This movie is so obscure that Leonard Maltin's comprehensive film-and-video guide doesn't even mention it. Such obscurity is not deserved because "As Young As We Are," while admittedly a minor work, offers unintentional insights into its times and features several players who went on to enjoy notable careers.
Pippa Scott plays Kim Hutchins who's looking for her first teaching job but who's told she's too young to teach high-school students. Eventually she and a new-found friend, Joyce Goodwin, are hired by the small desert town of Rosario whose students have a reputation for being "tough." While driving to Rosario, Kim and Joyce have car troubles and are rescued by a local man named Hank Moore. Hank and Kim go out on a few dates. Imagine Kim's shock when Hank then shows up on the first day of school as one of her students!
Kim tries to break off the relationship but Hank persists and soon the whole town's talking about the "scandal."
It's difficult to watch this movie today without laughing because so much of it now seems hopelessly naive. The Rosario High School, for example, hardly looks like a "blackboard jungle" but instead is a clean, handsome, well-maintained building that would not be out of place in an affluent suburb. And its supposedly intimidating student body is composed of neatly dressed and groomed individuals whose average age appears to be about 25 years old.
Kim's shock that Hank is actually a high-school student is plausible -- laughable but plausible -- because Hank looks more like the school's phys-ed teacher.
Despite its dated attitudes and styles, however, "As Young As We Are" avoids being campy because of its dogged sincerity. It's not clear just what audience was in mind for this movie, but it seems to have been made with good, if limited, intentions, and the actors take their parts seriously. Watch for Majel Barrett (later Mrs. Gene Roddenberry) as Joyce and Ellen Corby (later "Grandma" on "The Waltons") as a very grumpy landlady and Ty Hungerford (later "Ty Hardin" of "Bronco" fame) as a ten-years-too-old high-school boy. (Ty has so much more sex appeal than glum leading man Robert Harland that one wonders why "teach" didn't fall for him!) And yes, this is one of those movies where the young lovers, when they turn on the car radio, just happen to tune in the movie's title song.
