Because They're Young

I'm not sure what the producers were aiming for here. On the face of it, it would seem a Dick Clark showcase, taking his TV fame and segueing to movies. But the cast is much too large and the storyline too sprawling to showcase one individual. As a dedicated teacher, Clark keeps his TV role as shepherd of struggling teens, and despite his thoroughly white-bread presence, does pretty well in the acting department. Anyway, as a teen angst film, the film's okay; as a juvenile delinquency movie, it lacks bite until the end; as a R&R showcase (Duane Eddy, et.al.), it's lame and tame with only two bland selections. What it does have that's noteworthy is the gay context surrounding the older man, Chris. It's subtle, but pretty daring for 1960 and especially for a film introducing Clark. (Thanks reviewer fordraff for your extended discussion.) Taken as a whole, however, the movie's too sprawling with too many sub-texts to achieve anything like focused impact. And except for cult figure Tuesday Weld, the array of featured youngsters has largely faded into obscurity. But not Clark, who went on to a stellar TV and producing career.

Delectable creampuff Tuesday Weld is at her absolute yummiest in this compelling teen angst drama set in a high school brimming with raging hormones and gleaming switchblades. Directed by Paul Wendkos in noirish, shadow-strewn black & white, this one has some real edge to it.

It also has much to satisfy connoisseurs of psychotronic oddities, what with mild-mannered Dick Clark as a tough talking teacher (and former gridiron star, no less), Stephen Talbot, aka Gilbert Bates of LEAVE IT TO BEAVER fame, as his tow-headed nephew, Michael Callan -- the original Riff in West Side Story -- sneering up a storm as the school's premiere bad boy, and a goofy guest appearance by James Darren, who warbles the title song at a high school prom as swaying couples swoon at his feet.

Best of all, it offers vintage Tuesday, age sixteen-and-a-half, pouting provocatively, cooing adorably and engaging in steamy horizontal make-out sessions -- the stuff that Nabokovian dreams are made of.

Amazingly a couple of the teens are teens brither wearing her bra? Quick throwaway line ex-football player dick clark as the actor==first time. One previous film played a DJ why suspend teacher??

"Because They're Young" is a movie that is worth seeing...much of it because it was Dick Clark's first chance to show his acting talents. This was his second movie appearance as an actor, but his first was playing a DJ...which is hardly a stretch from his job as the emcee on "American Bandstand"...a TV show featuring various hot musical acts of the day.

Clark plays Mr. Hendry, a new teacher at a local high school. His principal is a tough guy and expects his teachers to be disciplinarians first...though Clark thinks it's more important he understand the students instead of just labeling them as delinquents. Most of his kids seem like good kids, but he'll have trouble with Griff (Michael Callan)...a budding sociopath. What's next? Watch the movie.

This is a nice film though the story is occasionally uneven. As for Clark he's quite good and handsome...but he generally stuck to playing himself and never was a big movie star despite this performance.

By the way, if you're interested Duane Eddy and James Darren make appearances in the film as themselves.

I first saw this film on April 29, 1960, during its original release (I kept movie notes even then), not because I was a fan of Dick Clark's but because I'd read and liked very much Harrison High, the novel from which the film was taken. In 1960, I was very disappointed in the film because the film made the novel's adolescent characters supporting characters and focused instead on Neil Hendry (Clark), a teacher and minor character in the novel. This transformation was a result of Dick Clark's involvement in the development of this film and because, in 1960, Clark's name was the biggest one in the cast.

There were two major things that caught my attention when I saw the film this time, more than forty years after my original viewing of it.

First was the lighting.

The film starts out well lit, but grows darker as it goes along. Perhaps this was director Paul Wendkos' way of indicating the dark nature of the events that occurred as the film progressed. In essence, "Because They're Young" ends up with classic noir lighting.

The entire scene of the robbery at the warehouse, which involves Chris, Patcher and Griff, is filmed in classic low-key noir lighting, which is appropriate to the action that is occurring.

During the film's climax, there is a scene where Patcher is searching for Griff in one of the school's science labs. All of the blinds in the classroom are closed, though some bars of light do come through the closed blinds, and these bars of light are shown against Griff in the opening part of the scene. Then Patcher enters the room, searching for Griff. He passes by each of the classroom's windows, opening the blinds to admit more light, thereby throwing unto the opposite wall the classic noir image of light slashed into lines by the blinds. When he finally gets all of the blinds open, Patcher turns to see Griff Rimer against the opposite wall, standing as if imprisoned by the bars of light.

