Untamed Youth
Sisters Jane and Penny are arrested for hitchhiking on their way to Los Angeles when they stop for a quick skinny dip in a rural town. Local agricultural magnate Tropp is a sponsor for a local prison work program and the women get put in the fields to work off their sentence. Tropp is dating the widowed judge in order to ensure a stable supply of cheap labor in order to undercut his competition. The prisoners suffer ill treatment, but the judge's son has signed on as a hired hand and begins to figure out the scam as he begins falling in love with Jane, and Penny dreams of making it big in showbiz. Review Fabulously entertaining, pure fun! 50's Beach Blanket Bingo in potato fields; a soupçon of Giant with John Russell as Big Daddy. Misses James Dean, Paul Lynde, Don Rickles, Robbie the Robot and an alien or two to be a classic...we've Mamie Van Doren, Eddie Cochran, maybe it is! Great, silly fun You have to be a real stick in the mud not to get a kick out of this movie; or it's sister film "Girl's Town." I am still wondering what inspired Pinky's great speech ("I am a just man") but the rest is simply. Cheesy rock and roll, cool chicks, and a moral lesson driven home with the subtly of a huge Cotton gin falling on you. Many of the current political problems with our immigrant work force are foreshadowed. If only today's politicos had a Mamie to help iron out all the fuss. If only they had given Eddie Cochran a better song.... The MST3K version is worth seeking out; but this is one that stands on it's own. "Intermissions over, back to your African Antics" Quite a package, that Mamie, she never disappointed her Male Fans and showed as much curvaceous charm as the Censors would allow, and always chose shiny material to accentuate the positive. She was more of a performer than an Actress or Singer/Dancer but she always gave it her all. What emerged in most of her Movies was a proud B-Movie Star with no pretensions other than to Entertain. And that she did. It was hard to take your eyes off Her when she was on screen. She had that in common with the two other M's of the era, Monroe and Mansfield. This Movie has a lot in it that defies explanation. In this Teen Rocker we have, for your consideration, Corrupt Judges, on the take Law Enforcement, Work-Farm Slavery of Youth, out of Wedlock Pregnancy, Migrant Immigrant Exploitation, and a Calypso Finale. There are a lot of underwear shots, bumping and grinding, and that debaser of Youth, Rock n' Roll, that drove the League of Decency to put this one on a list. So overall, this is quite a slice of late 1950's Teen Life, at least what was being shown at the Drive-In, and is an underrated fun time with the added bonus of Fan Favorite Eddie Cochran on screen with a speaking part as well as delivering an Air-Guitar version of "Cotton Picker" (Baum-Baum-Baum). 1950s "B" movie that's fun to watch While the story may seem contrived (hitchhikers arrested and forced to do farm labor) , it was a fact that certain rural agricultural California towns did exactly that, for decades. Farmers who grow crops that must be hand-picked always need cheap labor and are never too fussy about where they get it. Mamie Van Doren steals the show. OK, the musical numbers are a bit silly but the cast members can dance. Some of them are doing goofy dance steps for laughs, but watch the other couples - that is a demonstration of 1950s teen dancing as good as you will see in film. If you just watch the musical scenes, you won't miss anything because the plot is predictable, and nothing really interesting happens when Mamie isn't singing and the kids aren't dancing.
