During this period, many juvenile delinquent films were released following the Hollywood success of The Blackboard Jungle with Glenn Ford in 1955. The cycle continued into the sixties when the juvenile films often turned soft or zany, such as the beach films. The delinquency films returned to a more hardcore approach with the advent of the motorcycle films from the mid sixties to the early seventies. John Frankenheimer was a director to be reckoned with from the fifties through the mid sixties.
In The Young Savages, his second feature film, Frankenheimer directs Burt Lancaster as a crusading assistant district attorney who later finds himself second-guessing himself when prosecuting three Italian gang members for stabbing a blind Puerto Rican boy to death. The role is beneath Lancaster, and it becomes one of his standard portrayals of an intense character in growing conflict with himself over ethical issues. His performance is good, but toward the end of the film in the courtroom scene, Lancaster's character seems to take an about face in relation to his position as a prosecutor and from his earlier get tough approach; as a result, his concluding courtroom speech rings hollow and makes him sound like a political mouthpiece for the screenwriter. The film also glosses over the ethical dilemma of Lancaster prosecuting the son of a former girlfriend.
The icy Dina Merrill represents the book-learned liberal faction of society insulated from facing the social problems the establishment attempts to come down on. Shelley Winters is always good, this time as an Italian mother with a son she's disconnected from. Edward Andrews is good as Lancaster's amoral, political boss. Telly Savalas appears in only his second feature film as a rough and tumble police lieutenant, a precursor to his Kojack persona. Luis Arroyo, the one time pitcher from the Yankees at the time, is Zorro (the Puerto Rican gang leader).
The Young Savages attempts to do too much in one film, depicting juvenile delinquency as a social problem with varied causes seemingly to be studied and understood. Also the four main characters of Lancaster, Merrill, Winters, and Andrews appear to symbolize the various factions of society with a vested interest in delinquency as an issue; of course a couple are misguided. Neither gang is depicted as all good or all bad. The gang members appear to be acting a bit exaggerated in the film, which may have seemed necessary for the film to make its point, but today the performances simultaneously seem dated, tame, and, in the case of John Davis Chandler, over-the-top.
Frankenheimer's early films, as did his early television work, move quickly with tense, emotionally packed scenes. He was also innovative with camera angles and stop action close-ups. The Young Savages benefits immensely from on location shooting in East Harlem neighborhoods where Lancaster grew up himself. The screenplay is based on Evan Hunter's novel: A Matter Of Conviction, the title deliberately ambiguous perhaps. This is probably Frankenheimer's weakest film from his first decade of directing. *** of 4 stars.
In The Young Savages, his second feature film, Frankenheimer directs Burt Lancaster as a crusading assistant district attorney who later finds himself second-guessing himself when prosecuting three Italian gang members for stabbing a blind Puerto Rican boy to death. The role is beneath Lancaster, and it becomes one of his standard portrayals of an intense character in growing conflict with himself over ethical issues. His performance is good, but toward the end of the film in the courtroom scene, Lancaster's character seems to take an about face in relation to his position as a prosecutor and from his earlier get tough approach; as a result, his concluding courtroom speech rings hollow and makes him sound like a political mouthpiece for the screenwriter. The film also glosses over the ethical dilemma of Lancaster prosecuting the son of a former girlfriend.
The icy Dina Merrill represents the book-learned liberal faction of society insulated from facing the social problems the establishment attempts to come down on. Shelley Winters is always good, this time as an Italian mother with a son she's disconnected from. Edward Andrews is good as Lancaster's amoral, political boss. Telly Savalas appears in only his second feature film as a rough and tumble police lieutenant, a precursor to his Kojack persona. Luis Arroyo, the one time pitcher from the Yankees at the time, is Zorro (the Puerto Rican gang leader).
The Young Savages attempts to do too much in one film, depicting juvenile delinquency as a social problem with varied causes seemingly to be studied and understood. Also the four main characters of Lancaster, Merrill, Winters, and Andrews appear to symbolize the various factions of society with a vested interest in delinquency as an issue; of course a couple are misguided. Neither gang is depicted as all good or all bad. The gang members appear to be acting a bit exaggerated in the film, which may have seemed necessary for the film to make its point, but today the performances simultaneously seem dated, tame, and, in the case of John Davis Chandler, over-the-top.
Frankenheimer's early films, as did his early television work, move quickly with tense, emotionally packed scenes. He was also innovative with camera angles and stop action close-ups. The Young Savages benefits immensely from on location shooting in East Harlem neighborhoods where Lancaster grew up himself. The screenplay is based on Evan Hunter's novel: A Matter Of Conviction, the title deliberately ambiguous perhaps. This is probably Frankenheimer's weakest film from his first decade of directing. *** of 4 stars.