There is a moment in the "The Young Lovers" when Peter Fonda's character--Eddie Slocum--meets the mother of his girlfriend on the stairs after having spent the night with her daughter. It's an anxious moment in which the mother is feeling suspicious and Eddie comes up with an alibi after some quick thinking. It is an honest moment in the film, allowing Fonda to just be the character of a young man, not the stereotypical too-clever wordsmith. It's one of the few scenes in the film when the viewer can see the actor that Fonda might be. I even thought I saw a hint of his father in that moment.
But in most of the film, the young college student characters voice dialogue that is too mature--full of references to Plato, Gaugin and others--or too cute. Five years later, Fonda will star in "Easy Rider"--a role better suited to his style and much more honest.
His girlfriend, Pam, is played by Sharon Hugueny--a striking beauty who would seem to have a future in acting, but circumstances conspired to make her tenure brief.
Nick Adams plays Tarragoo, Eddie's best friend and roommate. Adams appeared in numerous notable films prior to "The Young Lovers" and had already shown his talent, but this film saddles him also with stilted, forced dialogue.
The film has a seminal story to tell about the 1960s, dominated with real anxiety about the ever-present military draft and normal concerns about sexual feelings exacerbated by quickly changing mores. But that story is undercut by the inept script. It fluctuates between silly and serious and soap opera and, as mentioned earlier, gives the young actors lines that are often unintentionally humorous.
For comparison, consider "Love Story" released in 1970. It deals with young love and serious consequences, but is much more believable. Better yet, consider "A Patch of Blue", also released in 1965, a coming of age story with an honest intensity.
