Youth Aflame

Maybe so, but it isn't called that in this film. This one opens with Katy White (Joy Reese), at death's door in an emergency hospital but hanging on long enough to tell her story...Youth secretly struggling to solve its problems. So, in flashback, Katy tells of her widowed father (Ed Cassidy as Edward Cassidy), a bank guard trying to raise two teen-age daughters...Katy the nice girl and her sister, Laura (Kay Morley)the not-quite-nice girl. Pa Smith ain't much help but Katy tries to guide her sister away from bad company, meaning Al Simpson (Michael Owen)who is bad news in uppercase letters. But he has Laura believing he is in love with her and Laura pays no heed to her sister at all, and when Al asks her to steal her poppa's bank-guarding gun she does so as she thinks this will make Al marry her (and Laura is as dippy as she is pretty,) but Al is interested only in her poppa's gun.

Meanwhile, under the guidance of Helen Clark (Mary Arden), a kindly policewoman, the better-supervised kids open up a JIVE Club in order to keep off of the Mean Streets and not drift into juvenile delinquency. There, they sip punch and watch Johnny Duncan and Sheila Roberts jitterbug the night away--- when Lindsay, Laverne & Betty aren't juggling away on "One Good Turn Deserves Another" while drummer Karl Kiffe-Master of the Drums- displays his mastery of the drums. Joy and Laura join the club but Laura only in order to keep late hours with Al the Cad. But Joy is keeping a watchful eye on Laura and this irks Al to the extent that he and Laura spike the punch bowl, and then Al calls the cops to tell them about the spiked-punch bowl at the goody-goody JIVE CLUB, and the local gendarmes take a dim view of any club serving hard liquor to kids and they up-and-shutter the JIVE Club. Good-guy Frank Monahan (Warren Burr), in love with Joy, has his suspicions about who-spiked-the-punch but Al has already departed the premises and is no longer available for questioning. And Laura has left to go to Al's place and deliver her poppa's gun to him, and Joy has left to follow Laura.

Joy doesn't get too far before she runs into Harry Katchel (Edwin Brian), Al's tough-guy pal and it is about this point that the film totally falls apart as Edwin Brian is nobody's idea of a tough guy. He tells Joy he will take her to Al's place but when they get there, only Laura's purse (containing her poppa's gun) is present, as Al and Laura have hied themselves over to a club, ran by Tom (Duke Johnson), where real-jivey teen-agers can get a real drink not diluted by JIVE Club punch. Naturally, Harry makes a move on Joy but Joy is not the kind that is going to let any character played by Edwin Brian make any moves on her without her protesting, which she wastes no time doing. The odds are high that Joy Reese could whup up on Edwin Brian to a fare-thee-well but then Frank wouldn't be needed, for plot purposes, to show up in the nick-of-time and sock Harry on the jaw and render Harry unconscious. Al and Katy show up, refreshed from elbow-bending at Tom's Place, but Frank informs Al that he intends to escort Joy and Laura home and Al, viewing the damage that Frank has done to his tough-guy pal does not choose to debate the issue.

He gets the girls home and, first rattle out of the box, Pa Smith has already heard about the spiked punch at the JIVE Club and has good-guy Frank tagged as the villain who has led his daughters astray, and tells good-guy Frank to get out and stay out. But he has also heard about Laura hanging around with Al Simpson and rakes her over the coals about it, but Joy intervenes and lies on behalf of her sister. Then, since this is a J.D. Kendis production and there has to be a cat-fight in it, the sisters get into a fight and this further moves the plot along as Laura ups and packs her belongings and leaves home for good. She also packs her purse with another one of her father's guns but Pa Smith hasn't even missed the first missing-gun yet. She heads over to the bad club and meets Al and tells him why she left home and throws herself upon his mercy to marry her. Al the Merciless declines. Laura, broken-hearted, takes her poppa's pistol from her purse and is discussing a pistol-wedding with Al. This discussion leads to some scufflin' between Al and Laura when Joy and Frank show up. Frank joins the scuffle on behalf of Laura, who watches awhile before picking up the pistol with intent to fire it at Al and do damage to his ability to scuffle...but ends up shooting her sister. Director Elmer Clifton then employs a fade he learned at the feet of D. W. Griffith and the scene shifts back to the hospital where Joy is winding up her explanation of how she got there by being shot by her sister. Some more stuff happens but Joy and Frank are soon back at the re-opened JIVE Club and Laura has learned a hard lesson about hanging out with white-trash and low-lifes.

Tame by JayDeeKay standards what with no underwear shots of the two leads who perform their cat-fight in full-length pajamas, and the only skin on display is that of Laverene and Betty as they stand around in tights watching Lindsay juggle.

Ed Cassidy has been raising his two girls since their mother died. Joy Reese is turning out well: good grades in school, and a boyfriend who's serious-minded. But Kay Morley thinks that old people don't know anything, despite her sister talking about what they owe their father. Social worker Mary Arden is trying to set up a club where the kids can jitterbug and drink milk, but Miss Morley prefers the nightclub with her older boyfriend. They have acts out of a late-1930s Educational Pictures variety short!

It's pretty tame for a roadshow exploitation movie; Miss Morley thinks the boy is going to marry her. Go over to Youtube and check out "Sprinkle Sprinkle" and you'll find modern gold diggers that would make a pre-code flapper blush. Was this intended as a switch-and-bait, in which people would pay, thinking they're going to see something shocking? Directors Elmer Clifton and Lewis Collins either can't or don't bother to get decent line readings from half their cast.

