Main Cast: Carol Lynley, Brandon de Wilde, MacDonald Carey, Marsha Hunt, Warren Berlinger
Release Year: 1959
Country: US
Run Time: 89 minutes
Plot
A surprisingly serious and well-acted major studio variation on the "teens in trouble" films that AIP and Allied Artists cranked out in the 1950's, Blue Denim stars Brandon De Wilde and Carol Lynley as Arthur and Janet, a pair of high school sweethearts who find in each other the love and understanding they don't receive from their emotionally distant parents. However, teenage romance leads to adult consequences when Janet finds herself pregnant; neither of the teens can broach the subject with their parents, and since they're regarded as too young to get married, they're forced to seek out an illegal abortion before Janet is no longer able to hide her condition. While time has dated the story, Blue Denim still comes off as sincere and well-crafted (the sequence where the teen lovers meet the abortionist is still a bit spooky all these years later), and was considered quite frank in its day. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
While teenage pregnancy is as valid a concept for a movie today as it was in 1959, Blue Denim still comes across as dated, if very sincere and fairly affecting. The datedness is partially inevitable, as the social circumstances pre-1960 are simply alien to modern audiences. But it isn't really the differences in mores that dampen Denim's impact, it is its unimaginative transition from stage to screen. Dialogue that might have had impact in a live theater comes across as forced and stilted onscreen, and the "happy ending" grafted onto the movie feels very unnatural and awkward. However, while Philip Dunne has not done a very imaginative job of shooting the film, he does capture some fine performances from his talented cast. Certainly, Carol Lynley's physicality lights up the screen, and she pushes all the buttons required of her. Brandon de Wilde pushes too hard on occasion but is otherwise quite good, and Warren Berlinger is even better in a role that could be annoying. While not a classic, Denim is an earnest, well-intentioned film with a cast that makes it worth catching. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Buck Class - Axel; Vaughan Taylor - Prof. Willard; Nina Shipman - Lillian Bartley; Roberta Shore - Cherie; Mary Young - Aunt Bidda; William Schallert - Vice President; Michael Gainey - Hobie; Jenny Maxwell - Hexion; June C. Ellis - Woman In Car
The story is set in Dearborn, Michigan, during the 1950s, and revolves around fourteen-year-old Arthur Bartley (DeWilde) and his schoolmates, fifteen-year-old Janet Willard (Lynley) and Ernie (Berlinger). While widower's-daughter Janet laughs at Arthur and Ernie's forays into smoking, drinking, and playing cards, she's always been interested in Arthur, and as Arthur's parents try to shelter him from negative things in life (like the euthanasia of the family dog, done while he's at school), he turns to Janet for comfort.
The relationship between Janet and Arthur results in her becoming pregnant. Unable to ask their parents (who misinterpret their pleas as "ordinary" teenage curiosity about sex and adulthood) for help, they turn to Ernie, who'd boasted earlier about "helping a sailor who got his girl in trouble" by directing him to an abortionist – only to discover Ernie made it all up, based on secondhand stories. The three seek together to arrange an abortion and raise the funds, only to be discovered by their parents. In the meantime, Arthur and Janet find out how much they don't yet know about life – and how much they truly care about each other.
Differences between stage and film versions
In the original stage version, Janet does have her pregnancy aborted, and she and Arthur talk it over later as they settle their feelings for one another. When the play was adapted for Hollywood, however, strict production codes forbade anything but the condemnation of abortion, so the storyline was changed. Arthur and Janet instead go off together, to get married and stay with Janet's aunt in another city until the baby is born.
Critical and public reception
While the play and then the movie came and went, at first causing a minor controversy, then becoming part of the 'canon' of Broadway adaptations, and studied for its sociological impact, Blue Denim was still being decried as late as the 1980s by Fundamentalist preachers.
In other media
In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, Bobby Rupp, Nancy Clutter's beau, says, "We talked for a while, and made a date to go to the movies Sunday night - a picture all the girls were looking forward to, Blue Denim."
