The Delinquents (1957 film)

Infobox Film
name = The Delinquents


director = Robert Altman
writer = Robert Altman
starring = Tom Laughlin
Peter Miller
Richard Bakalyan
released = 1957
runtime = 72 min.
language = English
imdb_id = 0050302
|:"The Delinquents is also a 1989 movie starring Kylie Minogue"

"The Delinquents" is a 1957 motion picture which Robert Altman wrote, produced, and directed in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri during the summer of 1956 on a $63,000 budget.

Although "The Delinquents" is best known today for being the big-screen directorial debut of a young Robert Altman, it is also known as a classic example of the many melodramatic juvenile delinquent exploitation films of the mid-1950s and as being a part of an innovative and pioneering independent film production effort in Kansas City during this time.

Background

Elmer Rhoden Jr. was a Kansas City motion picture theater exhibitor, president of the prominent Commonwealth Theaters chain in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. Rhoden Jr. wanted to get into producing movies. He had the distributing apparatus at hand and the necessary capital to invest. Although television was drawing viewers out of the theaters, teenagers still frequented drive-in theaters and soon film producers realized that there was a large "teen market" they could tap in to. During the mid-to-late 1950s, a huge wave of films targeted at teenagers, often referred to as exploitation films, were produced by all the large studios of Hollywood along with several independent producers. Common subjects of 1950s teen films included juvenile delinquency, rock and roll, horror, science fiction, and hot rods. Rhoden Jr. was one of the first independent exhibitors to note these shifts in the film industry, and was determined to make it work for his business.

There was also another factor at work. Due to the "consent decree" component of the "Paramount Ruling" of 1953, the major studios were constrained from booking their own chains by this antitrust ruling. But the Commonwealth circuit and other small regional independent film companies, by virtue of not having previously existed as film producers, were exempt from this rule. It was the beginning of the days of the low-budget regional filmmaker, and Rhoden Jr. figured that if he budgeted his "teen-flicks" cheaply enough and peddled them to his own Commonwealth chain, he would be guaranteed a tidy profit. So, in the spring of 1956, he raised $63,000 with the help of other local businessmen in Kansas City, decided his first teen film would be about troubled teens, thought up a title for it and nothing else ("The Delinquents"), and he hired local filmmaker Robert Altman, who had been directing industrial films and documentaries for the local Calvin Company and knew Rhoden Jr. slightly, to write and direct the film.

Using several starting points such as "Blackboard Jungle", "The Wild One", and "Rebel Without a Cause" for influence, Altman wrote the screenplay for "The Delinquents" in five to seven days.

Plot

In suburban Kansas City, 18-year-old Scotty White and 16-year-old Janice Wilson are very much in love, but their parents stand between them because Janice is "too young to go steady" and Scotty "hangs out with the wrong crowd." At the drive-in alone one night, Scotty decides to go to his hot-rod greaser pal Cholly, who heads a gang of carousing delinquents, and ask for help. Cholly cooks up the idea of posing as Janice's new boyfriend, and bringing her to meet Scotty every night. The plan works well, and the teen crowd all meet at an abandoned mansion on the edge of town. However, the party gets out of hand, with wild drinking and dancing, and Scotty and Janice leave to be alone. Soon after, the police mysteriously appear and break up the drunken free-for-all. Cholly and his right-hand-delinquent Eddy suspect Scotty of tipping off the police, and the whole gang kidnaps Scotty the next day and force him to gulp down an entire bottle of Scotch when he won't admit to being the informant. In panic after Scotty passes out from drinking, the gang begins to drive him out to the country with the intention of abandoning him on the side of the road, but on the way just happen to see a service station where they pull in to get some gas. Eddy decides to hold up the station, but Scotty unknowingly bungles it when he wakes up. Cholly hits the station attendant on the head with a gas pump, and the gang speeds off, leaving Scotty behind with the cash and the attendant. Scotty staggers home, finds the gang has kidnapped Janice, has several fights, and then has a switchblade fight with Cholly in a home kitchen. Scotty then goes to the police.

Production

Rhoden Jr. approved this script and gave Altman the go-ahead on the casting, scouting of locations, and so forth. For much of the cast, Altman turned to the local Kansas City actors with whom he had worked in community theater and in industrial films, including James Lantz, Leonard Belove, and Kermit Echols, as well as his then-wife Lotus Corelli and his eight-year-old daughter Christine. However, hoping for a Hollywood-style film, Altman and Rhoden Jr. took a trip to California and cast for the three leads there. They came up with Peter Miller from "Blackboard Jungle" to play the nervous teen Cholly, and Richard Bakalyan to play Eddy. A young Tom Laughlin was cast in the lead role of Scotty, here making his motion-picture debut. Altman and Rhoden Jr. also came back from California with soundman Bob Post and camera operator Harry Birch.

