The Yellow Teddy Bears (1963)

User Rating:

4.8/10   

Director:

Robert Hartford-Davis

Writers:

Derek Ford (writer)
Donald Ford (writer)

Release Date:

July 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

TEENAGE SCHOOL DOLLS...

Plot:

A clique of girls in an English school wear a small yellow teddybear on their uniform to signify that they have lost their virginity...

Plot Keywords:

Window Cleaner | Pop Singer | Pregnancy | Boarding School | Female Nudity

Cast

Jacqueline Ellis	...	Anne Mason (Teacher)
Iain Gregory	...	Kinky
Georgina Patterson	...	Pat
John Bonney	...	Paul
Annette Whiteley	...	Linda
Douglas Sheldon	...	Mike Griffin (as Doug Sheldon)
Victor Brooks	...	George Donaghue
Anne Kettle	...	Sally
Jill Adams	...	June Wilson
John Glyn-Jones	...	Benny Wintle (as John Glyn Jones)
Raymond Huntley	...	Harry Halburton
Harriette Johns	...	Lady Gregg
Noel Dyson	...	Muriel Donaghue
Richard Bebb	...	Frank Lang
Ann Castle	...	Eileen Lang

Also Known As:

Gutter Girls (USA)
The Yellow Golliwog (UK) (working title)
Thrill Seekers (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

UK:AA (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Animated Motion Pictures

Trivia:

Writers Derek Ford and Donald Ford took the idea for their screenplay from a British newspaper story about a group of schoolgirls who advertised the loss of their virginity by wearing the gollywog brooches given away by Robertson's Jam. The change to teddy bears was made when the jam company refused to let their trademark be used.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 7 (2002) (V)

Soundtrack:

A Lover And His Lass

Not what you expect! But interesting.

'The Yellow Teddybears' is misleadingly packaged as a "saucy" 60s sexploitation movie, which is nowhere near the truth! It's actually a serious message movie about teenage pre-marital sex. Dated as all hell, it's almost like a Smiths fan's wet dream.

The movie concerns a girl's school where a group of "bad girls" wear a small yellow teddybear on their uniforms to symbolize their loss of virginity. The ringleader of these girls, Linda, fears she is pregnant by her boyfriend Kinky, who is a window washer by day, and wanna be pop singer by night. Desperate, and unable to confide in her uptight parents she seeks the help of a local woman of the world who suggest an abortion. However she has no money and the price she must have to pay could be even worse than the prospect of shame as a single mother. Meanwhile, Linda's concerned biology teacher gets wind of the meaning of her students yellow teddybears and when she confronts them about it she ends up being accused of leading the girls astray.

While dated and corny in many ways 'The Yellow Teddybears' is interesting as a snapshot of pre-"Swinging Sixties" England before The Beatles and The Pill changed young people's lives forever.