The Careless Years (1957) User Reviews (12)

Tonight! The Night! Belongs to us!

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 30 April 2008]

**SPOILERS** 1940's child star Dean Stockwell in his first adult role as the crazy mixed up and madly in love 18 year-old Santa Monica high school student Jerry Vernon does a commendable job without the usual schmaltz you would expect in a 1950's growing up to adulthood Hollywood movie.

Crashing a party with his friend Bob, Alan Dinehart III, just to be rebellious Jerry meets 17 year-old Emily Meredith, Natalie Trundy, and by the time the evening is over the two somehow connect without at first realizing it. It's later when, with her parents out for the evening, Emily invites Jerry over to the house that what at first was just a chance encounter, at the crashed party, not only becomes a beautiful friendship but blooms into a full fledged love affair.

As Jerry gets serious about Emily his studies in school start to suffer and that gets his old man Mr. Sam Vernon, John Larch, as well as his mom Mathilda, Virginia Christine, very concerned about their son's future. Papa Sam has been breaking his back working all kinds of overtime, as well as days off, at the machine plant where he saved up $400,00 to pay for Jerry collage education. Now Jerry wan't to squander not only his education but the $400.00 to buy Emily and himself a pair of wedding rings and go on a honeymoon where they'll be hitched up, or married, in Mexico.

Emily's parents Charles & Helen Meredith, John Stephenson & Barbara Billingsley, are just as determined as Jerry's are in not letting their daughter ruin her life by marrying so early before she can make something of herself by going to and finishing college.

The final straw is when Jerry with his kid brothers Biff's, Bobby Hyatt, knowledge plans to elope with Emily. This is to be accomplished by Jerry forging his old mans name on a bank withdrawal slip in order to grab the $400.00, that's exclusively for Jerry's education, and take off with Emily across the border into Mexico. Biff not being able to keep his mouth shut blurts out, at the breakfast table, what Jerry & Emily are about to do! That leads Papa Sam to storm into the two's lovers hotel-room and have it out with his love-sick and at the same time ungrateful, for everything he did for him, son Jerry.

Things get even more stressful for the confused and immature Jerry when his girl Emily, even though younger is far more grown up then he is, decides to call the whole thing, dash across the border and marriage, off. Left all alone and feeling like a real first class jerk with the hotel owner Mrs. Belosi, Elizabert Shifer, giving him 72 hours to clear out Jerry meekly comes back home to live with his parents and ask for their forgiveness for all the trouble he caused them.

***SPOILER ALERT*** In the end things turn out for the better for both Jerry and Emily in that they not only learned the hard facts of life but also that being in love is one thing but being married is quite another. Especially if you've never experienced life beyond that of attending party's and making out on then back seat of your, which our parents paid for, Chevy Convertible.

P.S By the way Emily, like his parents, in the end forgives Jerry for his compulsive actions and not only agrees to give him her new address, at her parents summer retreat in Connecticut, but promises to write him every day that she's away.

Careful Telling Of Sexual Repression In 1950's America

[aldo-49527 · 7/10 · 7 June 2021]

There's no better, as far as I know, telling of sexual repression in 1950s America than Elia Kazan's Splendor In The Grass with Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood. That was a big budget film, with an Academy Award winning script (William Inge).

But, The Careless Years deserves an honorable mention.

Produced four years earlier, from a John Howard Lawson script, this film feels like a short character study of two teens falling in love and having difficulty repressing their physical attraction for one another.

The Careless Years is aptly directed by Arthur Hiller. Even though he was directing his first film, Hiller took a firm hold of the material and told it without grandiosity, focused on the sexual mores of the time and the misery experienced by young people.

Some might be bothered by the methodical (slow-moving) nature of Hiller's direction. But, Dean Stockwell and Natalie Trundy, who, reportedly, was only 16 during filming, handle the material well.

Stockwell, offers a James Dean-like performance as the lower-middle class teen whose intense sexual feelings lead him to make poor decisions.

The script, predictably, given the screenwriter, introduces class differences, however, without making a political statement. Lawson was a member of the Hollywood Ten, a group of moviemaking professionals blacklisted because of their affiliation with the Communist Party. This was his last script.

Stockwell's father, played well by John Larch, is a hard-working blue collar man who has toiled to save money to have his son go to college. When reason with his son fails the two have an intense physical confrontation. When Trundy's parents, the mother is played by Barbara Billingsley (Leave It To Beaver), try reason with their daughter and when that fails they suggest they go to their summer home. But, they never take on the cliched snobbish suburban elites' approach.

Approach the film with low expectations and, maybe, like me, you'll be surprised by its nuanced approach to the topic.

Marking Time!

