Youth Runs Wild
Encyclopedia
Youth Runs Wild is a 1944 B movie about unattentive parents and juvenile delinquency
, produced by Val Lewton
, directed by Mark Robson
and starring Bonita Granville
, Kent Smith
, Jean Brooks
, Glen Vernon and Vanessa Brown
. It was written by John Fante
, Herbert Kline and Ardel Wray.
Cast notes
, who had recently directed the sensationalistic films Hitler's Children and Behind the Rising Sun
(both in 1943), was initially set to direct Youth Runs Wild – which at various time had the working titles "The Dangerous Age", "Look to Your Children" and "Are These Our Children?" – but he left to direct Tender Comrade. The film went into production under director Mark Robson
, a regular in the Val Lewton
unit, from 3 November to 21 December 1943. For the shoot, the cinematographer, John J. Mescall
experimented with a new "swivel lens" that would allow a nearly infinite depth of focus.
The film was inspired by a photo essay that appeared in Look
magazine on 21 September 1943. Look, however, did not like the completed film, describing it as an "outworn, stale documentary", and they refused to promote the film in the magazine, or even to allow their name to be used in the film's credits. Some copies of the film do carry on the main title card (see the image in the infobox at the head of this article) the legend:
The film's technical advisor, Ruth Clifton, was a teenager whose example of starting a youth recreation center in Moline, Illinois
inspired others around the country to do the same thing. RKO attempted to position the film as authentic by showing it to various state and local authorities concerned with juvenile delinquency, but they also did not receive the film well, even though one of the writers, Herbert Kline was a noted director of documentaries about social issues. The studio's efforts did bring the film to the attention of the U.S. State Department, which expressed concern that focusing on juvenile delinquency at that moment might have a detrimental effect on national morale.
RKO tested two versions of the film, Lewton's and another in which several scenes had been cut, including one where an abused teenager killed his sadistic father. The final released version was the studio's cut. As a result, some of the actors listed in the credits do not actually appear in the film. Lewton later disavowed the final version of the film and attempted to have his name removed from it.
Youth Runs Wild was premiered in New York City on 1 September 1944 and went into general release in January 1945. It was not well received, and lost $45,000.
Juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors who fall under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not...
, produced by Val Lewton
Val Lewton
Val Lewton was an American film producer and screenwriter, best known for a string of low-budget horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s.-Early life:...
, directed by Mark Robson
Mark Robson
Mark Robson was a Canadian-born film editor, film director and producer in Hollywood.-Career:Born in Montreal, Quebec, he moved to the United States at a young age. He studied at the University of California, Los Angeles then found work in the prop department at 20th Century Fox studios...
and starring Bonita Granville
Bonita Granville
Bonita Granville was an American film actress and television producer.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Granville was the daughter of stage actors, and made her film debut at the age of nine in Westward Passage...
, Kent Smith
Kent Smith
Kent Smith was an American actor who had a lengthy career in film, theater, and television.Born Frank Kent Smith in New York, New York, Smith made his acting debut on Broadway in 1932 in and, after spending a few years there, moved to Hollywood, California, where he made his film debut in The...
, Jean Brooks
Jean Brooks
Jean Brooks born Ruby M. Kelly was an American film actress who appeared in over 30 films. She was raised in both New York City and Costa Rica, and was fluent in both English and Spanish. She never achieved major stardom in Hollywood, though she landed a number of prominent roles in the early 1940s...
, Glen Vernon and Vanessa Brown
Vanessa Brown
Vanessa Brown was an Austrian-American actress who was successful in radio, film, theater, and television.-Early life:...
. It was written by John Fante
John Fante
John Fante was an American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Italian descent. He is perhaps best known for his work, Ask the Dust, a semi-autobiograpical novel about life in and around Los Angeles, California, which was the third in a series of four novels, published between 1938...
, Herbert Kline and Ardel Wray.
Cast
- Bonita GranvilleBonita GranvilleBonita Granville was an American film actress and television producer.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Granville was the daughter of stage actors, and made her film debut at the age of nine in Westward Passage...
as Toddy - Kent SmithKent SmithKent Smith was an American actor who had a lengthy career in film, theater, and television.Born Frank Kent Smith in New York, New York, Smith made his acting debut on Broadway in 1932 in and, after spending a few years there, moved to Hollywood, California, where he made his film debut in The...
as Danny Coates - Jean BrooksJean BrooksJean Brooks born Ruby M. Kelly was an American film actress who appeared in over 30 films. She was raised in both New York City and Costa Rica, and was fluent in both English and Spanish. She never achieved major stardom in Hollywood, though she landed a number of prominent roles in the early 1940s...
as Mary Hauser Coates - Glen Vernon as Frank Hauser
- Vanessa BrownVanessa BrownVanessa Brown was an Austrian-American actress who was successful in radio, film, theater, and television.-Early life:...
as Sarah Taylor - Ben BardBen BardBen Bard was a movie actor, stage actor, and acting teacher. With comedian Jack Pearl, Bard worked in a comedy duo in vaudeville...
as Mr. Taylor - Mary Servoss as Mrs. Cora Hauser
- Lawrence TierneyLawrence TierneyLawrence Tierney was an American actor, known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and hardened criminals, which mirrored his own frequent brushes with the law....
