Youth Runs Wild
| Youth Runs Wild | |
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title card
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| Directed by | Mark Robson |
| Produced by | Val Lewton |
| Written by |
John Fante Herbert Kline (story) Ardel Wray (add'l dialogue) |
| Starring |
Bonita Granville Kent Smith Jean Brooks Glen Vernon Vanessa Brown |
| Music by | Paul Sawtell |
| Cinematography | John J. Mescall |
| Edited by | John Lockert |
| Distributed by | RKO |
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Release date
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Running time
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67 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Youth Runs Wild is a 1944 B movie about unattentive parents and juvenile delinquency, produced by Val Lewton, directed by Mark Robson and starring Bonita Granville, Kent Smith, Jean Brooks, Glen Vernon and Vanessa Brown. It was written by John Fante, Herbert Kline and Ardel Wray.
Edward Dmytryk, who had recently directed the sensationalistic films Hitler's Children and Behind the Rising Sun (both in 1943), was initially set to direct Youth Runs Wild – which at various time had the working titles "The Dangerous Age", "Look to Your Children" and "Are These Our Children?" – but he left to direct Tender Comrade. The film went into production under director Mark Robson, a regular in the Val Lewton unit, from 3 November to 21 December 1943. For the shoot, the cinematographer, John J. Mescall, experimented with a new "swivel lens" that would allow a nearly infinite depth of focus.
The film was inspired by a photo essay that appeared in Look magazine on 21 September 1943.Look, however, did not like the completed film, describing it as an "outworn, stale documentary", and they refused to promote the film in the magazine, or even to allow their name to be used in the film's credits. Some copies of the film do carry on the main title card (see the image in the infobox at the head of this article) the legend:
The film's technical advisor, Ruth Clifton, was a teenager whose example of starting a youth recreation center in Moline, Illinois, inspired others around the country to do the same thing.RKO attempted to position the film as authentic by showing it to various state and local authorities concerned with juvenile delinquency, but they also did not receive the film well, even though one of the writers, Herbert Kline was a noted director of documentaries about social issues. The studio's efforts did bring the film to the attention of the U.S. State Department, which expressed concern that focusing on juvenile delinquency at that moment might have a detrimental effect on national morale.
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Wikipedia