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The Delinquents - 1957
Directed by Robert Altman
Written by Robert Altman
Starring Tom Laughlin, Peter Miller, Richard Bakalyan & Rosemary Howard
Real juvenile delinquents always have the advantage of being able to go all the way - swearing, sexually harassing and generally being as bad as you can be - with nobody to slap a ratings board 'X' on them. Delinquents in film are nasty - but cleaner. After a number of years writing and directing films for the Calvin Company, Robert Altman was hired by Kansas City businessman Elmer Rhoden Jr. to create a feature-length film about juvenile delinquency - an exploitation film that would end up posing as a community project that would be in his area of specialization. The difference would be that this would be Altman's first feature-length film - one that would get him noticed by Alfred Hitchcock (the question begs, what was Hitch watching this film for?) and as such get a new stage in his career underway. The Delinquents isn't a bad film per say, but it's focus and it's aims limit it in scope, and as such it's only really of interest as this famous director's first film.
The film involves a couple of good kids - Scotty White (Tom Laughlin - making his feature-film debut) and his girlfriend Janice Wilson (Rosemary Howard) whose father thinks she's too young, at 17, to date one boy exclusively. Scotty comes across a group of young troublemakers, who have been introduced to us in the film's prologue. Bill Cholly (Peter Miller) and Eddy (Richard Bakalyan) are the gang's nominal leaders, and when they learn about Scotty's problem Cholly tells him he'd be glad to pick his girlfriend up for him, pretending to be another suitor. They invite both Scotty and Janice to a party they're having at a deserted house they've scouted out, but when the police arrive after Scotty and Janice leave, Scotty is blamed, and the gang decides to pay him back. Picking him up off the street, they take him to a gang leader's house, get him drunk, and take him to a service station robbery. To keep Scotty quiet, Cholly has his girlfriend picked up and held hostage, setting the scene for a battle between Scotty and Cholly where much is at stake.
Really, for the kind of film this is, it's not bad. Altman wanted this to be a real film, and he organized it thus, employing many of his Calvin Company cohorts as crew. Charles Paddock, who had worked with Altman on many of his CC short films served as director of photography. Chet Allen, Altman's brother in law and another frequent collaborator, was art director. Altman used many family members as part of his team - even including his eight-year-old daughter as one of the cast, along with his wife. There is a feeling of technical accomplishment about it that you wouldn't expect for a film of this budget - $63 thousand. The film's post-production and editing were done under professional standards in California (this was stipulated in Altman's contract) with Altman and assistant Reza Badiyi cutting it with Helene Turner. Noted sound editor and Oscar nominee Fred J. Brown contributed the sound effects. It all comes together as something slick, but all up it's still only one of those films about juvenile delinquency we saw a lot of in the 1950s.
The film starts on a controversial note, with a voice-over that was added by United Artists after they purchased the film for $150,000 - on the lookout for teenage exploitation fare. It gives the film a feel of "one of those" educational films instead of the professional, "real film" feel it would have otherwise had. It is a shame, because the film starts off in a manner that's very modern - it has a prologue, and then credits running over the teens driving in the busy streets. It all looks really nice - but that voice-over doesn't belong. It talks about "violence and immorality" and "spiritual values" telling us that this film is a cry from the delinquents to us all, about their attempt to find a place for themselves in this busy world. Of course, Altman was furious about this bit of tampering. It doesn't really amount to much now though, for those who have the ability to do a bit of research and find out that this voice-over wasn't meant to be there.
The acting isn't bad - certainly not as bad as you'd be expecting to see in a cheap teenage exploitation feature. Altman often found himself experimenting with what would be his signature style - telling the teens in the party scene to just go and party as if they were at the greatest party they'd ever been to in their lives. He'd then go through the house, room to room, and not tell the cast if he were recording them or not - trying to capture them as naturally as was possible. It's nice to see a little more of the filmmaker that would be in such an early film as this. Most, if not all, of the interiors were filmed at real locations inside real houses - and it included a real police station. He also used real police officers in the film, a method later favoured by the likes of Alexander Payne and others. He'd written the screenplay in a matter of days, and filmed all of the material he needed inside of three weeks. It all gels well together, and it appears that everyone working towards the end goal were really genuine.
In spite of all of that, this isn't exactly The Godfather or The Shawshank Redemption. It's not Nashville or M*A*S*H either. It can be gripping at times, especially as our sympathies are with Scotty White and his girlfriend - the cast perform well enough to pull us in, and the story is tight and easy to follow. There's just not much here beyond an 'episode' - a story you'd be much more likely to see on television. The stakes are personal, and the message plain and simple. The Delinquents is no artistic statement, and the only inspiration to be gleaned comes from the can-do attitude of the filmmaking itself, which isn't immediately apparent but has to be researched. I don't think many people will come across The Delinquents without looking for it, knowing that this was only notable for being Robert Altman's first feature, along with Tom Laughlin's. It wasn't a miserable experience either - and it doesn't fall into that collection of films known as "Teenage Exploitation" that are nearly all terrible, some bad enough to be good. It's rises above itself and becomes uniquely average. Robert Altman wouldn't be back to features for another decade - and woudn't become a great for quite some time yet.
