ThiefHott Too much of everything

Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Lawbolisted Powerful

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

ma-cortes This is an original classic picture , being very worthy in its intention and including faith in American justice . It is set in N.Y. C. where gang leaders lead his groupies on a reign of terror through the streets and slums . These dangerous gangs are called the Horsemen and the Thunderbirds . After three adolescents hoods stab a blind Puerto Rican boy , upright assistant DA Hank Bell (Burt Lancaster) is tasked with prosecuting the criminal case . He's looking for evidences for first degree killing for all three of the teenagers , even 15 year-old Danny DiPace , son of his old sweetheart , Mary DiPace (Shelley Winters who played his former lover , she was actually former lover in real life) . Bell grew up in the neighborhood and investigates the convictions along with Lt. Gunderson (Telly Savalas) . He learns that Escalante may have pulled a knife and was really one of the chiefs of the Puerto Rican gang that fought usually with their Italian opponents . Bell's spouse is upset at the prospect that he's seeking the death penalty for teens and he thinks she's just a liberal living in her own little perfect world . Meanwhile , Hank attempts to find out motivation for killing on the three misfit boys . As he gathers more proofs against his superior , the General prosecutor Daniel Cole (Edward Andrews) . However , he starts to see that it is all far more complicated than it first suggested . Ring leader results to be a young psychopath Arthur Reardon (John Davis Chandler) , a baddie who doesn't seem human . The attorney starts investigating with no results and the bands pull off his owns objectives , leading to an ever higher tension at the justice court .It is a violent and strong movie by its time about gangs of cruel teens who terrorize the neighborhood , executing a terrible murder and a prosecutor assistant who is determined to do his job and starts to discover that the facts in the case aren't exactly as they seem to be , despite resistance from his superiors . Tough as well as thoughtful entertainment , set in the thunderous sixties . Well-remembered violent drama from the early 60s in which teenager gangs terrorize the entire streets and surroundings executing crimes and violence at random . Interesting script , screen-written by Edward Anhalt , based on the novel "A Matter of Conviction¨ by Evan Hunter . This entertaining as well as thought-provoking film contains thrills , intense drama , upsetting scenes , and with quite convincing , studious atmosphere . In fact , due to the film violent content had great notoriety and important impression as well as some problems with censorship . Very good acting , as always , by Burt Lancaster as a district attorney who pursues justice , investigating the racially charged case of three teenagers accused of a killing . Lancaster had never before worked with a director as Frankenheimer who used such innovative camera angles . He grew to trust John Frankenheimer, and they made four more films together . In fact , Lancaster was forced by United Artists to make four films for low salaries in the 1960s , all of them directed by Frankenheimer : The Young savages (1961 ), The birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Train (1964) and Seven Days in May (1964) rather than his normal fee , because of cost overruns at his production company , Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, for which he was personally responsible . Acceptable acting by Dina Merrill ; however , Dina said that the treatment she received from director John Frankenheimer on this picture nearly drove her out of the business , as he literally told her at the end of a days' filming that she was the worst actress he'd ever worked with . It displays a very nice as well as memorable support cast , such as Edward Andrews , Shelley Winters , Larry Gates , Telly Savalas , Stanley Adams , Leonardo Cimino , Milton Selzer and unforgettable John Davis Chandler as nasty teen.Evocative cinematography in Black and White by Lionel Lindon . The picture was well directed by John Frankenheimer and achieved great success . John used strange camera movements , aiming upward and camera on the floor . Lancaster had never before worked with a filmmaker who utilized such innovative camera angles . In fact , Lancaster was startled and dismayed to see these rare work means . At the beginning John worked for TV and turned to the cinema industry with The Young Stranger (1957) . Disappointed his with first feature film experience he came back to his successful television career directing a total of 152 live television shows in the 50s . He took another opportunity to change to the big screen , collaborating with Burt Lancaster in The Young Savages (1961) and Birdman of Alcatraz (62) ending up becoming a successful director well-known by his skills with actors and expressing on movies his views on important social deeds and philosophical events and film-making some classics as ¨The Manchurian candidate¨, ¨Seven days of May¨ and ¨The Train¨ and ; in addition , including some great car races as ¨Grand Prix¨ and ¨Ronin¨ . Rating : Better and average and well worth seeing . The flick will appeal to Burt Lancaster fans . Above average for its thrilling premise as well as hard-hitting entertainment and had the youthful ripping up the seats on its first release .

