Untamed Youth

Okay, I confess to paying money to see this exploitation flick back in '57. No doubt the juicy title plus mammary goddess Van Doren is what pulled this horny teenager in. Then too, it's likely my standards haven't risen much in the meantime. Anyway, back then, I thought the movie just plain weird—after all, the sight of super stud John Russell passion kissing a frumpy 50-year old Irene Tuttle was like seeing him, oh my gosh, passion kiss his mother. But now I think the movie's just plain goofy.

It's really two films badly stitched into one, like some mismatched two-headed critter that can't make up its mind. On one side is the rock-and-roll skin show, with kids in trouble but having a lot of fun anyway. The wild rebellious dance scene is still a grabber and could stand for that teen era, as a whole. Now, however, Van Doren looks more like a cartoon than anything real as she keeps slipping sideways for the camera.

The other half is a serious type expose with Russell showing no sense of humor or fun, at all. And he's backed up by a lot of corrupt county officials and thuggish henchmen who keep threatening the kids. Too bad the movie guys in charge didn't split this serious side from the R&R. With a little work and that monster cotton-combine, they might have had a follow-up to the classic farm-nightmare of Border Incident (1949).

Instead, this flick leaves us to ponder the eternal question of why Calypso didn't replace R&R as record exec's of the time expected. Oh well, some cosmic mysteries just aren't meant to be solved. In the meantime, I guess I'll have to hunt down more of these silly old teen flicks.

In UNTAMED YOUTH, Mamie Van Doren and Lori Nelson play sisters who are arrested on bogus charges, and hustled off to a work farm. Said farm is run by the odious Russ Tropp (John Russell), who -shockingly- cashes in on the labor of his captives.

Absolutely absurd from start to finish, this movie is still highly entertaining. Ms. Van Doren sings, dances, and prances her way into our hearts, all while Tropp devilishly plans to make her his new "housekeeper". In between the various dance parties, crimes are committed and one poor woman dies. Ah well, at least the jukebox keeps working!

If you enjoy your juvenile delinquent / women's work farm movies loaded with music and mirth, you can't go wrong with UNTAMED YOUTH...

When the film begins, a cop comes upon two sexy sisters skinny dipping. When taken to court for this, it becomes obvious that the arrest was part of a scam to get free labor at a local cotton farm. Once sentenced to this work farm, the women (Mamie Van Doren and Lori Nelson) see that it's practically slave labor...and the 'pay' they are to receive is next to nothing....and they feed them dog food! Can anything be done to stop this obvious abuse of power?

This is a weird film. It easily could have been a great exposee film. However, instead of just focusing on this work farm, the film ALSO is a rock 'n roll flick....and seeing folks picking cotton and singing rock is surreal to say the least...as well as a bit ridiculous! After all, they are worked like dogs all day yet somehow have the energy to rock all night long!! Too bad most of the singing wasn't all that great.

So is it any good? Well, it is entertaining though not exactly subtle! And, because the Catholic Legion of Decency panned the film because of its overtly sexual plot...lots of Catholics lined up to see it! Regardless, the picture made a lot of money...so Warner Brothers got the last laugh! But overall, it's not an especially good film due to its strange combination of exposee and second-rate rock....it just didn't make a lot of sense. It would have been much better with less rock and less cheesecake and more on the abuse of power. Overall, an enjoyable 'trash' film that might also make you laugh at times....but not a particularly good movie.

By the way, if you do watch this film, get a load of that final number about the Calypso! It's hilarious!!

Law and Order! Law and Order! How often have we seen and heard those words wreak untrue but in the bitter end the film Untamed Youth deserved a rightful ending and yes, the bad guys get their just reward and are put behind bars. Mamie Van Doren starred in this low budget black and white crime film and she got to show off her singing and dancing chops and of course she would not be Mamie Van Doren if she didn't deliberately open up her top to allow the male hormones a better gander of her singing and swinging lungs (no nudity).

Don't expect much when two sisters Penny (Mamie Van Doren) and Jane Lowe (Lori Nelson) are unceremoniously caught skinny dipping in a pond while 'en route to a paid singing gig when the local dirty sheriff arrests them for vagrancy and a forlorn female judge who is smitten by the ranch owner puts them on a cotton farm to pick cotton for him as cheaper labor than even the Mexicans would work for otherwise.

A romance begins brewing between Jane Lowe and a new ranch foreman Bob Steele (Don Burnett) who was recommended by his mother the cheating judge Judge Cecilia Steele/Tropp (Lurene Tuttle) to work for her secretly married husband the thieving cotton ranch owner Russ Tropp (John Russell) who runs his ranch patrolling his farm with two vicious Doberman Pincher dogs to keep both his prisoners and the farmhands in line.

Mamie Van Doren sings and dances as the girls are eventually freed from their wrongful imprisonment, and her sister Jane falls in love with the gentleman foreman Bob Steele who came to the prisoners rescue. So sing and dance your way as these young women and men are freed from their wrongful imprisonment and accept their fate as law and order eventually prevail.

I give the film a decent 6 out of 10 IMDB rating.

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.