Youth Runs Wild

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Steve D Plays WAY too much like an after school special. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 03/25/24 Full Review Audience Member I'm a huge fan of producer Val Lewton and his moody atmospheric horror films that relied on suspense, and implied horror over showing a goofy looking monsters in ypical Universal or William Castle style of horror films. Lewton's films stood apart as something unique, including "Cat People," The Body Snatchers," and "Isle of the Dead." This film, "Youth Runs Wild," was a change from his usual horror picture for RKO and is instead a standard juvenile delinquent film, following a group of young people who's parents are either away fighting WWII or working in industrial plants, leaving the kids to their own devices, which, as you might guess from the title, is to go wild. It's a disappointingly routine film of this sort, but it was recut against Lewton's wished because the studio felt it was too violent and controversial, so I suppose you can't lay blame for the film's weaknesses all at Lewton's feet, who actually disavowed the finished film and I can see why. What's left is pretty safe and not all that compelling, despite the fact that it was directed by one of Lewton's frequent collaborators, Mark Robson, and has a cast that includes Lawrence Tierney. Overall, this isn't worth watching unless you're curious to see a non-horror Val Lewton produced film, which I was, but it's disappointingly routine and honestly pretty bad. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review ashley h Youth Runs Wild is a decent film. It is about the adults are who either off fighting or busy in the factories, so juvenile delinquency becomes a major problem back home during WWII. Bonita Granville and Kent Smith give good performances. The screenplay is a little slow in places. Mark Robson did an alright job directing this movie. I liked this motion picture because of the drama. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member good drama a pre-cursor to such teen pix as 'rebel without a cause' and others Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member one of the first examples of what would in the fifties be called juvi delinquent pics. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Of the 10 Val Lewton films I've seen, this was definitely the worst. It feels more like an extended public service announcement than a feature film. The most interesting thing to me: I have always associated juvenile delinquency and teens gone bad with the 1950s, not the 40s. I would've rated this even lower but I liked seeing Ollie from the Cat People films and Jacqueline and coughing Mimi from the Seventh Victim. And it was fun to catch Lawrence Tierney (Reservoir Dogs) in a very early role. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Youth Runs Wild

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