The Young Don’t Cry *** (1957, Sal Mineo, James Whitmore, J Carrol Naish) – Classic Movie Review 9,859

The honest, good-hearted 1957 American troubled youth crime drama film The Young Don’t Cry stars Sal Mineo as an orphanage teenager who gets involved with a chain-gang convict (James Whitmore). 

Director Alfred L Werker’s downbeat and worthy 1957 American troubled youth crime drama film The Young Don’t Cry from Columbia Pictures stars Sal Mineo, James Whitmore and J Carrol Naish. Richard Jessup writes the sincere screenplay from his own novel.

Mineo plays Georgia all-boys orphanage teenager Les Henderson, who gets involved with a prison camp chain-gang convict, Rudy Krist (James Whitmore), who has saved Les’s life from a rattlesnake. Krist is planning his escape with his inmate friend Doosy (Leigh Whipper) from the nearby prison camp where are they are treated inhumanely by brutal warden Plug (J Carrol Naish).

The honest, good-hearted, liberal-minded film is simple, straightforward and affecting. Mineo and Whitmore are excellent.

The Young Don’t Cry is filmed in Savannah, Georgia, in satisfyingly noirish black and white by Ernest Haller. It is produced by Philip A Waxman and scored by George Antheil.

Also in the cast are J Carrol Naish as Plug, Gene Lyons as Max Cole, Paul Carr as Tom Bradley, Thomas A Carlin as Johnny Clancy, Leigh Whipper as Doosy, Stefan Gierasch as Billy, Victor Throley as Whittaker, Dolores Rosedale as Mrs Maureen Cole, James Reese as Mr Gwinn, Ruth Attaway as Philomena, Leland Mayforth as Allan, Richard Wigginton as Jimmy, Stanley Martin as Stanley Brown, Phillips Hamilton as Whigs, Victor Johnson as Hardhead, Joseph Killorin as Solomon and Josephine Smith as Mrs Gwinn.

The Young Don’t Cry is the last film of Leigh Whipper and Alfred L Werker, whose career as director went back to 1928.

It runs 89 minutes.

It was released on July 26, 1957.

Sal Mineo and James Whitmore previously starred in Crime in the Streets (1956).

Sal Mineo returned home on the night of 12 February 1976 after a rehearsal for a play. He parked his car in the carport below his West Hollywood apartment and was stabbed in the heart by a random mugger. He was 37. Lionel Ray Williams, a pizza delivery man with a long criminal record, was sentenced in March 1979 to 57 years in prison for killing Mineo and for committing 10 robberies. Williams was paroled in 1990 after serving 12 years.

James Whitmore (October 1, 1921 – February 6, 2009).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9,859

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