[JohnHowardReid · 6/10 · 3 November 2017]

Director: Arthur Hiller. Original screenplay: Edward Lewis. Photographed in black-and-white by Sam Leavitt. Film editor: Leon Barsha. Art director: McClure Capps. Set decorator: Rudy Butler. Music: Leith Stevens. Songs: "The Careless Years", "Butterfingers Baby" by Joe Lubin. Songs sung by Sue Rancy. Assistant director: John Birch. Producer: Edward Lewis. In charge of production: Barney Briskin. Executive producer: Kirk Douglas. A Bryna-Michael Production, released through United Artists.

Copyright 1957 by Bryna-Michael Productions. New York opening as a support to April Love at some New York neighbour-hood theatres: 27 November 1957. U.S. release: September 1957. U.K. release: floating from January 1958. Australian release: 16 January 1958. 6,540 feet. 72 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: When a youth proposes marriage to a young girl, she accepts, but both of their parents oppose the wedding.

COMMENT: A well-intentioned but mediocre offering. Acting is especially poor. Dean Stockwell turns Jon into a whining pipsqueak, whilst Natalie Trundy -- a self-conscious amateur if ever there was one - is burdened with a grating accent akin to fingernails scratching a blackboard.

The rest of the players stand around in stiff attitudes, making producer Edward Lewis' dialogue sound like a daytime radio serial.

The director is not much help either. About all he does is to let the camera whirr away in long, monotonous, static takes. Sam Leavitt's attractive camera-work deserves a better vehicle than this.

The audience at our Film Index screening did manage to suffer the film right through to the end -- but only just! It has been reported that Lewis himself appears on camera briefly as the anthropology professor.

Why Ike's in the White House

[dougdoepke · 2 May 2008]

The girls are all blonde and the boys all clean-cut. It is 1957, the peak of those ten years of innocence between the end of the Korean war and the Kennedy assassination. The biggest concern of middle-class white youth is getting a job and "settling down". Jobs are plentiful, Ike's in the White House, and marriage takes care of the sex problem. This earnest little movie rivets on that last element. It's like a one-note laser. The kids are in heat and only marriage is acceptable. But are they responsible enough, adult enough. Stockwell and Trundy say they are, but their parents being certifiably respectable and responsible say they're not. The conflict, I'm sure, resonated from malt shops to drive-ins all over America. Sure, bigger budget films like "A Summer Place" (1959) dealt with the same angst in lavish Technicolor and to much bigger crowds. Still, this minor production presents no distractions to teen mores of the time.

Unfortunately Director Hiller paces events like he's got 10 minutes of script and 60 minutes to fill. Nodding off seems the natural reaction to much of the stretched-out dialogue and Leave It to Beaver action. Stockwell may look like the second coming of James Dean but wisely avoids the temptation, while Trundy makes for a convincing version of Doris Day's younger sister. Even the normally competent John Larch takes the idea of "working stiff" to some lengths. Yet the movie is astonishing in one regard-- it was co-written by Hollywood's top communist of the blacklist period, John Howard Lawson under a pseudonym. I guess Lawson was picking up paying gigs where he could, even drive-in teen movies. Likely he was responsible for Larch's blue-collar status in what is otherwise a strictly white-collar movie. Still and all, the script could easily have come from Dick Clark between sets on American Bandstand. Oh well, as they say, life is stranger than fiction, or something like that.

Anyway, for those interested in what teen concerns were like before Vietnam and an assassin's bullet ushered in a new era, this little Ozzie-and-Harriet artifact is a good place to start.

"He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents"

[boblipton · 7/10 · 6 June 2021]

Dean Stockwell and Natalie Trundy are high-school seniors who are very much in love. They're also good people -- well, she is -- so they decide to get married. When they tell their parents what they're going to do, that's when the shouting starts.

In its day, the first feature directed by Arthur Hiller was undoubtedly called "sensitive", and it reminds me of some of the arguments around my household almost half a century ago.. but at lower volume (in the movie). It certainly makes an effort to be honest within its Production Code limits. It indicates the reciprocal yearnings, to be young ad free of responsibilities, ad to be accepted as an adult visually, particularly with the woman, via clothes, with Miss Trundy and her screen mother, Barbara Billingsly, trying on the same dress in a changing room.

The movie is cramped a little by the Production Code, but it was clearly made in good faith. If its 1950s assumptions seem a trifle dull more than sixty years later, there's a speech early on about the effects of the Depression on peoples' plans. Sometimes a little dullness is nice after too much excitement.

A nice surprise

[mollytinkers · 7/10 · 4 June 2021]

When we talk about great male actors, how many times is Dean Stockwell mentioned? Dude worked 70+ years in the entertainment industry. This film proves why he lasted so long.

Typical mid-50s teen romance, yet tackles important topics. It's Mrs. Cleaver before Hugh Beaumont got ahold of her. Worth the watch if you're into that kind of thing.

early careers

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 6 July 2021]

Jerry Vernon (Dean Stockwell) and Emily Meredith (Natalie Trundy) are Santa Monica High School seniors. He pursues her and they start going out. He comes from a poor family. Her family is well-off. With graduation approaching, he suggests getting married in Mexico.

