Blue Denim

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.

I watched this by chance yesterday. And was quit pleasantly surprised, it's a terrific little film. Far more sophisticated than I would have expected for a film made in 1959 dealing with teenage pregnancy. The two leads, were only about the same age as their characters at the time and looked it, it was quite surprising. Of course nowadays the early consummation of their relationship would have been shown in far more graphic detail, and this film made me realize that those kind of scenes aren't really needed to get the message across. I am not a prude, but I find sometimes the full revelation of a young performer's(normally female)unnecessary and exploitative. This mall film , makes it's point and is quite sensitive in doing so. Contrary to some of the other critics , I did not find myself tempted to laugh at all.

I must admit I TiVOed this movie because of the description of it. I was intrigued on how a movie made back then could tackle the subject of abortion. If you couldn't even say a word about it, how could you base a whole movie on it? First and foremost, MacDonald Carey did a fantastic job as your typical dad from that era (imagine Fred MacMurray dealing with Robbie knocking a girl up on My Three Sons). Seeing as how he was just about the only one in the movie who could act, I realize how underrated he was at the time (and I guess altogether). The women in the movie (mother and sister of the boy in "trouble") are you typical dingbat "ask the husband what YOUR opinion is" people from that era, which makes it all the more entertaining. The highlights for me are the girl in trouble, the boy's best friend, and of course Mac C. The story is great for the time in which it was acted. Definitely entertaining and worth checking out. Not as dark as "Love with the Proper Stranger" if even that could be considered dark. But good luck finding it. I watched the premiere of it of the FMC. Who knows if it'll be on again.

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.

Things are just about the way they were for young people at the time just before choice. It may not have had today's broad slice of life in your face stance, but it was not the order of the day.It reflects the last days of a total lack of knowledge and misunderstood truths among the teenagers of that most recent time. Attractive actors may have brought a few more young people to see and think about the films' moral.