{"id":18086,"date":"2018-06-22T01:49:22","date_gmt":"2018-06-22T05:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18086"},"modified":"2018-06-22T01:49:22","modified_gmt":"2018-06-22T05:49:22","slug":"br-blue-denim-1959","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18086","title":{"rendered":"BR: Blue Denim (1959)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Film<\/strong>: Very Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Good<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong> Twilight Time<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0All<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 April 17, 2018<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Drama<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0A teen couple must grapple with an unexpected pregnancy, and the repercussions of seeking an abortion.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Isolated Stereo Music Track \/ Theatrical Trailer \/ 8-page colour booklet with liner notes by film historian Julie Kirgo \/ Limited to 3000 copies \/ Available exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a> and www.twilighttimemovies.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

You could argue that when Fox chose to adapt James Leo Herlihy and Willam Noble\u2019s eponymous play a year after its 1958 Broadway run under the stage direction of wonderboy Joshua Logan (Picnic<\/strong><\/a>), it was an attempt to transcend the wave of sordid, exploitive teen-centric dramas which packed upbeat music, titillating behaviour, and cleavage for younger audiences. Denim<\/strong> was also the antithesis of Fox\u2019s own Bernadine<\/a><\/strong> (1957), the super-clean musical-comedy-drama where everything ends swell for the somewhat troubled teens, headed by Pat Boone.<\/p>\n

Denim<\/strong> also seems like a genuine attempt to return to the social problem dramas that appeared early in the decade, namely tormented & reckless teens in Rebel Without a Cause<\/strong> and unruly brats in The Blackboard Jungle <\/strong>(both 1955); and after Otto Preminger fought to have the words \u201cpregnant\u201d appear in The Moon Is Blue<\/strong> (1953), it seems one could finally have kids say the word \u201csex\u201d onscreen, although the topic of abortion was still strongly verboten.<\/p>\n

Herlihy & Noble\u2019s \u2019s play dealt with two high school kids in Dearborn, Michigan, and whose fondness escalates to a moment of passion with shocking consequences. Three months following their union, Janet (Carol Lynley) tells Arthur (Shane<\/strong>\u2019s Brandon deWilde) she\u2019s pregnant, igniting the fear of parental rage, social isolation, and the hopes & dreams of Arthur\u2019s engineering studies crashing to pieces until the only solution is the most desperate and the most dangerous: coughing up $150 for an abortion.<\/p>\n

SPOILER ALERT<\/p>\n

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Arthur\u2019s pal Ernie (Warren Berlinger) reluctantly acts as mediator and pays off the contact who will summon the doctor\u2019s nurse and a car that\u2019ll whisk Janet to a secret location where the dour deed will be done. The play reportedly had Janet going through with the procedure and remaining close to Arthur, whereas director \/ co-writer Philip Dunne and writer Edith Sommer\u2019s film script scraped the word \u201cabortion\u201d from the film\u2019s lexicon, had Ernie decry the procedure as murder, and Janet being \u2018rescued\u2019 when the fathers of both teens find the remote cabin and save her from likely death.<\/p>\n

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END OF SPOILER<\/p>\n

As a social drama circa 1959 for mass cinema audiences in the U.S., Denim<\/strong> is very much of its time, and one can feel the writers struggling to retain the play\u2019s sharpness while reshaping material to appease censors and iron out the structure into a more familiar narrative. The most fascinating aspect is seeing how the parents move from being fairly clueless of their kids\u2019 issues to taking responsibility for being negligent – not seeing signs of stress and concern, and in particular, Arthur\u2019s parents realizing they completely failed to allow any time to actually listen to their son.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s message is more Listen to Your Kids than Teach Them to Respect Sex, and it is fascinating to see the parents accepting criticisms from Arthur and Janet in spite of the shocking events of the last 24 hours. Being presumptuous of what\u2019s best for the teens is shared by both families: the film begins with Arthur\u2019s dad (Macdonald Carey) euthanizing the family dog while he\u2019s at school and denying him a final farewell to the best friend he\u2019s had since age 3; and Janet tears into her father (perpetual screen daddy Vaughn Taylor) whose hunger for his dead wife has pushed him to shelter, shape, and hope his daughter will evolve through nurture over nature into a purer version of her mother.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re unusual scenes for giving time for the teen characters to react, rebel, and reason<\/em>, and Denin<\/strong> doesn\u2019t fall flat on its face as a creaky old Problem Drama is due to Lynley, who reprised the same role she performed in the original stage production, alongside Berlinger as Ernie. Taking over the role originated by Burt Brinckerhoff, deWilde, in his first \u2018mature\u2019 role, \u00a0is okay as Arthur \u2013 he\u2019s a bit too much of a golden boy, but that flaw also works for a boy who doesn\u2019t take the seriousness of Janet\u2019s decision to abort with grievous sincerity. The two leads were around 16 during filming – closer to their characters\u2019 age than Berlinger, who was 21 \u2013 but it\u2019s Lynley who sustains the intelligence, innocence, and good nature of Janet, and when she\u2019s not onscreen for a long stretch, the film dips in gravitas.<\/p>\n

