Giovani selvaggi

I was confused early in this movie. The story seemed to jump around. Characters it was assumed we know were unclear. In the movies for which Val Lewton is famous, this would be unthinkable.

The point of view shifts, too. So we find it difficult to care about any of the characters: We don't really know them. They are types: They're cardboard cut-outs.

It's essentially a juvenile delinquent movie. The kids are not that delinquent, though. Neither do they really come across as kids.

Their parents are cold and uncaring. But on the other hand: The war is going on. One mother apparently works in a munitions plant or some other patriotic spot. So we can't fault them totally.

In some ways the biggest kick of the film comes from the casting of one relatively small role: Of all people, Lawrence Tierney plays a basically decent guy. He doesn't want to see the youth start to run wild. That soon changed, in terms of his casting.

The youth are running wild while the adults are busy fighting the war. There are some youth and they're mildly wild. Mostly they're being led astray. This seems to be a sincere effort to direct kids towards more orderly pursuits. During wartimes, this could backfire in lowering morale for the adults. They have more than enough to worry about without worrying about their kids. The kids won't like it either. As a wartime film, its usefulness is a bit dubious. As a cinematic film, this is strictly in the B-movie realm. The actors are too green. The material is too melodramatic. There is little daring and it feels old. This is a good opportunity to spoof although I don't know if anybody actually did that.

An unusual entry from horror producer Val Lewton and his team, it is not a very good film, but at least it paints a picture of the 1940s and existing attitudes at the time reasonably well. The messages of the film are unsubtle and heavy-handed, the music choices are tiresome, and the characters are utterly simple. It is downbeat, rather predictable and quite dreary to watch. If assessing why youths turn rebellious sounds appealing, 'Rebel without a Cause' comes recommended instead. This is not quite a terrible film, with some performances that are arguably earnest, but it is not nearly a good one either, and is best recommended just to fans of Val Lewton who are interested in some of his lesser known productions.

With parents at war, kids apparently had idle time on their hands during the '40s and some of them turned to crime. Yawn, yawn! This is the most obvious, the most painful depiction of juvenile delinquency ever scripted, even for a B-film.

The print shown on TCM was a poor one, making the skimpy production values look even worse than they probably were. BONITA GRANVILLE and KENT SMITH get top billing, but VANESSA BROWN is lower down in the credits and yet has a sizable role as an unhappy teen-age girl. The story makes any resemblance between these juveniles and today's troubled kids purely a coincidence.

KENT SMITH, as a level-headed wounded soldier, doesn't even make an appearance until the film is half over. It's hard to believe that this sluggish B-film was directed by Mark Robson and produced by Val Lewton. It's certainly got to represent the nadir of their respective careers.

GLEN VERNON, JEAN BROOKS, ARTHUR SHIELDS, DICKIE MOORE, and LAWRENCE TIERNEY are the slightly familiar names that fill the supporting cast--but nothing helps overcome the weak plotting, the preachy attitudes and dull and obvious storyline. Thumbs down on this one.

... as in being behind them. I would be referring to Lawrence Tierney the actor, here as Larry, the bad guy, before Tierney would have his big chance with "Dillinger" the following year and then ultimately blow that chance with all of his bad behavior off the set. But I digress.

I could tell this was not an A or even B list film because TCM is airing a print that looks like it came from a public domain source - very fuzzy. And who knew that in 1944 VD did not just stand for Victory Day???

While the adults are off working double shifts in wartime factories the kids are getting involved in delinquency. The spotlight is on Vanessa Brown's character, Sarah, and her boyfriend, Frankie. Frankie gets into stealing tires to make extra money. Sarah's folks are hardly Ward and June Cleaver. They drink and play cards when they are not working and seems like they would be indifferent parents even if they didn't have intense work schedules. They throw Sarah out at the first sign of any trouble she might be in, and she is reduced to working as one of the hostesses in a dive, which seems like it is shorthand for something a bit more adult. Up to her fall, she is bullied and manipulated by the older world weary Hot Toddy Jones (Bonita Granville). But then, strangely, Toddy morphs into a mentor to the girl.

There are all kinds of unexplained things going on. When a couple of teens are spotted by a security guard stealing tires, he shoots at them! I knew rubber was valuable during the war, but really? One of the cars the teens are stealing tires from in the plant parking lot has a toddler locked inside. This is never explained or commented on. Did the harried factory worker forget about the kid, or is this all they can do for day care? And when a fight breaks out in the dive in which Sarah works and a young healthy person is thrown to the floor in the resulting scuffle, she winds up in the hospital in .... an oxygen tent? With a priest doing last rites? Things never got this bad during the frequent fist fights at the Long Branch saloon in Gunsmoke!

Too goofily constructed to be a stirring social drama with a message, and with too much heavy stuff going on to be an effective kitschy romp, this film fails on every level. It was based on a piece in Look Magazine. Look didn't like the finished product to the point that they refused to promote the film in the magazine, or even to allow their name to be used in the film's credits. .Val Lewton later disavowed the final version of the film and attempted to have his name removed from it. It really had no love 77 years ago when it was released and lost money at the box office, and today I can agree with that assessment.