Jeunes Gens en colère

As I just watched Wild Seed (1965), I wanted to try with another movie where Michael Parks looked his best and I found it. Someone here compared it with Plan 9 From Outer Space by Ed Wood...C'mon! It's not that terrible. That's an exaggeration. Plan 9 is senseless and terribly acted. Hilariously horrible, though.

The Idol is not the best movie, but not the worse. I love that it was shot in London. The problem here is that I never understood the motivation behind The Idol (Parks). And I believe it's a problem with the script. They don't hint why he is self-destructive and obnoxious towards people around. As some reviewer said here, James Dean had a reason behind his rebelliousness. Here, we're left with nothing, but a bad taste.

I thought I was going to hate Jennifer Jones' character, but then, I kind of understood her point of view of a repressed woman from a different era, who felt a bit thrown-off by the modern generation and their liberties. It was an interesting and entertaining story, but without much explanation by the end.

The great Kim Stanley had been cast in the Jennifer Jones part and like so many times before, Kim Stanley was replaced at the last minute. The year is 1966, Daniel Petrie, a director without a clear, personal vision, he renders homage to some of the truly greats of its day. Antonioni comes to mind. As an interesting piece of trivia, take notice of Michael Parks. He was Adam in John Huston's "The Bible" and the sheriff in Kill Bill Volume 1 and a double role in Kill Bill Volume 2. The Idol, is one of those pointless films that becomes a sort of guilty pleasure with the passing of time.

It looks like a parboiled cross between Douglas Sirk and Michelangelo Antonioni ,with a touch of French nouvelle vague thrown in for good measure.It depicts a spoilt youth playing with trash.None of the young actors became a star afterward,which is easily understandable;for instance,John Layton was supposed to play nineteen-year old Jones' son,and he was already 27 (!) at the time if IMDb informations are accurate.

Jennifer Jones is the only reason why you would watch this boring "psychological" melodrama.She had already worked in GB for "gone to earth" (1949)but Daniel Petrie cannot hold a candle to Michael Powell.Her character(a still attractive middle-age woman who falls for a two-bit James Dean) is nothing short of worthless:only the open ending might make this part a bit original ,but it's too little too late.

One scene is particularly unpleasant nay obnoxious:the would-be drunk idol asks a prostitute to "evaluate" the girls of the party.

Academy Award Winner Jennifer Jones replaced the great Kim Stanley in this British made film. Jennifer Jones husband David Selznick who both created Jennifer Jones as a world famed star and controlled Ms. Jones' career to just about an Obsession had just died and Jennifer Jones per reports took this film on sudden notice. Michael Parks in interviews noted that He- Mr. Parks-suggested Jennifer Jones to replace Kim Stanley, and I am glad Joe Levine listened to Michael Parks! Jennifer Jones is fine as always in this movie filmed in brisk black and white. (How those films today seem so special!).

Daniel Petrie who had previously directed another great female star Susan Hayward in the fine 'Stolen Hours' (aka Summer Flight)- also set in Britain- directs Jennifer Jones here, and displays a fine hand.

Jennifer Jones is so good in this film and looking typically stylish one wonders why Jennifer Jones did not work more given her great talent, glamor, beauty, and fame. 'The Idol' did not get the typical for the time Joseph E Levine super charged PR campaign and the film was quickly released to fair reviews. It was really the end of Jennifer's standing as a superstar. What would follow would be the dreadful 'Angel Angel Down We Go', and her cameo in the all star 'Towering Inferno'.

Jennifer Jones did try and get both "Terms of Endarment" ( Shirley MacLaine, and The Jean Harris Story ( Ellen Byrstn) but failed. Jennifer Jones would retire.

This is the worst film I have ever seen - Michael Parks' performance as a tortured artist is so bad it practically surpasses criticism and moves into another zone where terms like "ham", "pretentious" and "posturing" seem barely adequate to impart the true awfulness that is his portrayal. I first saw it one night in a hotel bedroom in Portugal when I couldn't sleep ;after 5 minutes my instinct was to turn it off but I then developed a morbid and masochistic desire to see if the rest of the film could get worse than the few minutes I had already seen - it did not disappoint! Such was my disbelief that anyone would finance such meretricious tripe that I actually spent time trying to find out the title to enable me to tell my friends! (I missed the starting titles and thankfully fell asleep before the end). Move over Plan Nine From Outer Space and The Swarm - This is a turkey the size of Turkey!