The Delinquents

I enjoyed this vintage film because it shows 50s era kids as perceived by adults of the day. It opens with dialogue from an announcer explaining about the plight of todays teenagers, then the story begins showing kids in real life then as they deal with problems about going steady and socializing. Unlike most teen films of the 50s, they apparently used real police officers in the movie as they are credited for this during the film credits. I must, however, criticize the music the teens are playing at their party. It is definitely pre-rock n roll type music when, in reality, they would have been dancing to Elvis, Fats, and many other 1956 era artists. Of course, adults of the day were just learning about the teenage music of choice then.

The opening voice-over warns "The Delinquents" will be a story of "teenage violence and immorality" in Kansas City, Missouri. Then, we meet hunky dark-eyed Tom Laughlin (as Scotty White). He and sweet-as-honey girlfriend Rosemary Howard (as Janice Wilson) - playing mid-teens - are ordered to stop seeing each other because they are too young. Upset, Mr. Laughlin goes out to a drive-in alone, and falls in with perpetually rebellious Peter Miller (as Cholly) and his sneaky sidekick Richard Bakalyan (as Eddy). They turn out to be part of what you could call the WRONG crowd. But, they act well. A closing narration pounds home the moralistic point.

Not a great film, but one obviously full of potential, which was in at least two cases, fully realized.

****** The Delinquents (3/1/57) Robert Altman ~ Tom Laughlin, Peter Miller, Richard Bakalyan, Rosemary Howard

Very seriously dated Prolog and Epilog Eisenhower era nonsense aside, there is some interesting and slick stuff in the middle of this JD (Juvenile Delinquent) Movie. The JD scare of the Fifties turned out to be mostly hype and a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of Progressive Evolution unleashed in the post War Younger Generation by Atomic Radiation (just kidding), but it did manifest itself nonetheless.

It seems the folks who fought and won the War wanted nothing more than to settle down and hatch some young-ins and enjoy the spoils. But they were not prepared for their Kids to spend their newly found pocket money on, God forbid, Monkey Music and Passion Pits (Drive-Ins). They even wanted to "go steady". So there was quite a hoopla about what and who to blame for all this "independent thought and rebellious attitudes". Kids these days.

So there was a lot of Social commentary about Rock n' Roll, Comic Books, and Communists brainwashing these innocents (no one mentioned TV, that was the flickering glue that kept good Folks home with its radiating hypnogogia).

The celebrated Maverick, Robert Altman's first Film, is better than most of its ilk. There are some touches that are remarkable. Some bloodletting and a vicious fist fight in the Kitchen and a forced liquor overdose in the Living Room (contrasting Suburban Sanctuaries). The Movie is more accomplished than other low-budget Teensploitations and is quite compelling at times and is definitely worth a view for its time-stamped allure and for the Rookie Writer/Director.

After some screenwriting assignments, Altman debuted as film director in this disappointing juvenile delinquency saga. Similarly, Tom Laughlin is merely okay as the nominal good-guy hero whose unbelievable naivete gets him into trouble. His emergence as a a major independent filmmaker and icon a decade or so later was certainly not telegraphed here.

Altman brings some realism via location filmmaking and especially the Julia Lee blues singer opening but his screenplay is standard '50s corn. With Peter Miller and especially Richard Bakalyan as the stereotypical young villains, the quality and drama of say Nick Ray ("Rebel Without a Cause") is way beyond Altman's reach.

Altman's daughter playing the future Billy Jack's cute young sister impressed me, but otherwise it's a dreary, contrived movie. Add the preachy narration and it's way too dated to be an enjoyable watch.

Familiar story of nice guy Scotty (Tom Laughlin) and his sweet girlfriend Janice (Rosemary Howard) being taken in by a gang of hoods led by Bill (Peter Miller). This is the type of movie which shows bad behaviour as being smoking, drinking and starting fights. I know I was in trouble when it starts off with a narrator telling the audience that this is a cautionary tale of where their kids might end up! I saw this only because it was Robert Altman's first film--he wrote, produced and directed it. It was made on a VERY low budget and it shows. It's horribly edited with inappropriate music cues (there's some thundering music when Scotty just comes out of a cab!). Also the script has lapses--especially when Bill inexplicably wants to help Scotty. Why? There's no rhyme or reason. For some reason Bill acts like he's sexually attracted to Scotty! All the actors were unknowns when this was made. The only one that went on to become famous was Laughlin when 15 years later he did "Billy Jack". As it is his acting here is actually pretty good. He's obviously WAY too old for his role but he's handsome and muscular and has a lengthy shirtless scene. Howard as his girlfriend is just awful. Whiny and obnoxious. This was her only film--it's easy to see why. Miller wasn't bad as the head of the gang and everyone else was OK. This is really of interest only as Altman's first film. Other than that it's just a run of the mill "bad boys" film that was done countless times in the 1950s.