By now employing his friends and Calvin co-workers on the crew, including Reza Badiyi as assistant director/associate producer and his sister Joan Altman as production manager, Robert Altman scouted locations in Kansas City, and chose to film in Loose Park, as well as at the Jewel Box Nightclub, one of his favorite hangouts, and also at several popular local teen hangouts including the Crest Drive-In Theater (which Rhoden Jr. owned) and Allen's Drive-In. Through Kansas Citian George Kuhn, one of the actors in the teenage gang in the film, Altman secured the temporary use of two houses to be those of Scotty and Janice in the film. One of them was Kuhn's and his parents', the other was his neighbors'.

Altman filmed "The Delinquents" in three weeks during the summer of 1956. Although Rhoden Jr. officially was the producer, Altman did most of that type of work himself. As Altman said years later, "I wrote the thing in five days, cast it, picked the locations, drove the generator truck, got the people together, took no money, and we just did it, that's all." Altman had the cooperation of local businesses as well as the Kansas City Police Department. Altman and Rhoden Jr. had actually gone to the police to make sure their portrayal of delinquents and their problems was accurate, and also contacted them in order to receive their cooperation for blocking off streets and using the police station for certain scenes. They also used real police officers as actors in the film.

Altman's film crew was made up mostly of his Calvin co-workers. Calvin photographer Charles Paddock was director of photography, and the aforementioned Reza Badiyi was assistant director. Calvin artist and designer (and Altman's brother-in-law) Chet Allen was art director, and Altman's sister Joan served in a production executive capacity. Also with Altman's Kansas City crew were Californians Harry Birch (camera operator) and Bob Post (sound recorder). According to cast and crew members, the filming of "The Delinquents" was full of fun, spontaneity, good humor, and happy incident. Except there were several situations that presented the filmmakers with more than their share of problems. The apparently egomaniacal star, Tom Laughlin, and the director Altman had conflicting theories of acting. To Altman, Laughlin was "an unbelievable pain in the ass," guilty that he had not become a priest, "with a big Catholic hangup and a James Dean complex." There was one particular incident where Altman was ready to shoot a scene in which Laughlin was supposed to appear physically exhausted, and Laughlin excused himself with, "I've got to get in the mood now." Laughlin then insisted on running around the block a couple of times while cast and crew cooled their heels. Laughlin was attempting to do "everything he'd heard about James Dean doing," but when Laughlin's "living-the-part" pretensions were not welcomed by the rest of the cast or crew, he wanted to quit the film. Altman then worked out a compromise for communication whereby Altman would tell Laughlin exactly what he wanted in any given scene. According to Altman, Laughlin "performed the last half of the picture under protest."

The main reason "The Delinquents" is remembered today is that it was the feature directorial debut of Robert Altman. Altman's experimental directing style was still developing, of course, but one sign of his future directorial achievements can be seen in a story told by one of Altman's young cast members, SuEllen Fried, about the shooting of a party scene in the film: "He rented an old house off Walworth Boulevard, and told us to pretend we were having the wildest party of our lives, while he moved the camera from room to room and just filmed whatever was going on. We didn't know when the camera was going. We were just having a wild party."

Finally, "The Delinquents" has also been noted (and praised) for its "technical excellence," particularly the quality of the black-and-white photography. Cameraman Charles Paddock said that, just before beginning filming on "The Delinquents", Altman advised him to watch the film "The Asphalt Jungle" and imitate that style of lighting.

The filming was completed by August 1956. In his contract with Rhoden Jr., Altman had a clause stipulating that "The Delinquents" post-production and editing would be executed under professional conditions in Hollywood. In late August, Altman and Reza Badiyi traveled across the country by car (Rhoden Jr. would not approve the air fare) to edit the film in California with Helene Turner. Fred Brown contributed the sound effects. The finished film was picked up for distribution by United Artists for $150,000, who wanted a teenage exploitation film in order to compete with the other studios. For some reason, United Artists altered the ending a bit and added a moralistic narration by a stock actor at the beginning and end. Altman did not find out until he saw a preview of the film, and was not impressed.

"The Delinquents" received its "gala world premiere" in Kansas City in February 1957. It was a major event. The showing of the film was preceded by live music, a dance contest, and a parade of Corvettes carrying the Kansas Citians who had worked on the film. It was all covered by a live radio broadcast and the theater's house lights were brought out. United Artists released the film around worldwide the next month. The film's release was not wide and it played mostly in drive-ins. However, it did gross $1,000,000 for United Artists. When Alfred Hitchcock saw the film, he was apparently impressed enough to give Altman a job directing episodes of his Alfred Hitchcock Presents series, which led to more television work for Altman over the next decade.

Rhoden Jr. produced one more film in Kansas City, "The Cool and the Crazy", and was featured in Time magazine as one of the "new wave" of producers. He then produced a delinquency film in Hollywood, Daddy-O, but his mini-mogul reign was short-lived. A hard-living man, he died of a heart attack in 1959 before the age of forty.

2007 Theatrical showing

"The Delinquents" was shown on January 9, 2007, at the IFC Center theater in New York City as part of a Robert Altman retrospective. [ [http://www.ifccenter.com/film?filmid=57376 IFC Center ] ]

Home video release

It has only been released on DVD in Australia, and there are currently no plans of releasing it in any other country. However, "The Delinquents" is occasionally shown on television.

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0050302|title=The Delinquents