as Larry Duncan - Johnny Walsh as Herb Vigero
- Rod Rodgers as Rocky
- Elizabeth Russell as Mrs. Mabel Taylor
Cast notes
- Vanessa Brown made her film debut in Youth Runs Wild under the name "Tessa Brind". Born "Smylla Brind", she had appeared on Broadway in The Seven Year ItchThe Seven Year ItchThe Seven Year Itch is a 1955 American film based on a three-act play with the same name by George Axelrod. The film was co-written and directed by Billy Wilder, and starred Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, reprising his Broadway role...
playing the part opposite Tom EwellTom EwellTom Ewell was an American actor.-Early life and career:Born Samuel Yewell Tompkins in Owensboro, Kentucky, where his family expected him to follow in their footsteps as lawyers or whiskey and tobacco dealers....
that Marilyn MonroeMarilyn MonroeMarilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
would later play in the film. Brown had also appeared on the radio game show Quiz KidsQuiz KidsQuiz Kids, a popular radio-TV series of the 1940s and 1950s, was created by Chicago public relations and advertising man Louis G. Cowan . Originally sponsored by Alka-Seltzer, the series was first broadcast on NBC from Chicago, June 28, 1940, airing as a summer replacement show for Alec Templeton...
. - Elizabeth Russell, the sister-in-law of Rosalind RussellRosalind RussellRosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
, was a regular in films produced by Val Lewton, having appeared in Cat People (1942), its sequel The Curse of the Cat PeopleThe Curse of the Cat PeopleThe Curse of the Cat People is a 1944 film directed by Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise, and produced by Val Lewton. This film, which was then-film editor Robert Wise's first directing credit, is the sequel to Cat People and has many of the same characters...
(1944) and The Seventh VictimThe Seventh VictimThe Seventh Victim is a 1943 horror and film noir starring Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell, Kim Hunter , and Hugh Beaumont, directed by Mark Robson, and produced by Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures...
(1943). She would also appear later in Lewton's BedlamBedlam (film)Bedlam is a film starring Boris Karloff and Anna Lee, and was the last in a series of stylish B films produced by Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures. The film was inspired by William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress, and Hogarth was given a writing credit.-Plot:Set in 1761 London, England, the film...
(1946).
Production
Edward DmytrykEdward Dmytryk
Edward Dmytryk was an American film director who was amongst the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who served time in prison for being in contempt of Congress during the McCarthy-era 'red scare'.-Early life:Dmytryk was born in Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada,...
, who had recently directed the sensationalistic films Hitler's Children and Behind the Rising Sun
Behind the Rising Sun (film)
Behind the Rising Sun is a 1943 American war film based on the 1941 book by the same name written by James R Young. Later-blacklisted Edward Dmytryk directed the film, and it stars Margo, Tom Neal, J...
(both in 1943), was initially set to direct Youth Runs Wild – which at various time had the working titles "The Dangerous Age", "Look to Your Children" and "Are These Our Children?" – but he left to direct Tender Comrade. The film went into production under director Mark Robson
Mark Robson
Mark Robson was a Canadian-born film editor, film director and producer in Hollywood.-Career:Born in Montreal, Quebec, he moved to the United States at a young age. He studied at the University of California, Los Angeles then found work in the prop department at 20th Century Fox studios...
, a regular in the Val Lewton
Val Lewton
Val Lewton was an American film producer and screenwriter, best known for a string of low-budget horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s.-Early life:...
unit, from 3 November to 21 December 1943. For the shoot, the cinematographer, John J. Mescall
John J. Mescall
John J. Mescall, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer. He photographed such silent films as Ernst Lubitsch's The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg , but he is best known for his work in the 1930s at Universal Pictures, where he often worked on the films of James Whale...
experimented with a new "swivel lens" that would allow a nearly infinite depth of focus.
The film was inspired by a photo essay that appeared in Look
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
magazine on 21 September 1943. Look, however, did not like the completed film, describing it as an "outworn, stale documentary", and they refused to promote the film in the magazine, or even to allow their name to be used in the film's credits. Some copies of the film do carry on the main title card (see the image in the infobox at the head of this article) the legend:
Inspired by the LOOK Magazine Picture Story
"ARE THESE OUR CHILDREN?"
The film's technical advisor, Ruth Clifton, was a teenager whose example of starting a youth recreation center in Moline, Illinois
Moline, Illinois
Moline is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States, with a population of 45,792 in 2010. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities has a population of...
inspired others around the country to do the same thing. RKO attempted to position the film as authentic by showing it to various state and local authorities concerned with juvenile delinquency, but they also did not receive the film well, even though one of the writers, Herbert Kline was a noted director of documentaries about social issues. The studio's efforts did bring the film to the attention of the U.S. State Department, which expressed concern that focusing on juvenile delinquency at that moment might have a detrimental effect on national morale.
Lewton argued that the intent of the film was to draw attention to a national problem and help bring about measures to solve it, which would do the country more good than harm. ... RKO decided not to pull the film from active production, but because of its controversial subject matter, Lewton was given more supervision than usual, much to his displeasure.
RKO tested two versions of the film, Lewton's and another in which several scenes had been cut, including one where an abused teenager killed his sadistic father. The final released version was the studio's cut. As a result, some of the actors listed in the credits do not actually appear in the film. Lewton later disavowed the final version of the film and attempted to have his name removed from it.
Youth Runs Wild was premiered in New York City on 1 September 1944 and went into general release in January 1945. It was not well received, and lost $45,000.