Teenage Rebel (1956)

Nancy Fallon gets custody of her teenage daughter Dodie back from her ex-husband when she remarries but she must win her love.

Director:

Edmund Goulding

Writers:

Charles Brackett, Edmund Goulding

Stars:

Ginger Rogers, Michael Rennie, Mildred Natwick

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Ginger Rogers	...	Nancy Fallon
Michael Rennie	...	Jay Fallon
Mildred Natwick	...	Grace Hewitt
Rusty Swope	...	Larry Fallon
Lili Gentle	...	Gloria
Louise Beavers	...	Willamay
Irene Hervey	...	Helen Sheldon McGowan
John Stephenson	...	Eric McGowan
Betty Lou Keim	...	Dorothy 'Dodie' McGowan
Warren Berlinger	...	Dick Hewitt
Diane Jergens	...	Jane Hewitt

Storyline

A sometimes sappy, yet effective melodrama about a woman who tries to make amends with her teenage daughter that she gave up at the end of an unhappy marriage. When Nancy Fallon's daughter, Dorothy, is sent to live with her and her new family after years of separation, the struggle to maintain some semblance of family quickly deteriorates. (Nancy's ex-husband was able to persuade the courts to let him keep the girl because the mother was seen as unfit.) Now Dorothy's father has an interest other than his daughter and to appease his new interest, he asks Nancy to take and raise their daughter. This begins a tumultuous time in Dorothy's life as well as her mothers.

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Plot Keywords:

teenage girl | teenager | stepfather | rebelliousness | mother daughter relationship | 

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Taglines:

ENTERTAINMENT FOR EVERYBODY except parents with a guilty conscience!

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Did You Know?

Trivia

(1955). Stage Play: A Roomful of Roses. Comedy. Written by Edith Sommer. Scenic Design by Donald Oenslager. Costumes supervised by Audré. Lighting Design by Donald Oenslager. Directed by Guthrie McClintic. Playhouse Theatre: 17 Oct 1955- 31 Dec 1955 (88 performances). Cast: Patricia Neal (as "Nancy Fallon"), Warren Berlinger (as "Dick Hewitt"), Russ Conway, Alice Frost, Betty Lou Keim (as "Bridget Macgowan"), Lulu B. King, Darryl Richard, David White, Ann Whiteside. Produced by Guthrie McClintic and 'Stanley Gilkey. Note: Filmed by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation as Teenage Rebel (1956). Screenplay adapted more melodramatically by Charles Brackett and Edmund Goulding. Mr. Berlinger and Ms. Keim reprised their stage roles in the film. The film was notable as the first black and white film shot in CinemaScope.

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Quotes

Nancy Fallon: No one is ever quite the way we want them to be - no one.Most of all, we ourselves are not. But you can't go on resenting people. The mother you wanted... you will have to be yourself for your children."

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Connections

References D-Day the Sixth of June (1956)

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Soundtracks

I'm in a Teenage Mood
Sung by Betty Lou Keim
Music and Lyrics by Ray Evans, Jay Livingston and Dorothy Fields

User Reviews

Mother-Daughter Drama

From a fairly successful Broadway drama, TEENAGE REBEL has been given, as everyone agrees, an absolutely terrible title. Our teenager, Betty Lou Keim, is not particularly rebellious, only suffering from the emotional baggage of her parents' divorce. As the story goes, her mother (Ginger Rogers) had left her father for another man (Michael Rennie) some eight years previously. Apparently embittered, the father had kept Keim completely away from Rogers by living with his daughter in Europe all that time, but he had now returned to the States to remarry and wanted some privacy for his honeymoon, thus had finally shipped the girl back to Rogers. Daughter Keim remains in the dark about all of this and is angry with her mother for leaving her when she was seven, for never seeing her since (not the mother's fault), and other than general feelings of abandonment is also suffering the pangs of loneliness, having lived too peripatetic a life in Europe to establish any roots there. The movie is mostly about Keim and Rogers breaking through these emotional barriers to re-establish a loving relationship.

In a relatively small role, Rennie was good as the understanding husband, Ginger for the most part was fine as the loving mother, but I found Keim too declamatory for film acting, not entirely her fault as the dialogue seemed clumsy from time to time (Ginger also fell into this declamatory trap occasionally). Keim had originated the role on stage where such acting is far more effective.

All in all, TEENAGE REBEL is an average to slightly above average movie.

And I must take special note of Ginger Rogers' physical appearance, positively stunning for a woman of 45. I don't believe that she'd looked that good in nearly a decade. It's a pity that her great film career was practically at its end.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 November 1956 (USA)

Also Known As:

Teenage Rebel

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min 90 min (FMC Library Print)

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.55:1