All right...all you really need to know about "Untamed Youth" is that it stars Mamie Van Doren. You know, Jayne Mansfield Lite. The "Plain Label" version of Marilyn Monroe. Go see it if you like movies with her in them.
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Still here? Well, for what it is, it isn't bad. It's an exploitation film which revels in the youth and sexuality of its cast while hypocritically preaching against the "bad guys" who would exploit them. You know the kind. There's a heavy handed screenplay which moralizes about corrupt officials, exploited teenagers who just wanna dance, and owing your soul to the company store. Mamie and the kids triumph in the end because You Just Can't Keep A Good Girl Down. Ed Wood would have been proud to have written this screenplay.
And Ed's usual ensemble cast would have fit right in here. You don't expect 'real' acting in a movie like this (any more than you would in a Republic serial like "Commando Cody"), and you don't get it. Everyone says their lines and hits their marks, and everyone is appropriate to the material and the script. Waddaya want from them? They were hacks!
Did I mention that "Untamed Youth" has staged musical numbers (apparently to showcase Mamie's "musical talents") along with the usual scenes of the Untamed Youth(s) dancing ecstatically to the juke box/sock hop? In fact they made the mistake of having Mamie sing three of the numbers (because in the script she and her sister were hitch hiking to Hollywood to make it big, donchaknow ). I'll try to be kind: my little sister could sing (and dance) rings around Mamie after 3 years of voice lessons, and my sister never made a dime singing or dancing professionally in her life. So what you get from Mamie is all showbiz gestures and tail-feather shaking and no vocal talent. But no one expects "real" singing from Mamie, so just turn up the mental audio static and watch the dance steps, and you'll keep the annoyance factor to a manageable level. And try not to think too much about who owed who a favor in Hollywood and how someone with Van Doren's musical "talent" got to sing in front of a camera.
Much of the rest of the music and some of the dancing isn't bad at all...some of it is even striking. I've learned that Eddie Cochran was involved in some of the numbers, which may explain this. Unfortunately, however, in almost every group dance number, one of the minor male actors is featured repeatedly in the background doing the dorkiest, weirdest dance...thing...ever filmed. I can't do it justice. It involves flapping his knees open and closed in a no-hands "Charleston" while staying on his tip toes, while his torso stays perfectly erect. You'll have to see it to believe it. So minus several stars for scarring me emotionally with that image. BTW,I saw that identical move (years later) in another film called "Teenage Strangler", performed by what I could have sworn was the very same actor, and it again made me want to put my eyes out with a hot poker. Where's Eddie Deezen when you need him??
I should mention that Lori Nelson (playing Van Doren's little sister) is also pretty hot in a "My Three Sons" kind of way, and she adds some nice eye candy to the scenes she appears in, kind of a "sweet" balance to Mamie's brasher, more assertive style. So that's one thing the film makers did right.
To summarize: it's a Mamie Van Doren film (with an faux Ed Wood screenplay) that pretends that Mamie can sing and dance. And act. Go see it if you like that sort of thing. Me, I don't blame any of the cast or crew for trying to make a living, but I think I'll go back and listen to my old Kay Kyser records.
...
Still here? Well, for what it is, it isn't bad. It's an exploitation film which revels in the youth and sexuality of its cast while hypocritically preaching against the "bad guys" who would exploit them. You know the kind. There's a heavy handed screenplay which moralizes about corrupt officials, exploited teenagers who just wanna dance, and owing your soul to the company store. Mamie and the kids triumph in the end because You Just Can't Keep A Good Girl Down. Ed Wood would have been proud to have written this screenplay.
And Ed's usual ensemble cast would have fit right in here. You don't expect 'real' acting in a movie like this (any more than you would in a Republic serial like "Commando Cody"), and you don't get it. Everyone says their lines and hits their marks, and everyone is appropriate to the material and the script. Waddaya want from them? They were hacks!
Did I mention that "Untamed Youth" has staged musical numbers (apparently to showcase Mamie's "musical talents") along with the usual scenes of the Untamed Youth(s) dancing ecstatically to the juke box/sock hop? In fact they made the mistake of having Mamie sing three of the numbers (because in the script she and her sister were hitch hiking to Hollywood to make it big, donchaknow ). I'll try to be kind: my little sister could sing (and dance) rings around Mamie after 3 years of voice lessons, and my sister never made a dime singing or dancing professionally in her life. So what you get from Mamie is all showbiz gestures and tail-feather shaking and no vocal talent. But no one expects "real" singing from Mamie, so just turn up the mental audio static and watch the dance steps, and you'll keep the annoyance factor to a manageable level. And try not to think too much about who owed who a favor in Hollywood and how someone with Van Doren's musical "talent" got to sing in front of a camera.
Much of the rest of the music and some of the dancing isn't bad at all...some of it is even striking. I've learned that Eddie Cochran was involved in some of the numbers, which may explain this. Unfortunately, however, in almost every group dance number, one of the minor male actors is featured repeatedly in the background doing the dorkiest, weirdest dance...thing...ever filmed. I can't do it justice. It involves flapping his knees open and closed in a no-hands "Charleston" while staying on his tip toes, while his torso stays perfectly erect. You'll have to see it to believe it. So minus several stars for scarring me emotionally with that image. BTW,I saw that identical move (years later) in another film called "Teenage Strangler", performed by what I could have sworn was the very same actor, and it again made me want to put my eyes out with a hot poker. Where's Eddie Deezen when you need him??
I should mention that Lori Nelson (playing Van Doren's little sister) is also pretty hot in a "My Three Sons" kind of way, and she adds some nice eye candy to the scenes she appears in, kind of a "sweet" balance to Mamie's brasher, more assertive style. So that's one thing the film makers did right.
To summarize: it's a Mamie Van Doren film (with an faux Ed Wood screenplay) that pretends that Mamie can sing and dance. And act. Go see it if you like that sort of thing. Me, I don't blame any of the cast or crew for trying to make a living, but I think I'll go back and listen to my old Kay Kyser records.