The Restless Years [The Wonderful Years] * (1958, Sandra Dee, John Saxon, Teresa Wright, James Whitmore) – Classic Movie Review 11,713

Director Helmut Käutner’s 1958 Universal Pictures American black and white CinemaScope film noir crime drama The Restless Years [The Wonderful Years] stars Sandra Dee, John Saxon and Teresa Wright. Edward Anhalt’s screenplay is based on Patricia Joudry’s play Teach Me How to Cry.

The 16-year-old teenager Melinda Grant (Dee) is the illegitimate daughter of frock sewing seamstress single mother Elizabeth (Wright), who is confronted with her family secrets and gossipy mid-America accusations, in this soppy, soapy melodrama. The outcast Melinda is befriended by a high school new boy named Will Henderson (Saxon).

Though Dee and Saxon kick up little dust, the performances of the middle-aged cast members are very much worth a look, even if the now terribly dated story is not.

It is Sandra Dee’s first leading role and the first of three movies she made with John Saxon.

The cast: John Saxon as Will Henderson, Sandra Dee as Melinda Grant, Teresa Wright as Elizabeth Grant, James Whitmore as Ed Henderson, Luana Patten as Polly Fisher, Margaret Lindsay as Dorothy Henderson, Virginia Grey as Miss Robson, Jody McCrea as Bruce Mitchell, Alan Baxter as Alex Fisher, Hayden Rorke as Mr Booth, and Dorothy Green as Laura Fisher.

Helmut Käutner was born on March 25, 1908 in Düsseldorf, Germany, and is considered one of the most important post-World War Two German directors. He is known for The Captain from Köpenick (1956), The Last Bridge (1954) and The Rest Is Silence (1959). He made the first German post-war movie, In Jenen Tagen (1947) and two films for Universal in his short stay in Hollywood: The Restless Years (1958) and A Stranger in My Arms (1959), also with Sandra Dee.

 © Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,713

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