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The Delinquents

Play trailer Poster for The Delinquents Released Feb 20, 1957 1h 15m Crime Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 2 Reviews 25% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
Goodhearted teen Scotty (Tom Laughlin) just wants to spend time with his girl, but her disapproving folks break up the young lovers' relationship. Scotty grows despondent but bumps into fellow youngsters Cholly (Peter Miller) and Eddy (Richard Bakalyan), who cheer him up with their mischievous ways. They induct Scotty into their band of hooligans, but the group's harmless rock-'n'-roll-fueled antics quickly give way to violent rumbles at drive-ins, and Scotty winds up in major trouble.
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The Delinquents

Critics Reviews

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Sean Mulvihill FanboyNation.com While The Delinquents certainly isn't an Altman classic, you can witness the seeds of a great cinematic mind that is on the verge of breaking out. Rated: 3/5 Oct 31, 2018 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews The film didn't even have good music to go with its teen story. Rated: C- May 2, 2003 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Most notable for being Robert Altman's first film. He wrote, produced, and directed it. It is hilarious in its depiction of teen age rebels without a clue. The narration warning the audience about the delinquency disease is laugh-out -loud funny. It does offer some of Altman's unique touches, like its interesting camera angles and raw look. Mostly a curiosity. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Audience Member Decent early teen exploitation film. It was Robert Altman's first movie and actually filmed around his hometown of Kansas City in the summer of 1956. All three main stars of the movie Tom Laughlin, Peter Miller, and Richard Bakalyan do a pretty good job. Tom Laughlin plays a decent guy named Scotty who is in love with his girlfriend Janice. Peter Miller plays Cholly, the leader of a gang and Scotty gets mixed up with them. At first Scotty and Cholly get along, but it all starts to unravel in a bad way for Scotty. I'm from the Kansas City area and pretty much every place they shoot for scenes in this movie are gone including the Crest Drive-In which was owned by the producer of the movie, Elmer Rhoden Jr. The only place that seems to still be around is Loose Park which is used for an important scene between Scotty and Janice early in the film. The movie is very well shot overall and you can totally see the potential that Robert Altman had as a director. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member The thing that I love about this movie is that my generation can't really tell the "hoods" from the.."goods" I guess.. you know?. They're all wearing highwater khakis but it was the attitude that made em different. Good movie. I really enjoy 50's teenage angst movies. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Interesting to watch, mainly because of what director Robert Altman would go on to do later in his career. Still, there some definite hints of the Altman style. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Audience Member A decade before Tom Laughlin would become famous for playing Billy Jack, he played Scotty Jack. Well, not exactly but he does play a cleancut teenager named Scotty who is in love with Janice a girl whose strict father disallows her to go steady with Scotty. Scotty gets angry and drives off to the drive-in by himself where he meets a gang of young toughs led by Cholly. Thinking the kids are o.k. he decides to trust Cholly and allow him to pickup Janice posing as her date so Scotty can see her. Problems arise because now Cholly wants to share his gangs festivities with Scotty who is beginning to get a bad feeling about his new pal. After Cholly's party gets raided by the cops Cholly's gang blames Scotty and seek revenge against the young man. This is one of those morality films complete with a narrator at the start and end of the film. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member It was a good debut movie from Robert Altman about some rebellious juvinelle delinquents in the 1950's and Tom Laughlin who is famous for his role as Billy Jack did a good job playing the main character Scotty in this movie but the movie was kinda boring and had more dialogue and it also had a lot of alcohol use in this movie as well but I guess it was okay. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Delinquents

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Goodhearted teen Scotty (Tom Laughlin) just wants to spend time with his girl, but her disapproving folks break up the young lovers' relationship. Scotty grows despondent but bumps into fellow youngsters Cholly (Peter Miller) and Eddy (Richard Bakalyan), who cheer him up with their mischievous ways. They induct Scotty into their band of hooligans, but the group's harmless rock-'n'-roll-fueled antics quickly give way to violent rumbles at drive-ins, and Scotty winds up in major trouble.
Director
Robert Altman
Production Co
Imperial Productions Inc. (III)
Genre
Crime, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Feb 20, 1957, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 16, 2008
Runtime
1h 15m
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