Golden Youth (Gylne ungdom) is Norwegian filmmaker Leif Sindig's last movei. Starting in the silent eera he grew to be a notable filmmaker, known for great successes like Fantegutten (1932), De vergeløse (1939), and above all the Christmas comedy Tante Pose (1940). During the WW2 occupation he led the work with Norwegian movies overseen by the Nazi's, which led to four years imprisonment, but he went on after the war making both Heksenetter (1956) and this, Golden Youth.
It's about young Tom, son of a poor mother after his father killed himself being caught in embezzlement of a large sum of money. It all leads to young Tom stating with burglary to help his mom with the rent.
This film is riddled with problems, youth delinquents as well as a bad script. Sinding was a decent filmmaker, but obviously no scriptwriter.
Still this film has something to offer, and even if it god very bad reviews in the papers back in 1956, it's still very entertaining, and maybe also quite unwillingly funny.
The film premiered in Oslo one month before Rock Around the Clock, which saw youth rebellions in Oslo, and did very well at the box office. The audience liked it better than the critics.
And it's fun to see Per Asplin at the piano in the cabin, and Berit Kullander dancing and Mary Anderson rocking.
The time frames of Oslo is also a great watch. Tom Tellefsen is the best actor here, as many are a little too forced in their acting.
This movie is as a part of "Norwegian Film Heritage" made available in 2024 when it was released on interregional Blu-Ray Disk by Norwegian Film Classics as the 43rd release in a new series with classics, NFK0043, with subtitles in English, and is supposed to be held in stock for film lovers.
