Untamed Youth

For the silent film, see Untamed Youth (1924 film).

Untamed Youth is a 1957 American teen film directed by Howard W. Koch, written by John C. Higgins and Stephen Longstreet, and starring Mamie Van Doren and Lori Nelson as two starstruck sisters who are sentenced to farm labor.

Untamed Youth
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Howard W. Koch
Written by	John C. Higgins Stephen Longstreet
Produced by	Aubrey Schenck
Starring	Mamie Van Doren Lori Nelson John Russell Eddie Cochran
Cinematography	Carl E. Guthrie
Edited by	John F. Schreyer
Music by	Les Baxter
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	May 8, 1957 (1957-05-08) [1]
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Eddie Cochran acts in the film and sings the song "Cotton Picker". The music was composed by Les Baxter.

Plot

Sisters Penny and Jane Lowe, on their way to Los Angeles, are arrested for hitchhiking and skinny-dipping and are sentenced to work on a rural Texas farm for a corrupt agricultural magnate named Russ Tropp. The judge, who sentenced the sisters to the farm, is secretly married to Tropp. Unaware she is being used for her position, she is likewise unaware of the mistreatment of the prisoners. When her son is hired to work at the farm, he uncovers that a scam had been going on. Through dating the judge, Cecilia Steele, Tropp ensures that all delinquents and rule breakers are ordered to work off their sentence at his farm, therefore giving him a stable amount of cheap labor and allowing him to undercut all competition he faces. The judge's son falls in love with Jane, while Penny, who performs four songs in the film, dreams of making it big in show business. One of the girls, named Baby, at one point falls ill, leaving the judge's son Bob to hijack one of Tropp's cars to rush her to a hospital for treatment. Baby dies from internal hemorrhaging caused by a miscarriage.

After Baby's death, Bob confronts his mother, who reveals that she married Tropp and is unaware of the abuses on the farm. The judge takes Jane in her car to find out more, while Bob and Penny, with the help of the Spanish-speaking worker Margarita, find out that Tropp is looking to hire illegal migrant workers for the ranch, but Margarita and Bob are spotted and chased by Tropp's guard dogs before being captured. Tropp orders the two to be sent across the border with the smugglers and disposed of to keep from informing federal authorities. Penny runs to the barracks and gets the rest of the farm workers into a crowd to confront Tropp before they can leave. After someone throws an object at the sheriff, a riot is averted as Jane and Judge Steele return. The sheriff's deputy attempts to drive off, but the arrested Bob grapples him and causes the car to crash into a pole. Bob captures the coyote Tropp spoke with and tells the crowd about the smuggling plan. After Tropp is searched and phony work permits are found on him, Steele orders both into custody. Judge Steele tells the crowd she will look to commute their sentences before retiring due to her role. Some time later, Jane, Bob and Cecilia watch Penny performing a calypso number on television.

Cast

• Mamie Van Doren as Penny Lowe
• Lori Nelson as Jane Lowe
• John Russell as Russ Tropp
• Don Burnett as Bob Steele
• Glenn Dixon as Jack Landis
• Lurene Tuttle as Judge Cecilia Steele Tropp
• Eddie Cochran as Bong
• Yvonne Fedderson as Baby
• Jeanne Carmen as Lillibet
• Robert Foulk as Sheriff Mitch Bowers
• Wayne Taylor as Duke
• Jered Barclay as Ralph
• Valerie Reynolds as Arkie
• Lucita as Margaritia
• Matt Malinowski as Hair

Critical reception

Advertisement from 1957

According to a contemporary review for The New York Times, the film was "a mélange of mediocre melodrama" that sought to "portray sisters who run afoul of the law and are sent to a prison farm populated almost entirely by rock 'n' roll addicts...Call it a fate almost worse than death," and noted that "the amazingly endowed Miss Van Doren [...] renders a variety of torrid gyrations that are guaranteed to keep any red-blooded American boy awake. Nothing else in this picture can make that claim.^[2] Film critic Glenn Erickson wrote on DVD Talk that the film was "prime camp Juvenile Delinquency material -- with musical numbers! -- that veers between laughable dramatics and pure 50s exploitation," that the characters "both male and female alike are stereotyped," that Van Doren "is unconvincing in almost every scene," "bounces merrily whenever she walks" and that her dancing is "straight from the burlesque stage," and noted the "stultifying finale."^[3] A review of the film by critic Hal Erickson on AllMovie described it as "a camp classic, so stupefyingly awful that it's actually festive," and noted that "to repeat examples of the film's howlingly bad dialogue would be to rob the viewer of the perverse pleasure of experiencing Untamed Youth in all its trashy glory."^[4]

Legacy

The film was featured on an early episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and an updated livestream version in 2021 during Joel Hodgson's Make More MST3K campaign on Kickstarter.^[5]

• "Mystery Science Theater 3000" Untamed Youth (TV episode 1990) at IMDb
• Episode guide: 112- Untamed Youth

The film has acquired a cult following due to its controversial subject, its campy appeal, and its nostalgia value, featuring two icons of the 1950s, rock and roll Hall of Famer Eddie Cochran and blonde bombshell Mamie Van Doren. The film features rock and roll music and themes of teenage rebellion and angst, which resonated with youth in the 1970s. It has a controversial theme of exploitation of youths as well as sexual exploitation. Moreover, it was placed on the Catholic Legion of Decency's list of objectionable films, which aroused curiousity and interest. The film was found to "offend decency and Christian morality". This notoriety and controversy garnered interest in the film.

EP release

An EP was released featuring music from the movie performed by Mamie Van Doren on the Prep label. Eddie Cochran and Jerry Capehart co-wrote one of the songs from the movie, "Oo Ba La Baby". The three other songs on the EP were "Salamander", "Rollin' Stone", and "Go, Go, Calypso!" Les Baxter wrote the music for the film.