Other details of noir exist but limitations of space prevent my detailing them. I'm surprised that someone hasn't called "Because They're Young" the first teenage noir film, what with critics' eagerness today to use the term noir.

The second thing that riveted my attention was the butcher Chris, who is clearly homosexual and something of a sadist as well. For most teenagers in 1960, this homosexual subtext would have passed them by. It obviously passed over the heads of The Production Code censors. But there certainly would have been a group of male teens who would have known from their own experience what was going on between Chris and his boys.

Chris is a butcher in the grocery store where Griff (Michael Callan) works after school. In a scene where a detective enters the store and asks for the manager, Chris suspects he may be after Griff, who has been stealing cartons of cigarettes, so Chris deflects the detective to another boy who has been stealing six packs of beer.

After that moment, Chris and Griff are alone together in a back room behind the butcher counter. Griff thinks he's safe now from the detective and is pretty light and airy with Chris. Suddenly, Chris slaps Griff a stinging blow in the face and tells him he knows that Griff is stealing cigarettes, too, but that he decided to spare Griff while giving the detective the other boy. This slap is a sobering moment for Griff--and an eye-opener for the audience--who knows better than to deny his theft.

Having quickly tamed Griff, Chris takes a friendlier attitude toward him. And this involves his touching Griff. Indeed, Chris can't keep his hands off this hot hunk for the rest of the film. He tells Griff that he can even borrow his car, if he wants to. Just drop by my apartment and I'll give you the keys. But throughout this scene, Chris is wielding a dangerous meat cleaver, which he viciously embeds in a meat carcass at the end of the scene. Chris's unpredicted slap to Griff and that meat cleaver give this scene an eerie sense of suspense and tension.

In a later scene when Griff goes to Chris's apartment, he sees that Patcher is there concluding some business with Chris. What kind of business? Well, it's not specified, but Chris gives Patcher money, and Patcher asks some questions about when the next time will be. One doesn't have to be depraved to interpret this scene as one following a possible sexual liaison between Chris and Patcher, tho later events make clear Patcher is Chris's partner in crime.

Chris is in his later 40s, but his bachelor "pad" is a 50's adolescent's fantasy. The main feature is a well-stocked bar and an expensive hi-fi set, playing a jazz record. There are pictures of women on the wall near the bar, the nearest the film could come back then to Playboy-type centerfolds. The entire apartment is a den into which Chris can lure his boys, give them booze, and heat up their libidos with the photos of the women. When they're hot, there's Chris willing to---do what?

Throughout all of the scenes between Griff and Chris, Chris's hands are busy all over Griff. He's patting his back, rubbing his hand along the side of Griff's chest, outlining Griff's chin with his forefinger, cupping Griff's head in his hands, reaching out and pulling Griff close to him, so close in one scene their cheeks touch--the nearest this film can bring them to a kiss.

I'm sure Paul Wendkos directed actor Rudy Bond to play Chris this way. What was Wendkos thinking of, subverting a Dick Clark film like this? Love it!

Limitations of space prevent me from going into more detail about the noir ambiance and the homosexual subtext and many other items of interest about other plot events and the actors. I've written a long article about this film and would be happy to e-mail it to anyone who's interested.

Certainly not an innocuous teen flick! Have a look with your eyes open this time.

Because They're Young marked Dick Clark's dramatic big screen debut and while it didn't electrify the cinema world, he doesn't turn in a bad screen performance as the high school history teacher involved with his kids and with school secretary Victoria Shaw.

The plot of the film centers around a high school triangle with jock Warren Berlinger, cheerleader Tuesday Weld, and troubled youth and James Dean knockoff Michael Callan. Hints of the less than Ozzie and Harriet background of the three of them can be seen it brief vignettes of their troubled homes.

Clark's also having issues with principal William Genge who wants him to stick to teaching and leave the social work alone. Before Joe Clark was ever heard of, this principal has a once strike and you're out policy in the school. Dick Clark takes more of the Father Flannagan approach.

Two of the supporting cast, Doug McClure and Roberta Shore, would later be together on The Virginian television series. But that wouldn't be for another five years.

Look for a good performance also by Rudy Bond who's got a Fagin like role as the leader and fence of a juvenile heist gang in which Callan is a member.

Music by Duane Eddy, James Darren, and Bobby Rydell place the film firmly in 1960, the year of its release. The first two make guest appearances at a school dance. I know we didn't have names of that caliber at anything my high school ever ran back in those days.

It's not a bad film given the obviously low budget for it. It does have some nice noir touches and sincere performances by its cast.