Untamed Youth (1957)

Director:

Howard W. Koch

Writers:

John C. Higgins (writer)
Stephen Longstreet (story)

Release Date:

19 July 1957 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Turns a searing spotlight on teen-age 'cons' in a House of Correction !

Plot:

Sisters Jane and Penny are arrested for hitchhiking on their way to Los Angeles when they stop for a quick skinny dip in a rural town...

Plot Keywords:

Sister | Teenage Heroine | Erotic Dance | Pretty Girl | Corrupt Judge

Cast

Mamie Van Doren	...	Penny Lowe
Lori Nelson	...	Jane Lowe
John Russell	...	Russ Tropp
Don Burnett	...	Bob Steele
Glenn Dixon	...	Jack Landis
Lurene Tuttle	...	Judge Cecilia Steele Tropp
Yvonne Fedderson	...	Baby (as Yvonne Lime)
Jeanne Carmen	...	Lillibet
Robert Foulk	...	Sheriff Mitch Bowers
Wayne Taylor	...	Duke
Jered Barclay	...	Ralph (as Jerry Barclay)
Richard Keith
Valerie Reynolds	...	Arkie
Lucita	...	Margaritia
Eddie Cochran	...	Bong

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-8 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Bakersfield, California, USA

Company:

Aubrey Schenck Productions

Trivia:

In 1957, this film was distributed on a double bill with Hell's Crossroads (1957) featuring Robert Vaughn.

Quotes:

Lillibeth: Don't hit me in the mouth again, you'll break my dental plate.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Indie Sex: Teens (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

COTTONPICKER

Why didn't Hanes Her Way underwrite this film?

Mamie Van Doren stars in this little teen-exploitation flick about two sisters (of which Ms. Van Doren is one) who are caught trespassing while swimming in a pond. The sisters are charged with hitchhiking, and their sentence is to work on a cotton farm whose owner is the secret husband of the judge who sent them there.

The cotton farm for these prisoners is a 20th century version of the company store, where the "costs" associated with their employment outpace their "wages", keeping them in continuous servitude to the farm's owner.

The filmmaker wastes few opportunities to showcase Ms. Van Doren in her underwear, or in tight fitting sweaters. Curiously, for supposedly being fed dog food, these "untamed youth" have a surprising amount of energy to pick cotton all day, and then dance the night away without a care in the world. Mix into the cast a beatnik cook who is out of place in this agricultural gulag, and you have an embarassing film that shows youth as rebels only in the sense that they do not conform to the arbitrary standards of the crooked, yet wooden authority figures.

If you want to see one of the first films condemned by the Catholic church, tune in to see why. If you want to improve your MST riffing skills, this movie is for you. If you want to see this as a double feature with The Grapes of Wrath, rent the Milagro Beanfield War instead.