Universal put two of its contract teen stars into their own vehicle – Sandra Dee, all American girl, and swarthy John Saxon. It’s a pleasant enough slice of teen angst, with many of the sort of plots you find on soapies today – small town setting full of gossip, history and class consciousness; no one understands the kids; parents are mean and put pressure on the kids; she auditions for a part in Our Town; the bitchy rich girl wants the part and is mean; false rumours are spread.
The script - from a play and adapted by Edward Anhalt - seems influenced by two plays – Death of a Salesman (Saxon’s father wants to use his son to introduce him to contacts and is desperate for a sale) and Streetcar Named Desire (Dee’s mum [Teresa Wright] is a bit weird and obsessed with the memory of Dee’s father).
Some of this has dated – Dee’s character is illegitimate, a big issue for everyone concerned; there’s a lot of oohing and aahing over sex. Some of it’s high camp – the rich girl has a drunken trampy mother. The happy ending isn’t really happy – we’re meant to buy Wright is cured of her craziness because she stops looking for letters from Dee’s father but that sort of thing doesn’t cure over night; also, no one clears Dee’s name of the allegations she sleep around – and Saxon still moves to another town (he says he loves her and will come back and writes a letter… how long do you think that will last). I did enjoy it though. Shame it isn’t in colour.
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