Too young
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Too young |
| Original title | The Restless Years |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1958 |
| length | 86 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Helmut Käutner |
| script |
Edward Anhalt based on the play of the same name by Patricia Joudry |
| production | Ross Hunter |
| music | Frank Skinner |
| camera | Ernest Laszlo |
| cut | Albrecht Joseph |
| occupation | |
| |
An American film by Helmut Käutner from 1958 is too young .
action
Melinda Grant is a 16-year-old girl who dreams of leaving her small-town home, Libertyville, behind her as quickly as possible to get to know the “big wide world”. Her mother Elizabeth, who struggles to work as a seamstress for herself and her teenagers, is a single parent. Elizabeth's life is massively affected by the small-town stink and the narrow-mindedness of the time, as Melinda's father is considered unknown and thus the girl is out of wedlock. This makes them appear dishonorable in the reputation of the whispering philistines. But Elizabeth maintains the version that the father died when Melinda was a toddler.
Popular classmates Polly Fisher and Bruce Mitchell make fun of the pretty 16-year-old during a dance at school. But then she befriends the older Will Henderson, son of a traveling salesman, who tells her that he has traveled a lot because of his father's busy activities. Melinda likes this very much, it sounds like excitement, adventure and the "wide world" that she longs for so much. But Will is different, he's tired of traveling around forever and finally wants to settle down somewhere.
One day, Polly and Bruce are trying to drive them off the road in their car when Will offers Melinda to drive them home. The tension between the youngsters increases when the teacher, Miss Robson, invites Melinda to audition for a student performance of Thornton Wilder's Our Little Town . Melinda plays so convincingly that she promptly snatches the female lead from Polly under the nose. Meanwhile, Will is worried about his father Ed, as he regularly goes out and about with the parents of Melinda's classmates in the hope of making new contacts who could make his business flourish again.
Will's approach to Melinda doesn't fit in with her mother Elizabeth, who is currently busy sewing a dress for Melinda's appearance in the play. Polly, a bad loser and arrogant goose, tries to bribe Melinda in order to get back the leading role she lost in Our Little Town . When this does not work, she looks for her "big performance" in another way: She tries to disavow Melinda by telling Melinda in front of the audience and sniffing out that Melinda and Will are a couple. Will then shows character and stands by Melinda. But then there is also a fight between him and the provocative Bruce, whereupon several parents demand the arrest of the ardent outsider. Will then urges his father to speak up and defend his son.
Ed sees no more chance for his future in this small town and wants to move on with Will. Elizabeth finally confesses to her daughter that Melinda's father ran away shortly after she was born without marrying the child's mother. This is the reason why Elizabeth is concerned about Melinda's relationship with Will, because, as the German film title reveals, she is simply too young. Melinda should not, like Elizabeth once, live through her fate and be seduced and become an unmarried mother. But Will is different: He promises his love Melinda that one day he will come back to her.
Production notes
The first film that Helmut Käutner made in the USA as a contract director for Universal Pictures in 1957 was too young . The first performance took place on October 6, 1958, in Germany the melodrama could be seen a few weeks later, on October 31, 1958.
The buildings were designed by Alexander Golitzen , and the decorations by Russell A. Gausman . Bill Thomas was responsible for the costumes. Clifford Stine did the special shots.
Reviews
Käutner himself went on a Hollywood excursion, which comprised only two films and only identified him as a studio director with no ambitions of his own - star critic Friedrich Luft judged “A talent shot by the Hollywood wolf before it could beep with the camera. A sad example of artistic self-abandonment "- more than dissatisfied:
Der Spiegel wrote: “Käutner was willing to be hired by the talent hunters of the American film companies who hired stars and directors in Europe in order to be able to upgrade the Hollywood products for the vital European market with attractive names. According to Käutner, it is the wish of every director to shoot in Hollywood once in his life. But after his two Californian products only identified him as an assembly line worker, he ended his contract with Universal. 'Of course I noticed that I was wrong there.' "
Paimann's film lists summed up: “Apart from the amerik. oriented subject, its preparation by the German Käutner is also adapted to the Hollywood Convention and is not free from stretching. Young people are casual, the milieu is really drawn. "
“Germany's renowned director Helmut Käutner felt compelled to praise in the columns of the film magazines the almost unlimited resources and freedoms that he enjoyed while shooting this film in Hollywood. But the only amazing thing about the result of Käutner's Hollywood expedition now available is the total adaptation of a director, known in German studios as indomitable idiosyncratic, to the conventional cliché. Käutner staged a dozen versions of the eternal American theme 'Freud with the Babbits' without fail, but also without a whistle. In this case: a small-town affair about an illegitimate prematurity, presented in a psychoanalytic conversational style. "
“After a bad script that couldn't handle the various entanglements and whose dialogues were teeming with problems, Helmut Käutner directed an unconvincing film. The German director's Hollywood guest performance ended shortly afterwards with ' A Stranger in My Arms ' (1959). "
Individual evidence
- ↑ "The noblest prop". Cover story in Der Spiegel 34/1959 from August 29, 1959
- ^ Too young in Paimann's film lists
- ↑ Too young in Der Spiegel 50/1958, p. 58
- ^ Too young in the lexicon of international film
Web links
- Too young in the Internet Movie Database (English)