January Jumble: Dangerous Years (1947)

In the collections of every classic movie fan languish neglected films that we’ve had for ages but never quite gotten around to. This January, we tackle a quartet of films that we’ve owned and been meaning to get around to for quite some time.

RODNEY BOWCOCK: Middleton USA! This small everytown may seem like a quintessential midwestern town, but it has a problem. Charismatic Danny Brown (Billy Hallop) is in town and has engrained himself into the local teen hangout, The Gopher Hole, where he’s recruited a group of naïve teenagers to work with him in a series of small crimes. When Danny gets the idea to escalate to robbing a perfume warehouse, a kind teacher winds up getting killed at the hands of Danny.

SAMANTHA GLASSER: I thought it was funny that one kid wanted to buy a 16mm camera with the money gained from his crime spree.

RB: Yeah, the kids all had ideas of what to spend their ill-gotten loot on. This kid was clearly one of us. Maybe in a few decades he was busy making dupes in a bathtub.

SG: This is not a bad little movie. I expected it to be more heavy-handed on the morality of the dangerous youth versus the law-abiding citizens. Instead, it attempts to give insight into why some kids turn into criminal adults and what can be done to prevent it. The kids who have strong support systems at home may stumble due to life’s setbacks, but they will more likely land on their feet than those who are left to roam or abused or who turn to peers who through confidence seem to have the answers.

RB: We’ve seen a few of these sorts of movies before, there are bunches of them, but this one is a bit better than most, likely due to the fact that most of the young people in this film had long careers at this point and knew their way around a film set.

SG: The way they talk about the kids’ hangout is laughable, as if dancing to jukebox music or drinking chocolate sodas were a surefire road to hell. Marilyn Monroe plays a perky waitress that Dickie Moore wants to date and she is perfect in the role, cute but wholesome, without a glimmer of the sultry type she would become.

RB: I think parents then had concerns about unchaperoned hangouts. I’ve been slowly listening to the wonderful radio program The Great Gildersleeve, and there is a recurring debate between the lead character and his 16-year-old niece Marjorie regarding a similar establishment, in this case, Barney’s Beanery.

This was the second and final film that Monroe would film for 20th Century Fox (with her first contract). She was paid $125 for her appearance, and then unceremoniously fired. She later landed at Columbia where she did Ladies of the Chorus, which you may recall, we unspooled at the Picture Show a few years back.

SG: I am a massive Dickie Moore fan. He was the cutest little kid that ever set foot in the movies. Here he is much older, and still appealing, but not as intensely. His face suggests he is older than he is, until he speaks and a soft, timid voice emerges. Dick was not a fan of acting and took to writing later in life. He credited his WWII service and work on the Stars and Stripes with giving him an adult career.

RB: Like many child stars, Moore’s opportunities as an actor dried up as he got older, but he still was more successful than many, no doubt due to his likable personality.

SG: Unfortunately, Scotty Beckett did live the life his character was attracted to in his real life. He struggled to find work as he aged, and was married three times unsuccessfully. In 1955 he forfeited his bail after being charged with robbery with a knife when he fled to Mexico. He was arrested several times for drug possession and overdosed in 1958, but survived. He was convicted of drinking and driving multiple times. In 1963 he plead guilty when he was charged for assaulting his stepdaughter with a crutch; he was put on three years of probation and his wife filed for divorce. He took an overdose of sleeping pills but survived. He violated probation on a drunken binge and got six months in jail. He died in 1968 after checking into a nursing facility and newspapers suggested that it was due to suicide.

RB: Beckett actually had a more successful career than Moore as a young man and adult and were it not for his self-sabotage, would’ve had a more fruitful career. He is really good in this, and in short order was portraying Oogie Pringle in MGM’s adaptation of A Date With Judy. Before he completely fizzled out in the late 50’s after a series of uncredited roles, he had landed a major supporting role in the landmark kids Sci-Fi series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, which he was fired from due to his drunken off camera antics.

SG: Scotty is my sister's favorite Little Rascal, and hearing about his demise always makes me sad.

Billy Halop is excellent as the hot shot kid who leads the other boys to commit crimes. Writer Arnold Belgard gives him great depth, which is unusual in crime films. He unfortunately has no knowledge of the way the court system works and probably learned about the law from what he saw in the movies. One attorney begins berating a witness, the opposing counsel objects and the judge sustains it, but he does it anyway and the judge doesn’t stop him.

RB: I don’t have much intel into the inside workings of courtrooms, but I have seen my fair share of Law and Order, and I know that this would be completely unacceptable.

I enjoyed seeing Jerome Cowan, a favorite character actor in the role of the defending attorney, and couldn’t help but think of his countless other appearances whenever he’d appear on screen.

SG: I was pleasantly surprised that the judge was as horrified at the testimony that two police officers stood by and did not interfere when a father beat his son with a belt in the next room. He ordered that those two officers be identified and disciplined.

RB: The scenes involving this incident were genuinely troubling to me, as was the father’s proud attitude at what he had done when he felt that it would gain him clout and praise with the police. As is often the case, it is the most ignorant people among us who think that they are the smartest.

SG: This was director Arthur Pierson’s first film. Previously he had worked as a dialogue director.

RB: Pierson was adept at doing it all. He directed some films, acted in some (like The Devil’s Brother), was a producer and rounded out his career as a story supervisor at Hanna-Barbera, working on virtually the entire original runs of The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, Atom Ant, Secret Squirrel and nearly half of the six seasons of The Flintstones.

SG: Hollywood Nite Life said, “Dangerous Years is an intelligently handled juvenile delinquency yarn which gets over a valid preachment without heavy hoke.”

Alternately, the Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin wrote, “Despite its good intention to preach a moral this low-budget Sol Wurtzel programmer on juvenile delinquency too incredible and full of obvious hokum for most audiences.” They compared the story to radio soap operas.

RB: The neighborhood theaters seemed pretty much on point with their expectations of the film, as most kept it on the bottom half of a double bill where it belongs.

“Another film on juvenile delinquency that failed in its purpose, but less than some. Left most of the patrons unsatisfied.”— Don B. Sanders, Tower Theatre, Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Here is a nice little story that will hold up on the second half of a double bill.” — Earle J. Stierwalt, McCleary Theatre, McCleary, Wash.

“This was a good little feature priced right. Makes excellent double bill material. Our crowd liked this. Received good comments. Anyone wishing for a good second feature to complete his program, this is it.” - Fred J. Hutchings, Community Theatre, Leader, Sask., Can.

SG: This is a highly entertaining but highly unrealistic movie. Three stars.

RB: I agree. It has a great cast and a completely bonkers last third. Go in with your expectations set right, and you’ll be pleased. Three stars.