Studs Lonigan

I read the Studs Lonigan trilogy in the early Seventies and I was blown away by how James T. Farrell accurately described my own Irish-Catholic working-class background. I also saw the made-for-TV movie that was based on the novels when it came out in 1979. I didn't see the 1960 film until the late Eighties, and I had mixed feelings about it. I was surprised at how it had the feel of movies like REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and the THE WILD ONE. I thought Christopher Knight was fine, if rather tormented as Studs, and Nicholson and Gorshin were fine as Weary Reilly and Kenny Kilarney. However, I wasn't wild about the happy ending of the movie. Studs Lonigan was suppose to die after living a pointless life. I also felt neither of the movie versions were able to effectively focus on the Dead End Kids or West Side Story aspect of Studs' south side of Chicago.