Like Father, Like Son

Laughlin is supposed to be a high school student. But he was in his late 20s when he made this movie. All of the high school students in this movie appear to be much closer to 40 than 20. None of the actors seem to even try to act like kids. This is no minor point. This movie is all about high school athletes, and the actors playing high school students all look like they are the contemporaries of the teachers and administrators. Even ignoring the age issue, the story is just boring. The issues that seem to be causing the main character so much angst are all just boring. In fairness, it is just bad enough to sit through and marvel at how awful it truly is.

This was a vanity project by auteur, Tom Laughlin. He wrote, directed, produced AND starred in this film--and it's amazing that anyone let him do any of these duties in the future because it's THAT bad. In fact, the film apparently sat for five years before it was released...because it's THAT bad! The film begins with a bang--Laughlin's character is in church and he's screaming at God and cursing Him. This was very powerful and you assume the film would be a strong film...which it isn't. It just peters out very quickly and Laughlin so underplays the role, it's like watching Billy Jack...in a coma! He soon meets up with the priest from this church and apologizes to him for destroying some property and then, in an excruciatingly long flashback scene tells the man what led to his awful state...and the film soon goes downhill from here. The story is dull but made MUCH worse by amateurish acting and direction that seems non-existent. A few of the performances (such as the 190 year-old teacher) are WORSE than the stuff you'd see in an Ed Wood film--it was that bad. As the film limped along I kept waiting for something, ANYTHING exciting to happen...but it didn't. Just lots of over and under-acting as well as a glacially slow plot. How can you make a 'youth run wild' film THIS boring?!

By most accounts, the film was shot as early as 1959. Given that, the film seems quite ahead of its time in the depiction of "teenage" sexuality. Stefanie Powers plays the standard "good girl" role, but there is a bit of dialog that suggests that she, too has already had sex. The Tom Laughlin character is sexually assaulted by a girl who is described as being only 17 or 18 (two characters differ as to her age). I'm old enough to have attended the various "teen" films from the late 1950's and early-mid 1960's, and this material is comparatively far ahead of its time. No Disney or Robert Radnitz films of the era dealt with youthful sexuality with such frankness. I found THE YOUNG SINNER to be quite interesting in that regard.

The Tom Laughlin character seems to be a bit of a template for the later Billy Jack persona.