This is a young Dean Stockwell. He's 20 after being a child actor. That's interesting and he's doing his version of James Dean. More importantly, it's Hollywood legend Arthur Hiller's first theatrical directing job. Barbara Billingsley is the mom and this was released months after Beaver. I don't particularly like this young couple. It doesn't start off well enough. This movie almost feels like a PSA. He's always the guy pushing and she's the one demurring. It moves slowly and with limited drama. It's a melodrama and the climax tries to explode. I guess that it's pushing the envelope of its day just by discussing these issues. Everyone starts somewhere and it's interesting to watch these folks starting their careers.

Teenage angst results in maudlin finger wagging drama.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 31 May 2023]

There were unintentional giggles for me at seeing Barbara Billingsley as the understanding but very serious mom of troubled teen Natalie Trundy in this 50's teenagers wanting to play house B potboiler. After all, she's the sweet June Cleaver on "Leave it to Beaver" and the airplane passenger who advised others to "just hang loose, blood", resulting in one of the funniest movie scenes ever. Dean Stockwell is the handsome high school student who wants desperately to marry Trundy, mainly because she's afraid of doing the deed without the benefit of a wedding ring.

The finger wagging script is very heavy handed in its efforts to warn young adults to wait until they are more mature to get married, and it's obvious that this film really had no impact on teaching life lessons that make sense only when they realize that they've made a mistake. Stockwell, already a veteran actor, is the better of the two leads, with Trundy pretty but bland. They do look good together, but lack the magic of Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee who really knew how to light up the screen even without strong acting chops. Okay for a B film that most likely played mostly drive-ins, but definitely a quickly forgettable one.

A good film to show your kids.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 7 June 2021]

"The Careless Years" is a film about two teens who fall in love and want to grow up too fast. Jerry and Emily (Dean Stockwell and Natalie Trundy) are desperately in love and their hormones are raging. As a result, they plan on marrying...even though they are still seniors in high school.

I appreciate this film for two reasons. First, it's realistic when it comes to sex and sexuality. Most films of the day take the 'just say no' attitude towards sex, which is awfully naïve. Second, it has an excellent message for teens...that it IS difficult to control those urges and that patience is important. But it also doesn't come off as preachy or phony...which I really appreciate. Well worth seeing and well made.

By the way, IMDB trivia says that Trundy was only 14 when she made the film. Unless she made it and they shelved it for a few years before releasing it, she was probably 17 or 18 (check her birthdate and year it was released...you'll see what I mean).

Above Average

[Michael_Elliott · 29 April 2008]

Careless Years, The (1957)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Dean Stockwell and Natalie Trundy play a poor boy and a rich girl who find themselves in love but they're starting to feel sexual desires so in order to do things right they want to get married but all of the parents involved thinks that's a bad idea. I was pleasantly shocked to see how well made and at times emotion this film was. The story is told in a very serious manor and outside the title song the film comes off pretty well without any of the camp factor that usually attaches itself to a film like this. What really makes the film worth viewing are the performances, all of which are very good. Stockwell steals the show as the poor boy who finds himself falling apart as he tries to do things the right way. He does a great job at building this character up into someone we can care about. Trundy is also very good as the good girl who wants to do things the right way. John Lynch is terrific as the boys father and Barbara Billingsley from Leave it to Beaver plays the girl's over cautious mother. There's a terrific scene towards the end where the boy steals some of his father's money and how this plays out is very brutal, realistic and quite emotional. The one thing that hampers the film is the fact that we've seen this type of movie countless times before.

"It's tough when you're startin'"

[richardchatten · 8/10 · 5 July 2022]

A powerful drama of young love that marks an interesting intersection of the careers of Dean Stockwell, Arthur Hiller, John Howard Lawson and producer Edward Lewis (who originally fronted for the blacklisted Lawson). Made for Kirk Douglas's company Bryna, it marked a very early breach in the Hollywood blacklist.

Straight to the point but very touching drama

[georgeredding · 8/10 · 23 June 2023]

To me, I am always taken with dramas about a rich girl falling for a fine, yet poor boy. And this movie is just that way, and is very heart-warming.

At a party one night at the rich girl's house, a teenager does fall for the rich girl, and she for him. (Dean Stockwell, who had been a capable movie actor from his childhood, performs his acting feat well in this movie.) It isn't all too long before the two want to get married. The boy's father is not for this, and neither is the girl's mother; Barbara Billingsley, the "Beaver"'s mother, is accomplished as the girl's mother here. While I was taken with the movie, in some places, though not many, there is a bit of frustration. However, the story does have a positive resolve, I feel, and the point of the potential problems of a teen-age marriage are expressed well in this cinematic work.