John E
The Delinquents marked Robert Altman’s first solo effort as a narrative film director and screenwriter (he’d previously co-directed The James Dean Story, a documentary). It’s an independent film shot in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, and with the exception of the three main male leads, most of the cast is made up of Altman's friends, family, and local actors.
The movie is dated and pretty heavy-handed, but if nothing else, it’s a solid example of the “social panic” genre, right up there with Reefer Madness.
The story follows Scotty White (Tom Loughlin), a teenager in love with his girlfriend Janice (Rosemary Howard). Unfortunately, her dad thinks she’s too young to be tied down, she’s only 16, and he insists she should be dating more than one boy. (Side note: Rosemary Howard looks way closer to 30 than 16, which makes this all a bit stranger than it should be!) Heartbroken, Scotty goes to the drive-in alone and ends up getting pulled into the orbit of a rough crowd, led by Bill (Peter Miller) and Eddy (Richard Bakalyan).
Bill is clearly bad news, but Scotty doesn’t catch on right away. Before long, he’s dragged into a series of escalating disasters: Janice ends up in danger, Scotty gets into brawls, is pressured to drink way too much, and gets framed for robbery—and possibly murder—all in a matter of days.
The film opens and closes with some painfully melodramatic narration straight out of Dragnet. It feels totally out of step with Altman’s voice, so I looked it up and sure enough, it wasn’t his idea. United Artists, the film’s distributor, added it without his knowledge or approval. And he wasn’t thrilled. It shifts the whole tone of the movie from a raw teenage drama to a finger-wagging morality play aimed at parents.
Here’s a sample of the cringe: “The story you are about to see is about violence and immorality. Teenage violence and immorality. Children trapped in the half-world of adolescence and maturity. Their struggle to understand their need to be understood. […] This film is a reminder to those who MUST set the example.” and it just keeps going like that. Which is especially awkward, because Scotty is actually a decent kid, exactly the kind of guy most parents would want their daughter dating. Yet somehow, the moral takeaway here ends up being: “Let your 16-year-old daughter date around or society will collapse.” Huh?
Look, The Delinquents is, at best, a middling movie. The story (written by Altman) isn’t terrible. It’s contrived, sure, but not unbelievable. The black-and-white lighting is actually well done, and there are flashes of the director Altman would eventually become (the house party scene is a solid example of his love of improvisation). If you enjoy old-school moral panic films, you might get a kick out of this 75-minute oddity. Otherwise, it’s really only notable as the starting point of Robert Altman’s long and much more impressive career.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
08/04/25
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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 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/09/23
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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 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
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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 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/25/23
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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 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/23/23
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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 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/07/23
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