Wonderland Burlesque's Let's Go To The Movies: Department Of Youth Edition

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Let's Go To The Movies

Department Of Youth Edition

Nothing lights up the silver screen brighter than a bit of youth. And these films? They struggle to get to the truth of youth. 

Yes, it is an ugly, messy, fun-filled time. Hormones! Rock music! Heavy petting! Good times are guaranteed, as long as the po-po don't show-show.

So, let's take a little gander at this particular genre, in all its mad-capped, untamed glory.

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Mad Youth

(I have a feeling the biggest sin committed by the youth in this film is dancing... and not the horizontal kind.)

(Mary Ainslee was a regular in Three Stooges franchise.)

. 

(Betty Compson got her start in silent films and was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress for her portrayal of a scheming carnival girl in 1928's, part-talkie, The Barker.) 

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Untamed Youth

"Youth turned 'Rock-N-Roll' wild and the 'Punishment Farm' that makes them wilder!

"Kids gone wrong... and the 'Farm's' disgraceful penal abuse."

"They 'Calypso!' They 'Rock!' No guards in the Recreation Hall... but these dogs aren't pets!"

"Penny -  only a kid, but one guard didn't think so!"

"Turn a searing spotlight on teen-age 'cons' in a house of correction!

"Starring the girl built like a platinum powerhouse..."

(Well, I hope they all brought their cha cha heels!)

(A South Dakota native, this is Mamie Van Doren's "best remembered" film. She was set to be a rival of Marilyn Monroe, but got stuck in some fairly low-quality films instead.  She turned down a chance to star on Broadway in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, making way for newcomer Jayne Mansfield.)

(Her lovers were legion, and included: Clark Gable, Howard Hughes, Johnny Carson, Elvis Presley, Burt Reynolds, Jack Dempsey, Steve McQueen, Paul Daniels, Clint Eastwood, Johnny Rivers, Robert Evans, Eddie Fisher, Warren Beatty, Tony Curtis, Steve Cochran, and Joe Namath. She once famously confided, "I don't wear panties anymore - this startles the Hollywood wolves so much they don't know what to pull at, so they leave me alone.")

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Naked Youth

"A shocking film... Japan's 1st nouvelle vague."

"So raw and vivid is the life of Tokyo's youth brought to the screen that Adam and Eve would have enjoyed seeing their nakedness."

(I sure like the cut of his speedo!)

(Novelle Vague (New Wave) refers to a group of French movie directors in the 1950's and 1960's who reacted against established cinema and sought to make more individualistic and stylistically innovative films. Major players included Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, and François Truffaut.)

(As part of this film movement, innovative techniques were developed, including fragmented, discontinuous editing, and long takes that allowed actors to explore a scene. The combination of realism, subjectivity, and commentary allowed these movies to have ambiguous characters and motives, and even endings that were not so clear-cut.)

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Wild Youth

"The way out guys and make out gals..."

"What is their latest kick??"

"The nation's no. 1 problem today..."

"Is violence the only way out... for a teenager?

(Cue: Paul Lynde: "Kids. What's the matter with kids, today?")

(Carol Ohmart, dubbed 'the female Marlon Brando' by the press, got her big break when Barbara Stanwyck (to whom she bears a more than a passing resemblance) passed on the film, The Scarlet Hour. She is probably best known for her role opposite Vincent Price in the William Castle classic, House On Haunted Hill.)

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Youth Runs Wild

"It explodes in your face!"

(Love me a good facial! Just saying!)

(Jean Brooks made a career of playing second bananas and starring in a couple of real stinkers. When reviewing her 1943's horror film The Leopard Man, NYT critic, Bosley Crowther, wrote: "The most horrifying thing about it is that it actually gets on a screen." She fared much better with her next horror movie, 1943's The Seventh Victim. Brooks' portrayal of a depressed, devil-worshipper has been widely lauded, while the film has achieved something of a cult following. Sadly, during filming, her husband left her and she fell into alcoholism, a condition that would bring about the end of, not only her career, but her very life.) 

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Young And Wild

"The scorching reckless joy rides of wild girls of the road!"

(Hmm. Brings a whole new meaning to the term cruising.)

