Juventude Desenfreada

I saw this movie during a dusk until dawn show at a Drive-In theater many years ago. These shows would keep you up all night watching all kinds of stuff. I can't remember the entire show that night but to me this was one of the ultimate drive-in movies. It is a beach movie without Frankie & Annette.

When you weren't old enough to be in the back seat of the car with someone, there were enough women on the screen to keep your attention. The comedy in this is sophomore stuff, and to me the most interesting thing is the casting. Woody Woodbury had a comedy LP album at the time this was released. Bet that is a collectors item now as it set a martini mood & really dovetails with this movie as his routines here are watered down versions of that album.

What is most surprising about the women in this film is how many would become famous but yet none of them really ever did a block buster film. Never realized until I looked at this cast that Tina Louise is older than Nancy Sinatra. This was before both of them would achieve their greatest fame, Nancy with music, & Tina with Bob Denver as this is an earlier place to find them in the same film. Tina is a stripper in this movie, & Denver is James Darren's assistant & a bit of a playboy. Bob Denver leads the Ho Daddy Chorus but this song is not about calling women by that name. I would call most of them attractive.

Paul Lynde is pretty much his usual self here. There were worse fillers for these dusk till dawn drive-in films of the earlier 1960's fillers.

Although they share no on-screen time, Bob Denver and Tina Louise (reported rivals on TV's "Gilligan's Island") make their one and only film together, with Denver playing a beatnik and Louise stealing the show as a tone-deaf dancer. Acting accolades are really quite scarce here as the movie--a comedy about college kids awakening to civic rights while partying on the beach--is fairly dim-witted and slow on laughs. As one of the adults on hand, Ellen Burstyn (née McRae) does a drunk act with the best of them, but romantic leads James Darren and Pamela Tiffin are easily forgotten. Brunette Nancy Sinatra (pre-"Boots") is cute as Denver's girlfriend, and it is fun to catch all these stars together in one place. Few of them ever crossed paths again. ** from ****

Can't find better escapism! James Darren & Pamela Tiffin as the hotties, Tina Louise breathily trying to sing while sticking out her breasts, Nancy Sinatra with her natural hair color (the not-yet-blonde days), grumpy parents who don't understand "kids these days" & Paul Lynde as the "bachelor uncle" (yeah, right?) all combine for a wild, mindless romp. And who can unsee that weird number with Bob Denver, buried in sand except his makeup mouth & chin, singing "Ho Daddy"? Great with a bottle of wine and/or some 420.

This horrendous mish-mash of "Beach Party" movie, showcase for "comedian" Woodbury and love story between Darren and Tiffin has so much excess junk in it that none of the elements succeed. The cast list is jaw-dropping. There's Burstyn (doing an admirable enough job) in a role far removed from the meaningful work she would later do. Middleton plays Lee's father even though he is TWO YEARS older than her in real life. "Gidget" TV co-star Nader wiggles and jiggles around next to Darren (who starred in the original movie "Gidget".) Denver has the camp highlight of the movie. He paints his chin to look like a person, buries himself in the sand and sings a surfing chant while curvy, tan teens gyrate everywhere. Louise is shown stripping (which is one of the few acceptable things about the movie!) It's hard to believe that Denver and Louise appeared in a feature film together the year that "Gilligan's Island" premiered. (For decades, she groused about how she was a star who got stuck on TV. If this is what she was making, she didn't miss much from her film career!) The delectable Tiffin looks spaced through much of the film (or is her eye makeup too heavy to keep her eyes open?) She promotes Pepsi in this film after promoting Coke in "One, Two, Three". Her career was through before she could do one for RC. Woodbury is agonizing. Not only are most of his jokes just plain awful, the way he delivers them is abysmal. He is yet ANOTHER of the "Introducing ________ as_______" who was scarcely heard from again....for good reason! He's what Tab Hunter would look like with a gap in his teeth, a hellacious comb-over, wrinkles and even less talent. Beyond all these people, toss in Raft, Hart and Dino and Frank's daughters! You'd think something interesting could have come of all these personalities. But no...... The biggest crime the film makes (and one that it just can not be forgiven for) is billing Lynde third and giving him absolutely nothing to work with. He barely appears on screen and is exactly what this film needs. HE should have played Woodbury's part! He and Woodbury are amusing in that they are brothers, but they live and act like two old queens. They sit on the beach like two old sisters and even sleep together in one scene! Another scene has Louise handing them some dangerously phallic hot dogs. Woodbury, after toying with it briefly, hands his to Lynde and says, "Here...keep this warm." That moment alone causes one of the few laughs in the film. They should have run with it!

Unfortunately, I can't think of many good things to say about the film.

FOR THOSE WHO THINK YOUNG functions basically as a long, long commercial for Pepsi-Cola. Even the title of the film is the direct quote of a catch phrase used in Pepsi radio and TV commercials of the early 1960s. There are blatant product placements throughout the film, notably a huge Pepsi dispensing machine placed directly in the center of several shots of a night club bar.

The story line is a rip-off of the BEACH PARTY genre, with James Darren doing his best Frankie Avalon imitation, even down to look alike hair style and obviously phony suntan. Poor Pamela Tiffin looks terribly uncomfortable trying to fill the shoes (and swimsuit) of Annette Funicello. To bridge the gap between shots of Pepsi logos, there are the typical "crazed youth" beach activities (tribal-style ritual dances, a bunch of actors grabbing surfboards at the call "Surf's Up!", then paddling out into a perfectly flat ocean, followed by stock footage of real surfers riding huge waves).

There are also several long sequences of comedian Woody Woodbury doing his night club act. The humor in these segments is extremely dated, and falls flat, only serving to bring the story to a grinding halt while on screen. Tina Louise adds some visual spice as an exotic dancer, but Paul Lynde is wasted in the role of a wisecracking musician. Bob Denver plays his typical off-center Gilligan/Maynard G. Krebs character (seemingly the only thing he is capable of).

Darren and Tiffin were also featured together in a companion piece called THE LIVELY SET, a similar but more interesting film with a racing car theme. This film also served to plug Pepsi-Cola, and the cast even featured Joanie Sommers (the manufactured singer who hit the charts with "Johnny Get Angry"), and who provided (coincidentally, no doubt) the singing voice for Pepsi commercials in real life.

Overall, FOR THOSE WHO THINK YOUNG is an curio from a bygone age, contrived and derivative. Any similarity to real life in the pre-flower power, pre-Vietnam era is purely coincidental.