The Delinquents *** (1957, Tom Laughlin, Peter Miller, Richard Bakalyan, Rosemary Howard) – Classic Movie Review 9855

The 1957 American teenage exploitation drama The Delinquents is the first film directed by Robert Altman and the first to star Tom Laughlin. It also helped to kick start Richard Bakalyan’s career playing juvenile delinquents.

It was written, produced, and directed by Altman in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri during summer 1956 on a $63,000 budget.

Tom Laughlin stars as 19-year-old Scotty White whose going steady with younger Janice Wilson has to stop when her parents intervene. Scotty encounters Bill Cholly (Peter Miller) and his band of juvenile delinquents and gets Janice mixed up too.

The main cast are Tom Laughlin as Scotty White, Peter Miller as Bill Cholly, Richard Bakalyan as Eddy, Rosemary Howard as Janice Wilson, Leonard Belove as Mr White, Helen Hawley as Mrs White, James Lantz as Mr Wilson and Lotus Corelli as Mrs Wilson.

United Artists picked it up for distribution for $150,000, altered the ending and added a moralistic narration by a stock actor at the start and end, annoying Altman.

The film was rejected by the British Board of Film Classification in 1957. The film’s American release was limited, playing mostly in drive-ins, but it grossed $1,000,000. Alfred Hitchcock saw the film and was impressed enough to give Altman a job directing episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which helped to kick start Altman’s TV career over the next decade.

Kansas City cinema exhibitor turned producer Elmer Rhoden Jr produced one more film in Kansas City: The Cool and the Crazy, also with Bakalyan.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9855

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