Surprisingly interesting for a morality tale with that blaring, sensationalistic title, and for the relatively poor quality print that was a little fuzzy. It's definitely a B picture too, with no big names, acting that's often stilted, and a direction to its plot that's too predictable. The young kids these days! What with their listening to jazz music, dancing late at night, and their carousing about! We know what that leads to ... drinking, crime, and murder right? It tickles me to see references to the depravity of the younger generation in each and every age, whether it be in film or literature, and this one takes it to an extreme.
One of the entertaining aspects was the dialogue of the young kids, and no one delivers it any better than Arline Judge. I love her voice and how she flirts with the main character, played by Eric Linden. Nothing is ever shown, but it's clear she sleeps around from the beginning, as she tells her friends "you don't know what happened at Coney Island," with her piercing eyes over the purse she has in front of her face. She calls him "big boy" in a way far more alluring that Mae West ever was, and then after an amusing scene with the flappers and sheiks out on the dance floor, we see her pulling at the top of her blouse rapidly to fan herself. This exchange follows:
Flo (Arline Judge): "Phew, am I hot."
Eddie (Eric Linden): "I'll say you're hot."
Flo: "Feel?" She grabs his hand and uses it to pat down her chest, giving him the subtlest of winks and a smile in the process.
Eddie: "Uh oh, a hundred and eight." She then pulls her blouse forward and then looking downward, blows down her chest, practically inviting him to see.
Eddie: (laughing) "Say, did the doctor tell you to watch your stomach?"
This is shortly before examining his chest and observing that he doesn't wear undershirts, and letting him know how attracted she is to him. "You got the stuff that gets 'em, boy," she says. She's also magnetic while on the witness stand later, giving wide eyed answers to the prosecutor before telling him off.
Eric Linden (age 22 playing 18) is not bad himself, with a baby-faced earnestness and look that's reminiscent of James Cagney (and it's notable that he would star with Cagney the following year as his little brother in 'The Crowd Roars'). His interactions with the media before the trial reminded me of Martin Sheen in Terrence Malick's film 'Badlands,' and he's strong in the courtroom when his character elects to cross-examine witnesses himself.
The film is pretty creaky early on, with a slow start that feels quaint, including Eddie calling his virtuous girlfriend (Rochelle Hudson) on the phone out in the hallway after walking home. It picks up as it goes along though, with surprisingly decent cinematography as well as dialogue with expressions that evoke the era. The transitions between scenes are interesting, with newspapers and spirals that ominously signal the downward path the young man is on. The film's low-budget feel sometimes works in its favor; the scene where the six hooligans are horsing around and sliding down a bannister while drunk has one of them really slipping but landing on his feet, giving it an air of danger and authenticity. Unfortunately the ending is more than a little heavy handed, with an overwrought prayer accompanied by the dramatic singing of a choir in the background, which was a bit much. I'm rounding up a bit out of my own interest for pre-Code films, the snappy dialogue, Eric Linden, and Arline Judge.
Couple of other quotes, while Judge's character tries to convince Linden's to have a drink:
Flo (Arline Judge): "Come on, make yourself interesting, won't you? Have a drink."
Eddie (Eric Linden): "I'm getting along all right, I don't need any hooch."
Flo: "Well, you be that way and everbody'll hate ya."
Eddie: "Oh, I'm all right."
Flo: "I'll say you're all right, honey."
Later she'll sing into his ear, "it makes you forget your troubles, it makes you forget you're sad, it makes you feel good and confident..."