The Delinquents - 1957
Directed by Robert Altman
Written by Robert Altman
Starring Tom Laughlin, Peter Miller, Richard Bakalyan & Rosemary Howard
Real juvenile delinquents always have the advantage of being able to go all the way - swearing, sexually harassing and generally being as bad as you can be - with nobody to slap a ratings board 'X' on them. Delinquents in film are nasty - but cleaner. After a number of years writing and directing films for the Calvin Company, Robert Altman was hired by Kansas City businessman Elmer Rhoden Jr. to create a feature-length film about juvenile delinquency - an exploitation film that would end up posing as a community project that would be in his area of specialization. The difference would be that this would be Altman's first feature-length film - one that would get him noticed by Alfred Hitchcock (the question begs, what was Hitch watching this film for?) and as such get a new stage in his career underway. The Delinquents isn't a bad film per say, but it's focus and it's aims limit it in scope, and as such it's only really of interest as this famous director's first film.
The film involves a couple of good kids - Scotty White (Tom Laughlin - making his feature-film debut) and his girlfriend Janice Wilson (Rosemary Howard) whose father thinks she's too young, at 17, to date one boy exclusively. Scotty comes across a group of young troublemakers, who have been introduced to us in the film's prologue. Bill Cholly (Peter Miller) and Eddy (Richard Bakalyan) are the gang's nominal leaders, and when they learn about Scotty's problem Cholly tells him he'd be glad to pick his girlfriend up for him, pretending to be another suitor. They invite both Scotty and Janice to a party they're having at a deserted house they've scouted out, but when the police arrive after Scotty and Janice leave, Scotty is blamed, and the gang decides to pay him back. Picking him up off the street, they take him to a gang leader's house, get him drunk, and take him to a service station robbery. To keep Scotty quiet, Cholly has his girlfriend picked up and held hostage, setting the scene for a battle between Scotty and Cholly where much is at stake.
Really, for the kind of film this is, it's not bad. Altman wanted this to be a real film, and he organized it thus, employing many of his Calvin Company cohorts as crew. Charles Paddock, who had worked with Altman on many of his CC short films served as director of photography. Chet Allen, Altman's brother in law and another frequent collaborator, was art director. Altman used many family members as part of his team - even including his eight-year-old daughter as one of the cast, along with his wife. There is a feeling of technical accomplishment about it that you wouldn't expect for a film of this budget - $63 thousand. The film's post-production and editing were done under professional standards in California (this was stipulated in Altman's contract) with Altman and assistant Reza Badiyi cutting it with Helene Turner. Noted sound editor and Oscar nominee Fred J. Brown contributed the sound effects. It all comes together as something slick, but all up it's still only one of those films about juvenile delinquency we saw a lot of in the 1950s.
The film starts on a controversial note, with a voice-over that was added by United Artists after they purchased the film for $150,000 - on the lookout for teenage exploitation fare. It gives the film a feel of "one of those" educational films instead of the professional, "real film" feel it would have otherwise had. It is a shame, because the film starts off in a manner that's very modern - it has a prologue, and then credits running over the teens driving in the busy streets. It all looks really nice - but that voice-over doesn't belong. It talks about "violence and immorality" and "spiritual values" telling us that this film is a cry from the delinquents to us all, about their attempt to find a place for themselves in this busy world. Of course, Altman was furious about this bit of tampering. It doesn't really amount to much now though, for those who have the ability to do a bit of research and find out that this voice-over wasn't meant to be there.
The acting isn't bad - certainly not as bad as you'd be expecting to see in a cheap teenage exploitation feature. Altman often found himself experimenting with what would be his signature style - telling the teens in the party scene to just go and party as if they were at the greatest party they'd ever been to in their lives. He'd then go through the house, room to room, and not tell the cast if he were recording them or not - trying to capture them as naturally as was possible. It's nice to see a little more of the filmmaker that would be in such an early film as this. Most, if not all, of the interiors were filmed at real locations inside real houses - and it included a real police station. He also used real police officers in the film, a method later favoured by the likes of Alexander Payne and others. He'd written the screenplay in a matter of days, and filmed all of the material he needed inside of three weeks. It all gels well together, and it appears that everyone working towards the end goal were really genuine.
In spite of all of that, this isn't exactly The Godfather or The Shawshank Redemption. It's not Nashville or M*A*S*H either. It can be gripping at times, especially as our sympathies are with Scotty White and his girlfriend - the cast perform well enough to pull us in, and the story is tight and easy to follow. There's just not much here beyond an 'episode' - a story you'd be much more likely to see on television. The stakes are personal, and the message plain and simple. The Delinquents is no artistic statement, and the only inspiration to be gleaned comes from the can-do attitude of the filmmaking itself, which isn't immediately apparent but has to be researched. I don't think many people will come across The Delinquents without looking for it, knowing that this was only notable for being Robert Altman's first feature, along with Tom Laughlin's. It wasn't a miserable experience either - and it doesn't fall into that collection of films known as "Teenage Exploitation" that are nearly all terrible, some bad enough to be good. It's rises above itself and becomes uniquely average. Robert Altman wouldn't be back to features for another decade - and woudn't become a great for quite some time yet.