JasparLamarCrabb A liberal's fantasy film though it tries mightily to pretend it isn't. Burt Lancaster is a NYC D.A. investigating the stabbing of a blind Puerto Rican boy in Spanish Harlem. The gang members who may or may not have been responsible include the son of Lancaster's childhood girlfriend. Director John Frankenheimer tries mightily to show both sides of the coin with this film, but in the end, cops out with what is tantamount to a "happy ending." This may have had more to do with the famously liberal Lancaster's leftist leanings than with Frankenheimer's filmmaking choices. Nevertheless there is some very good acting, not only by Lancaster, but by Shelley Winters, Vivian Nathan, Pilar Seurat (as the dead boy's sister) and Telly Savalas as Lancaster's highly cynical, Greek chorus associate. David Amram provided the inflammatory music score and Lionel Lindon did the shot on location cinematography.

blanche-2 Post-World War II, there was a rise in juvenile delinquency, and this was mirrored in films such as "Blackboard Jungle," "Rebel without a Cause," "High School Confidential," and "Knock on Any Door." Antiheroes like James Dean and Marlon Brando became popular, and sexual threats like Elvis Presley invaded music. To adults, the kids were out of control."The Young Savages" from 1961 is another film looking at the rise in delinquency, this one starring Burt Lancaster, Shelley Winters, Dina Merrill, and Telly Savalas (in his film debut). Directed by John Frankenheimer, the film is an attempt to get at the psychological reasons behind the murder of a Puerto Rican boy in Harlem.Lancaster plays DA Hank Bell aka Bellini before his father changed it. He grew up in the neighborhood depicted. Now there is an ethnic division, the Italians versus the Puerto Ricans, with gang activity on both sides - West Side Story sans music.Hank Bell is to prosecute the juveniles accused of the stabbing, and one of them is the son of a woman (Winters) whom he once dated. She tells him her son could not have been involved in any murder and begs him to look into it. In real life I think he would have had to give the case to someone else, but here, he tries to find out what really happened. Along the way, he learns some things about himself.Like "Knock on Any Door," "The Young Savages" endeavors to show what's behind the tragedy. Merrill is Karin, Hank's suburban life, with the liberal philosophy of one who doesn't actually deal with juveniles. She's a far cry from Hank's old girlfriend from the neighborhood - Hank has reinvented himself and has a debutante type for a wife. Partly from guilt, partly from "there but for the grace of God," Hank throws himself into the case, endeavoring to see both sides, to the complete annoyance of his superiors.Good movie with an intense performance by Lancaster. The film is notable also for being Telly Savalas' first film, playing a police detective with shades of Kojak. The juveniles - Stanley Kristien, Neil Nephew, Luis Arroyo, Jose Perez, and Richard Velez, are all excellent.Though somewhat derivative, this is a good film -- Burt Lancaster's production company was associated with quality films, and this is one of them.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** 1961 motion picture loosely based on the notorious August 30,1959 Salvador Agron "Capeman killings" in New York City's Hells Kitchen. The movie has the racial backgrounds of victim and killer reversed which made the film a bit disingenuous to the movie going public back then in 1961, just two years after that terrible event. The killer Salvador Agron was Hispanic and his two teenage victims, Anthony Krezsinski and Robert Young, were white. Three members of the white Manhattan street gang The Thunderbirds cross into Spanish Harlem on the turf of the local Puerto Rican gang The Horsemen and zero in on young and sensitive harmonica playing Roberto Escalante, Jose Perez,knifing him to death. Caught minutes after the killing are the three gang members Reardon Di Pace & Aposto, John David Chandler Stanley Kristien & Neil Nephew. With the city D.A Daniel Cole, Edward Andrews, wanting a first degree murder conviction of the three teenage assailants, to give him a boost in the upcoming gubernatorial elections, he put's his best prosecutor on the case Asst. D.A Hank Bell, Burt Lancaster. With the three defendants claiming that they killed Roberto in self-defense their excuse falls apart like a house of cards when it's shown that he was totally blind and a threat to no one, much less themselves. It now starts to look like D.A Cole would get the first degree murder conviction that can send the three youths, all under 18, to the electric chair. Bell who at first had no idea who the three defendants were soon realized that one of the accused killers, Danny Di Pace, is the son of a woman Mrs. Mary Di Pace ,Shelly Winters,that he was in love with years before he got married to his present wife Karin, Dina Merrill. This made prosecuting Danny very difficult and painful for him.Slowly getting all the evidence in order and at the same time being attacked,far worse the his wife was earlier in the film, by gang members for doing his job Asst. D.A Bell finally gets to the bottom of the case. Bell finds out the real reason for Roberto's killing and it totally throws him off to what he's supposed to do in the case; get a verdict that would strap the three into the electric chair, regardless of their guilt or innocence, in order to further his boss' D.A Cole political career. A bit ahead of it's time "The Young Savages" goes into the mental mindset of the three accused killers of blind Roberto Escalante and comes up with some startling conclusions; all three were not in full control of themselves or in what they did so a first degree murder conviction was unable to be reached by the jury. Not that they got off Scot-free for their actions and Roborto himself was anything but the innocent bystander that he was made out to be by his friends family and the liberal newspapers.A cowardly bully with a deep inferiority complex who was the leader of the pack Arthur Reardon is given 20 to life. A mentally retarded and delusional Anthony "Batman" Aposto, who thinks that he's the Batman of comic book fame, ends up in an institution for the criminally insane until he's seen fit, by a battery of psychiatrists, to again become a member of society. It was Danny Di Pace who got off from getting heavy jail time, Danny got a year in Juvenile Hall, for just wanting to be a member of a street gang to have the family that he never knew but that involvement lead to Roberto Escalante losing his life.Hank Bell threw away whatever future he had in the New York State D.A's office by looking at the facts and perusing Justice instead of letting the three gang member fry for the sake of his, and D.A Cole's, future in state or national politics.