Blue Denim

This film was probably a shocker for audiences in the Year 1959 when teens getting pregnant was a horrible thing and the parents never explained anything to their children about sex and just figured they would all be educated through biology classes in school. This story is about a young innocent boy, Arthur Bartley, (Brandon DeWilde) who likes the girl next door, Janet Willard, (Carol Lynley) who liked Arthur and Janet decided to give Arthur a good lesson about love making and sex which usually starts a big event in people's lives, babies. Malcolm Bartley, (Macdonald Carey) Arthur's dad had great hopes for his son and he found out that his son was failing in Biology Classes and had straight A's in all his other subjects. Jessie Bartley, (Marsha Hunt) plays the role as Arthur's mother, who is a very calm woman and is very supportive of her family and gives an outstanding performance. By the way, Marsha Hunt had her 91st Birthday on Oct. 17, 2008, she was born on October 17, 1917 and was a great actress on the big screen and also on the New York City Stage. This film was entertaining, enjoy.

Yes, this movie is dated along with many faults that the discriminate movie watcher can point out. It does not have the artistic value of another "dated movie" such as "The Best Years of our Lives, 1946" but this was America in 1959. Yes, it was "risque" just like "Summerplace" of the same era. Unwanted pregnancies were a big problem that our ancestors preferred to keep under silence, Hollywood included. Unwanted/unplanned pregnancies still are, except that many teenagers/young adults just get an abortion(s) or simply swell the ranks of single parents. Sadly enough, the cost to our American society is disastrous: poverty, violence, pain, abuse, drugs, etc. Worst of all, this tragedy is self-perpetuating. Art (the star teenager) had the chance of having parents he finally went to, who supported and helped him. Most teenagers nowadays won't have a parent or a mentor to confide in. I know, given up to relative as a child in the fifties, I spent part of my life helping teenagers in distress until the problem got overwhelming. This movie teaches a lesson and spreads a message for teenagers, parents, families and educators. The props may be "dated", the feelings, our human needs and man/woman's quest for love are not. I highly recommend "Blue Denim" as I pursue my journey to find such a place where values and principles of dignity are still practiced.

"Good is he who learns from his mistakes but much better is the one who learns from someone else's errors" was the moral message that "Blue Denim's" Director was telling us.

The movie's very much an artifact of its time, salvaged by unusually sensitive performances from de Wilde and Lynley. The trouble is they look so angelic and innocent, and from such solid middle-class backgrounds, it's hard to picture them "experimenting". But then, I guess that's the point for audiences of the day—yes, it can happen to even those who appear least likely, so be on guard. At the same time, the two look so much alike, cynics might suspect incest.

As a teen from the time, this youth movie strikes me as one of the few made more for teen girls than boys. No speeding cars, beer busts, or other staples of the drive-in crowd (note also how demurely Janet {Lynley} is dressed). Instead, the 90-minutes deals with a subject that can't even be mentioned on screen, viz. abortion. People can be slaughtered in movies, but screenwriters don't dare even mention abortion. Thus, the mores of the time are much in evidence and reinforced by Hollywood's boycott-fearing Production Code

For example, no mention is made of contraceptives, sex education in school, or safe legalized abortion as possible alternatives (note how the abortion escort is made to look like a witch), since one or all of these were illegal in most or all states. Instead, the kids are to be punished by having their futures decided for them, though again the point is minimized in the screenplay (note how Art's {de Wilde} one smile comes at the end, the required happy ending).

I'm not taking sides here, just trying to point out how a complex social issue is narrowed down to a single morally acceptable solution, typical of that strait-jacketed decade. Nonetheless and despite the loaded deck, I suspect the movie deals about as sensitively with the issue as conditions of the time would allow. However, canny viewers can learn a lot from this about the origins of the 1960's youth rebellions.

Dated as it may be, BLUE DENIM, or BLUE JEANS as it was known overseas, is still an effective teen pregnancy film, and no doubt a big deal of it's time. Carol Lynley is by far the best actor in this modest but visually quite engrossing studio bound movie from Fox, with really beautiful c/s b/w imagery and TV style settings and acting. It reminded me a lot of COMPULSION and THE STRIPPER and KISS ME STUPID and even IN COLD BLOOD with its rural town suburbia in CinemaScope b/w, a style I have always thought atmospheric and effective. Brandon De Wilde clearly just 16 or 17 is quite puppy-fat terrific as the handsome nice boy with the Patty Duke Show style parents, but it is Carol Lynley who acts everyone else off the screen. I grew to really love this film as it went on and actually had a good cry. It still works if you are willing to see it as a very strong teen pregnancy film of its time which must have really had an effect on every teen who saw it. Tragic that DeWilde was killed at 30 in a car crash, as this film had the Rebel Without A Cause image and emotion well presented. Quite beautiful for many reasons and wonderfully frank for 1959. It must have made millions of dollars on a very low budget. There is a wonderful horrible Gothic moment with the abortionists car and the hag within.

Arthur Bartley and Janet Willard are fresh-faced teens in 1950s America. Arthur shoots the breeze with his friend Ernie drinking, smoking, and playing poker. Janet enters their basement hideout. Ernie forges a permission slip for her. Arthur and Janet start a relationship which culminates to a desperate need for an abortion.

There are limitations for its time. There is no way to show the sexual encounter and the word abortion is never mentioned. It's already pushing the envelop to touch upon the subject matter. It is exactly what one expects from a 50's movie dealing with teen sex and abortion. The movie has one major change from the play that speaks to the public sensitivity. As a movie, it is very much a 50's movie. It is old fashion melodrama. The young actors are all capable. The two leads are very young and fresh-faced. It's like a better made PSA movie. That's giving it short shrift. It's better than that. There is real tension in the drama. The most compelling section is Arthur trying to tell his parents. The ending is the safer choice which is as much as can be expected for its time. While the attempt is commendable, it cannot escape the melodramatic style and the moral restrictions.