rider" Fonda gives a decent performance and zips around campus on a beat-up Triumph motorcycle. Hugueny is nothing special but has the correct mousy look they needed for her character. She and Fonda share the film's best scene, a Spanish dance sequence very early in the story during which she lets her hair down (literally) and transforms into a very hot property. Adams is obviously too old for his part but it doesn't hurt the film. Walley is absolutely adorable (super pretty-especially so with her hair up) and acts circles around the other three. Fonda is the only one of the four still living (kind of scary).

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

There is a moment in the "The Young Lovers" when Peter Fonda's character--Eddie Slocum--meets the mother of his girlfriend on the stairs after having spent the night with her daughter. It's an anxious moment in which the mother is feeling suspicious and Eddie comes up with an alibi after some quick thinking. It is an honest moment in the film, allowing Fonda to just be the character of a young man, not the stereotypical too-clever wordsmith. It's one of the few scenes in the film when the viewer can see the actor that Fonda might be. I even thought I saw a hint of his father in that moment.

But in most of the film, the young college student characters voice dialogue that is too mature--full of references to Plato, Gaugin and others--or too cute. Five years later, Fonda will star in "Easy Rider"--a role better suited to his style and much more honest.

His girlfriend, Pam, is played by Sharon Hugueny--a striking beauty who would seem to have a future in acting, but circumstances conspired to make her tenure brief.

Nick Adams plays Tarragoo, Eddie's best friend and roommate. Adams appeared in numerous notable films prior to "The Young Lovers" and had already shown his talent, but this film saddles him also with stilted, forced dialogue.

The film has a seminal story to tell about the 1960s, dominated with real anxiety about the ever-present military draft and normal concerns about sexual feelings exacerbated by quickly changing mores. But that story is undercut by the inept script. It fluctuates between silly and serious and soap opera and, as mentioned earlier, gives the young actors lines that are often unintentionally humorous.

For comparison, consider "Love Story" released in 1970. It deals with young love and serious consequences, but is much more believable. Better yet, consider "A Patch of Blue", also released in 1965, a coming of age story with an honest intensity.

Previous reviews have explicated this film; therefore, I will not repeat their efforts. This film is disappointing because its leads are so badly cast. Peter Fonda delivers a performance that is best characterized as amateurish. Unfortunately, his leading lady is not strong enough to carry him. This film only comes alive during the scenes that include Nick Adams. In his early 30's when this film was made, Adams is clearly too old to be a college sophomore as the dialogue suggests he is. Moreover, the age difference between him and the delightful Deborah Walley strains credulity. Yet Hollywood has never found such pairings problematic: men are often cast against women far too young for them. Hollywood has always been a man's world. But I digress. To return to the film: the most interesting, entertaining and strongest scenes in this film are those with Adams and Walley. They display more chemistry and humor than either of the leads. It is clear to me from dialogue contained within the film itself and production stills found elsewhere that the two secondary leads had some of their scenes deleted. That is a shame. Credit for the best parts of this film belong to the supporting players and it would likely have been a better movie if their efforts had not been left on the cutting room floor. In his autobiography, Peter Fonda (understandably) has little to say about The Young Lovers. He mentioned he wanted Katherine Ross for his leading lady but was overruled. He also stated he learned the hard way what happens when you make a movie with too little money and rehearsal time. Clearly he was referring to himself; the pros on the picture (Adams, Walley, Throne, & Campanella) did good work. Unfortunately, Fonda and Hugueny are just dead weight.