Youth Aflame (1944)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Sister Katy (Joy Reese) and Laura (Kay Morley) are about to hit the dating scene, which isn't smiled upon by their widowed father (Ed Cassidy). Soon Laura starts going around with a bad guy while Katy and her friends start up a "Jive" club where they can listen to music and drink milk. However, the club gets into trouble when someone spikes the milk.

YOUTH AFLAME was, for some reason, re-released several times including under the title of HOODLUM GIRLS. No matter what you call it this is a rather weak melodrama that was later sold as some sort of exploitation film. If you're expecting something like REEFER MADNESS, SEX MADNESS or THE COCAINE FIENDS then you're going to be disappointed because the only "bad" thing going on here is someone slipping some alcohol into the good kids drinks.

I will say that for the most part the performances really weren't all that bad and I thought the film moved along well enough. At just 57 minutes there's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but if you enjoy these types of movies then there are certainly much worse out there. The biggest problem here is the lack of story and the bottom of the barrel attempt at a "naughty" subject. I'm sorry but a milk bar?

"Maybe most parents these days don't understand their children but they try." "The problems of youth confront the world today." "What is this younger generation coming to?" "You young people sure make it hard on your parents these days." "One generation has always blamed the other."

The above quotes from the 1944 flick Youth Aflame remind me of the saying, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." People are always apt to to think "these days" are the most stressful and bizarre in history just as today's young people are always the most rebellious in history.

Of course, there are changes that are real and I was reminded of that as well when characters in the film spout lines like "Police work is a man's job" and "Guns aren't for girls."

Youth Aflame begins with teenager Katy White (Joy Reese) lying in a hospital bed, clearly distraught and perhaps at death's door. After making the observation that begins this review, she tells most of the film's story in flashback. She is the good girl of the family, concerned about her rebellious sister Laura (Kay Morley) who is hanging out with an adult man named Al Simpson (Michael Owen) who is more than a bit anti-social. Expecting to marry Al, Laura steals a gun from her widowed Dad (Ed Cassidy) to give to Al. The no-good Al and crime partner Harry Ketchall (Edwin Brian) want the firearm for their nefarious doings but I'm getting a bit ahead of the story.

Katy hangs around with the more acceptable fellow teenager Frank Monahan (Warren Bur). The two plan to marry when they graduate high school.

Police officer Amy Clark (Mary Arden) shows up at the White home because she is concerned about Laura, Katy, and their fellow schoolmates. Together with the teens, a plan is made to keep them off the mean streets and out of trouble by forming a "Jive Club" at which the kids can socialize in a wholesome manner, imbibing milk and punch as well as dancing.

Some of the best parts of this black and white film are those of music and dancing. Performers Sheila Roberts and Johnny Duncan enthusiastically jitterbug at the Jive Club. Lindsay Bourquin, Laverne Thompson, and Betty Phares perform a wonderfully acrobatic dance at an adult nightclub. Karl Kiffe shows his masterful skill at the drums in a truly exciting Jive Club performance. Kiffe is worth mentioning because he was a teenager – 19 – when playing a teenager! By contrast, Rod Rogers was no less than 32 when playing the teen-aged Lester. Burr was a young adult – 21 – when playing high school student Frank. Although dates of birth were not given for the other major stars in this show in the Internet Movie Database, I believe it is safe to guess those playing the high school kids were in their twenties.

The Jive Club is a rousing success. But Al Simpson sees it as a threat so he and Laura spike the punch with booze. Then Al makes an anonymous call to the cops to tell of the under-aged drinking at the supposedly wholesome Jive Club. This leads at least one teen girl, Peggy Baker (Julie Duncan) to get punished in a nasty way by her mother which leads the youngster close to suicide.

Katy and Laura end up in a bedroom cat-fight, both in their pajamas, when each defends her respective boyfriend. While the cat-fight was probably meant to sexually appeal to the male audience members, a far more devastating event takes place when Laura realizes that Al is not the marrying sort.

Since I enjoyed the film, I looked up info on its major stars and found there was not much. They seemed to drop out from view after making this film or a few others.

Youth Aflame is not a masterpiece. However, the cheaply made film is well worth its rather brief viewing time of only one minute over the hour. The events move at a quick clip and the acting is more than acceptable. Like other juvenile delinquent films from past eras, it can function as a reminder of certain basic truths: yesterday's rebellious teen is today's old codger. After all, the people who played the teen characters in this film, young adults at the time, are likely to be dead of old-age related illnesses today.

Although if Warren Burr, Kay Morley, Joy Reese, Sheila Roberts, and/or Julie Duncan happen to be alive, I'd like to thank them for playing their roles well in this film.

No 70s rock concert of teensploitation movie is complete without a drum solo.

If teenage sisters--a good sister and a bad sister--a teenage gangster's moll, lingerie, stilted, preachy dialogue, outdated sexism, plenty of "swell" and girls with guns isn't enough to grab your attention, how about a drum solo?

A girl wakes up in the hospital and launches us into flashbacks explaining how she got there. Bad sister is dating an adult man who just happens to be a gangster. His hoodlum buddy wants to have a foursome with the younger, good sister involved, but that may have had a different meaning in the 40s. What is clear he has the hots for the younger girl. Bad sister seems to think corrupting her innocent sis is A-okay. Her virginity is saved in the nick of time, but the two girls end up in a pajama catfight.

All in all, this is a lame teensploitation film, but if you like cheesy camp, it is slightly fun.