The Careless Years

When we talk about great male actors, how many times is Dean Stockwell mentioned? Dude worked 70+ years in the entertainment industry. This film proves why he lasted so long.

Typical mid-50s teen romance, yet tackles important topics. It's Mrs. Cleaver before Hugh Beaumont got ahold of her. Worth the watch if you're into that kind of thing.

To me, I am always taken with dramas about a rich girl falling for a fine, yet poor boy. And this movie is just that way, and is very heart-warming.

At a party one night at the rich girl's house, a teenager does fall for the rich girl, and she for him. (Dean Stockwell, who had been a capable movie actor from his childhood, performs his acting feat well in this movie.) It isn't all too long before the two want to get married. The boy's father is not for this, and neither is the girl's mother; Barbara Billingsley, the "Beaver"'s mother, is accomplished as the girl's mother here. While I was taken with the movie, in some places, though not many, there is a bit of frustration. However, the story does have a positive resolve, I feel, and the point of the potential problems of a teen-age marriage are expressed well in this cinematic work.

"The Careless Years" is a film about two teens who fall in love and want to grow up too fast. Jerry and Emily (Dean Stockwell and Natalie Trundy) are desperately in love and their hormones are raging. As a result, they plan on marrying...even though they are still seniors in high school.

I appreciate this film for two reasons. First, it's realistic when it comes to sex and sexuality. Most films of the day take the 'just say no' attitude towards sex, which is awfully naïve. Second, it has an excellent message for teens...that it IS difficult to control those urges and that patience is important. But it also doesn't come off as preachy or phony...which I really appreciate. Well worth seeing and well made.

By the way, IMDB trivia says that Trundy was only 14 when she made the film. Unless she made it and they shelved it for a few years before releasing it, she was probably 17 or 18 (check her birthdate and year it was released...you'll see what I mean).

There's no better, as far as I know, telling of sexual repression in 1950s America than Elia Kazan's Splendor In The Grass with Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood. That was a big budget film, with an Academy Award winning script (William Inge).

But, The Careless Years deserves an honorable mention.

Produced four years earlier, from a John Howard Lawson script, this film feels like a short character study of two teens falling in love and having difficulty repressing their physical attraction for one another.

The Careless Years is aptly directed by Arthur Hiller. Even though he was directing his first film, Hiller took a firm hold of the material and told it without grandiosity, focused on the sexual mores of the time and the misery experienced by young people.

Some might be bothered by the methodical (slow-moving) nature of Hiller's direction. But, Dean Stockwell and Natalie Trundy, who, reportedly, was only 16 during filming, handle the material well.

Stockwell, offers a James Dean-like performance as the lower-middle class teen whose intense sexual feelings lead him to make poor decisions.

The script, predictably, given the screenwriter, introduces class differences, however, without making a political statement. Lawson was a member of the Hollywood Ten, a group of moviemaking professionals blacklisted because of their affiliation with the Communist Party. This was his last script.

Stockwell's father, played well by John Larch, is a hard-working blue collar man who has toiled to save money to have his son go to college. When reason with his son fails the two have an intense physical confrontation. When Trundy's parents, the mother is played by Barbara Billingsley (Leave It To Beaver), try reason with their daughter and when that fails they suggest they go to their summer home. But, they never take on the cliched snobbish suburban elites' approach.

Approach the film with low expectations and, maybe, like me, you'll be surprised by its nuanced approach to the topic.

Jerry Vernon (Dean Stockwell) and Emily Meredith (Natalie Trundy) are Santa Monica High School seniors. He pursues her and they start going out. He comes from a poor family. Her family is well-off. With graduation approaching, he suggests getting married in Mexico.

This is a young Dean Stockwell. He's 20 after being a child actor. That's interesting and he's doing his version of James Dean. More importantly, it's Hollywood legend Arthur Hiller's first theatrical directing job. Barbara Billingsley is the mom and this was released months after Beaver. I don't particularly like this young couple. It doesn't start off well enough. This movie almost feels like a PSA. He's always the guy pushing and she's the one demurring. It moves slowly and with limited drama. It's a melodrama and the climax tries to explode. I guess that it's pushing the envelope of its day just by discussing these issues. Everyone starts somewhere and it's interesting to watch these folks starting their careers.