Berlinger\u2019s own screen persona is heavily nuanced, making him steal scenes with already dryly funny lines, and later when Ernie and Arthur\u2019s friendship is pushed to its limits; he\u2019s maybe too good for the role, and his lone weak scene is a contrived student dance where Ernie \u2018sings\u2019 with a girlfriend never seen before or after the chaperoned shindig. (It\u2019s no surprise Berlinger went on to become a prolific and memorable scene-stealing character actor, often tightly suited for cynics, blowhards, and wise guys in films and countless TV series. Film fans will recognize his face purposely because he looks like a seasoned wise-ass.)<\/p>\n

Ernie is also the film\u2019s conscience, initially moving from corrupter \u2013 smoking, gambling, and drinking beer in the unfinished basement of Arthur\u2019s home \u2013 to admitted liar, and being victimized by his best buddy as a punching bag before he settles a score, gets Arthur to \u2018do the right thing\u2019 with Janet at the end, and returns stolen money.<\/p>\n

Denim<\/strong> is an easy film to ridicule \u2013 it\u2019s an A-level After School Special expanded to feature length \u2013 but its virtues exceed the blatant flaws, such as the parents who seem as daft and clueless as 1980s equivalents, where the kids\u2019 problems have morphed from pregnancy, peer pressure, bad grades, and drugs & alcohol to fighting monsters, gremlins, and glowing aliens.<\/p>\n

The kids also have more than palpable respect for their parents: Janet doesn\u2019t want to break her father\u2019s heart and cause him sorrow, so her guilt from deceiving him is believable; and Arthur scolds pal Ernie for saluting and playing up military clich\u00e9s with his father because it makes the family head a bit of a buffoon, which just isn\u2019t proper.<\/p>\n

Less well treated by the filmmakers is Arthur\u2019s mom (Marsha Hunt, from the noir classic Raw Deal<\/strong>) who remains a pinched clich\u00e9, crying a lot and pushing a slice of toast so her son has some energy amid the whole abortion fracas.<\/p>\n

Leo Tover\u2019s cinematography is appropriately soft and stark when required, and Bernard Herrmann\u2019s score is a very curious work that generally supports the drama, but is tied to a main theme that\u2019s half Marnie<\/strong> (1964) and Vertigo<\/strong>\u2019s (namely the love theme for Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s haunting thriller, released the same year as Denim<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Twilight Time\u2019s Blu-ray marks the film\u2019s premiere release on Blu (Fox issued a prior MOD DVD-R), and includes a stereo isolated music track. The non-anamorphic trailer has Joan Crawford (no doubt shot during a break while filming The Best of Everything<\/strong>) urging us to see a tale of \u201clost innocence,\u201d and among the samples scenes is a deleted segment in which Janet shows a book on pregnancy to Arthur in the local library.<\/p>\n

Julie Kirgo\u2019s liner notes champion the film\u2019s genuine pluses, and contextualizes Denim<\/strong> within the period and still-relevant conflicts of any woman\u2019s right to her body. Pity there was no chance of getting Lynley to reflect on the film, or Kirgo adding her thoughts in a commentary track, as done for TT’s Blu of what’s maybe Lynley’s best dramatic film, Otto Preminger’s psychological thriller\u00a0Bunny Lake is Missing<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(1965).<\/p>\n

Philip Dunne\u2019s writing career included the social dramas Pinky<\/strong> (1949) and the stealth religious critique The Egyptian<\/a> <\/strong>(1954), but as director Dunne\u2019s output was fairly lean, consisting of just 10 films, including The View from Pompey\u2019s Head<\/strong> (1955), the WWII drama In Love and War<\/strong> (1958), Elvis stretching himself in Clifford Odets\u2019 Wild in the Country<\/strong> (1961), and the fluffy thriller Blindfold<\/strong> (1966), his last film.<\/p>\n

Edith Sommer\u2019s sparse screen filmography including The Best of Everything<\/a><\/strong> (1959), Jessica<\/strong> (1962), and This Property is Condemned <\/strong>(1966). James Leo Herlihy\u2019s other filmed novels include All Fall Down<\/strong> (1962) and Midnight Cowboy<\/strong> (1969).<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2018 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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