Themes: Social Injustice, Kids in Trouble, Street Gangs
Main Cast: Burt Lancaster, Dina Merrill, Shelley Winters, Edward Andrews, Larry Gates, Vivian Nathan
Release Year: 1961
Country: US
Run Time: 110 minutes
Plot
The Young Savages is what used to be called a "thinking man's picture" about a potentially lurid subject: urban juvenile delinquency. A blind Puerto Rican boy is knifed to death in Spanish Harlem, and three teenage gang members are accused of the crime. Politically ambitious assistant DA Burt Lancaster initially presses for the conviction of all three boys. But as he gets deeper into the case, he realizes that what appears cut-and-dried on the surface is tortuously complex: for starters, the murder victim was hardly the paragon of virtue that the prosecution claims. Despite pressure from his superiors and from members of the accused boys' gang (who at one point threaten Lancaster's wife Dina Merrill with a switchblade,) Lancaster nonetheless sees to it that justice is properly administered. The defendants are portrayed with varying degrees of Brando/Dean "method" by John Davis Chandler, Neil Nephew and Stanley Kristien; more believable, less affected performances are rendered by Shelley Winters, Pilar Seurat and Telly Savalas. Filmed on location in New York, The Young Savages was based on the Evan Hunter novel A Matter of Conviction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The Young Savages is the kind of pulse-pounding "social message" film that inevitably dates badly -- but it also has a power and conviction that make it hard to ignore. Even at its most melodramatic and blatantly manipulative (and it is both, in spades), it manages to press more buttons than most viewers will want to admit. Savages starts off well, with an opening sequence that is ferocious and attention-grabbing (and brilliantly shot by director John Frankenheimer). It gets the film off on such a high that it inevitably has to come down. While Savages has its share of "ups" subsequently, none of them ever quite reach the height of the opening. The film is also damaged somewhat by its climactic courtroom scene, which is a bit too overblown and unrealistic, and by the sermonizing tone it too frequently adopts. While the young actors playing the three defendants come across a bit too mannered in their acting style, they still exert power and manage to hold their own with Burt Lancaster, who grabs hold of the film and steers it from the moment he hits the screen. He's given good support from Shelley Winters and Telly Savalas, among others. Savages is too earnest and, at times, too innocent, but it packs a punch. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Telly Savalas - Lt. Richard Gunnison; Pilar Seurat - Louisa Escalante; Jody Fair - Angela Rugiello; Roberta Shore - Jenny Bell; Milton Selzer - Walsh; Robert Burton - Judge; David J. Stewart - Barton; Stanley Kristien - Danny di Pace; John Chandler - Arthur Reardon; Neil Nephew - Anthony Aposto; Luis Arroyo - Zorro; Jose Perez - Roberto Escalante; Chris Robinson - Pretty Boy; Stanley Adams - Lt. Hardy; Rafael Lopez - Jose; Henry Norell - Pierce; Bob Biheller - Turtleneck; Mario Roccuzzo - Diavolo; Harry Holcombe - Doctor; Helen Kleeb - Mrs. Patton; Thom Conroy - Mr. Abbeney; Johnny Walsh - Lonnie; Irving Steinberg - Officer Wohlman; Clegg Hoyt - Whitey; Joel Fluellen - Clerk of the Court; Robert Cleaves - Sullivan; Bill Quinn - Capt. Larsen
Credit
Burr Smidt - Art Director, Jack Angel - Costume Designer, John Frankenheimer - Director, Edna Warren - Editor, David Amram - Composer (Music Score), Robert J. Schiffer - Makeup, Lionel Lindon - Cinematographer, Pat Duggan - Producer, James Crowe - Set Designer, Edward Anhalt - Screenwriter, J.P. Miller - Screenwriter, Evan Hunter - Book Author
A district lawyer investigates the racially charged case of two Italian teenagers (as well as an Irish teen) accused of the murder of a blindPuerto Rican boy. The film explores several different gang issues, such as race, poverty, and especially that of peer pressure.
Danny Di Pace, Arthur Reardon and Anthony "Batman" Aposto are members of a street gang named the Thunderbirds in New York City in Spanish Harlem. They have a ongoing turf war with a Puerto Rican gang call the Horseman. The three Thunderbirds unleash a knife attack on Roberto Escalante, a blind member of the Horseman and stab him to death. They are caught and arrested, and during questioning by the police and an assistant district attorney, Hank Bell (Lancaster), Bell discovers one of the boys is the son of an ex-girlfriend (Shelly Winters).
Back at the office of the district attorney Dan Cole (Edward Andrews), Bell admits he knows the mother of one of the suspects in the killing but despite objections, he is not taken off the case and admits that he in fact grew up in the same neighborhood. At the funeral for Roberto Escalante, he is confronted by his ex-lover and she tells him her son promised he would never join a gang. Bell then sets out to find out the true facts about the killing and admits that he changed his name from Bellini to Bell because he was ashamed of his background and where he grew up.
