Des jeux pour pleurer

Gay people could truly identify with the characters that John Saxon and Sandra Dee played here in this Ross Hunter soap opera. This is a story of kids who don't fit in with a small town and I never knew a gay person from a small town with one exception who couldn't wait to get out. These are indeed The Restless Years for our leads.

Teresa Wright is Sandra Dee's mother whose husband left her years ago and she's raised Dee by herself with all the gossiping mouths speculating what happened. Dee's considered illegitimate so the adults snub Wright. On the other hand the kids who are her peers consider her easy at least the males think so.

It was only natural that when James Whitmore who is an air conditioner salesman moves back with wife Margaret Lindsay and son Saxon that Dee and Saxon are drawn together. Saxon is a rebel type and not fitting in at all with the country club set of this town. But Whitmore who knows what public relations is in his job wants very much for Saxon to mix and mingle with the 'right' sort.

Both Dee and Saxon make an appealing pair and the adults in support are perfectly cast. You might also make note of former Disney star Luana Patten as a mean girl, Hayden Rorke and Dorothy Green as her dysfunctional parents and Jody McCrea as her jock boyfriend who picks a fight with Saxon and regrets it.

The Restless Years, a nice depiction of those bland Eisenhower years with an undercurrent of rebellion.

This movie ranks with some of the saddest I have ever known. John Saxon and Sandra Dee work well together as two high school kids terribly ostracized and are considered "Squares." (That dates the movie of the late 50's, since that term for kids who are different is definitely outdated.) Joel McCrae's son Jody is not put in a good light since he is a popular football player who scorns these two since in the movie, Teresa wright plays Sandra's strange mother who is hiding a secret. Luanna Patten is not in a good light either, since she, who plays McCrae's girl, is Dee's friend or, more accurately, her bogus friend, and even then for a very short while.

Saxon almost literally fights for his girl, and the "cool" and the ostracized are shown to be their selves.

The movie is well-done but tragic, and prejudice is exposed strongly, in this case tragedy toward people who are "different." Again, the movie is sad but does hit at a matter which should be addressed.

John Saxon and Sandra Dee in all their 1958 youthful splendor explore teen sexuality and angst in Libertyville, USA.

Teresa Wright plays Dee's downtrodden, seamstress Mother living life as the town's neurotic spinster recluse, having once regrettably abandoned herself to a traveling trumpet player under the town's infamous bandstand, having later given birth to Dee as a result of her shameful tryst.

Hot Rods, hoop skirts, and gymnasium rock and roll abound, replete with alcoholic parents from both sides of the tracks fully represented. Luana Patten is wonderful as the snotty, slutty rich girl so accustomed to getting whatever she wants.

It's as cornball and cliche' as you can get, but good fun for a nostalgic look at small town Americana in the late 50's. You've seen Saxon and Dee much better than this, but it's remains a guilty pleasure to relish, particularly with Ross Hunter at the helm dishing up plenty of his particular style of small town pathos to keep you amused.

Look for Saxon's Pop (James Whitmore) near the end, driving off with the lovely Mrs. with a smile and a beer in his hand! Somehow, Toto, you know this kinda behavior tells us we're not in Kansas anymore.

While the story centers around teenagers with a lot of nostalgia attached, it seems to depict small town living, at least that one, as unpleasant. My past experience is the opposite of that. One thing which raised my eyebrows a little is the mention of marijuana in this film about high school kids in 1958. I have never seen a teenage film from the 50s infer that kids used that stuff then, even though did it exist.

Of all the major Hollywood studios, Universal's vault is probably the one most filled with lost artifacts of the '50s and '60s. If it's shame that's keeping Universal from promoting DVD releases of their drive-in classics, they needn't be so worried; there's always appreciative audiences out there for angst-ridden teen tales and heavy-petters like "The Restless Years". Written by Edward Anhalt, an adaptation of the play "Teach Me How To Cry" by Patricia Joudry, and produced by no less than Ross Hunter, the picture stars Sandra Dee as a small town lass with a secret and a strange-acting mother, as well as a possible boyfriend in well-meaning John Saxon. Still quite young at this point, Saxon knows instinctively how to work his brooding handsomeness for effect (and it's refreshing to see him using it on a nice-guy role for a change and not as the villain of the piece). The story threads are dated, of course, but the look of the film and the tone are both intriguing. Still, the simplicity behind the melodramatics are no longer relevant, which makes the heated clinches all the more amusing. **1/2 from ****