(Carolyn Kearney would also star in The Thing That Couldn't Die and Hot Rod Girl.)

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Young And Dangerous

"We're not bad. They say we're..."

"Hot rod guys... tangling over juke box cuties!"

"If we tell them the truth... they won't believe us!"

"We've got a right to live our own lives!"

(Aww. I wanna grow up to be a 'juke box cutie!')

(Actress Ann Doran - who just barely manages to get billed on the poster - would later appear as James Dean's mother in Rebel Without A Cause. She had a lengthy career, mostly playing supporting roles, and was a favorite player of director Frank Capra.)

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The Young Go Wild

"They live only for today!"

"Teenage passions run riot!"

"Youth caught in the turmoil of frustration and passion."

(Only for today? What are they? Mayflies?)

(German actress, Heidi Bruhl first gained attention as a singer. Her first Eurovision entry, 1960's We Will Never Part (Ring Of Gold) was #1 in Germany for nine straight weeks, selling over a million copies!)

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Live Fast, Die Young

The sin-steeped story of today's 'Beat' Generation!"

(They forgot... "and stay pretty!")

(Mary Murphy first gained attention as the object of Marlon Brando's affections in The Wild One. She then went on to play Frederic March's daughter in the 1955 Humphry Bogart film The Desperate Hours. She also enjoyed a long string of television appearance, including shows such as: The Lloyd Bridges Show, The Tab Hunter Show, I Spy, The Outer Limits , The Fugitive, and Ironside.)

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Because They're Young

"Suddenly kids grow up! Only yesterday they were red-hot athletes and hot dates."

"Today they're gripped by grownup desires!"

 (Oh, those grown-up desires!)

"Whoever you are, you're in this picture!"

(This film features Tuesday Weld, who was a very selective actress. She's almost more famous for the roles she turned down than the ones she accepted! She was Stanley Kubrick's first choice to play the title role in his 1962 film adaptation of Lolita. She turned the offer down, saying: "I didn't have to play it. I was Lolita." Other films she turned down include: Bonnie and Clyde (Faye Dunaway), Rosemary's Baby (Mia Farrow), True Grit (Kim Darby), Cactus Flower (Goldie Hawn), and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (Dyan Cannon.)

For Those Who Think Young

"Surf's up! The swingin' est young people's picture of the year!"

(Oh, a rainbow! Well, a film with Paul Lynde... could you expect anything less?)

(This has quite the cast: James Darren, Pamela Tiffin, Paul Lynde, Nancy Sinatra, Tina Louise and Bob Denver!)

(So, rumor has it that Paul Lynde had a big... umm, 'talent.' He was also a bit controlling when it came to who knew what about his not-so-closed closet and his tongue turn acid once he was in his cups - which was quite often. "Every word out of his mouth was venomous, with a sting that really hurt, into every unexpected vulnerability a human might have," said musician Jack Holmes. Lynde’s behavior turned so outrageous that it led to public-intoxication arrests and an incident where he launched into a drunken racist tirade at a Burger King in Chicago.)

(However, the most damaging hit to his reputation came on July 18, 1965, when his 'friend', muscular, 24 year-old actor J.B. 'Bing' Davidson, whom Lynde had picked up at a gay bar, fell to his death from the balcony of Lynde’s room at San Francisco’s Sir Francis Drake Hotel. When Davidson, who was supposedly trying to prove he could do 100 pull ups, began to lose his grip on the balcony's railing, Lynde desperately grabbed the young man's arm but couldn’t hold on. The accident just happened to be witnessed by two police officers standing outside, who cleared Lynde of any wrongdoing. However, it cost Lynde a sitcom he was set to star in at ABC and whispers about the incident dogged him for years.)

(In 1982, Lynde died under somewhat mysterious circumstances, alone in his bed. The coroner ruled it a heart attack. He was 55 years old.)

 ("His personality was the same off camera as it was on camera," said Bewitched director Richard Michaels. "There was nobody really like him; he saw everything as a joke, and it made him a natural.")

"You have to think young to feel real sprung!"

(WTF?)

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And that's all for now.

Tune in next week...

Same time, same channel!

The Department Of Youth - Alice Cooper