Blue Denim

source: Blue Denim

***SPOILERS*** The movie "Blue Denim" obviously named after the pants that it's star Brandon DeWild's, Arthur "Art" Bartley, wears in the film tackles the very tricky and taboo subject of teenage pregnancy and, a word never once uttered in the film, abortion. It's when 16 year old Arthur Bartley fell in love with his cute and innocent next door neighbor Janet Willard, Carol Lynley, that what at first was a case of puppy love turned into something far more serious. It's wasn't until a few months later that Arthur found out that he in fact and put Janet in the "family way" and that just about destroyed both his and Janet's future in going to collage and becoming a lawyer or in Janet's case registered nurse! Making an already bad situation even worse Arthur gets in touch with his best friend "know it all" Ernie, Warren Berlinger, who claims that he can fix his and Janet's pressing problem by getting a back alley abortion doctor to prevent Janet and Arthur's unborn baby from going full term! The only problem is that "Know it all" Ernie is full of BS about knowing any doctor that can get the job down for the two desperate teens! While all this is going on Arthur starts to have second thoughts in having his and Janet's own flesh and blood, as he describes it, murdered just to keep his parents Maj. Malcolm Bartley Ret., Macdonald Carey, and Jessie Willard, Marash Hunt,from knowing the truth about the mess that he got himself into! As for Janet her widower pop Professor Willard, Vaughn Taylor, who thinks the world of her can end up suffering a stroke or heart attack in he found out what she and her boyfriend Arthur did to themselves! ***SPOILERS*** The film has both Arthur and Janet go so far as finding a abortion doctor, Sam Buffington,through a local soda jerk, Anthony J. Corso, that want's $150.00 up front and in cash to do the "job" for them . It's when Janet is about to go under on Dr. Buffington's makeshift operation table that Arthur gets a change of heart and together with his and Janet's pop storm the doc's office and prevent the abortion from happening! Very touching ending with both Arthur and Janet, who was secretly checking out of town, reunited on a train to Janet's Aunt's place to have both her and Arthur's child born, and brought up by Auntie, before she can come back home without anybody in town noticing it. Yes it was terrible what happened by Arthur and Janet not watching themselves in getting into the terrible mess that they found themselves in but it would have been far far worse by having their innocent baby aborted before it even had a chance to live. And by doing the right thing both Arthur and Janet prevented a very bad situation for becoming a full fledged disaster which they would have to live with for the rest of their lives!

This film was probably a shocker for audiences in the Year 1959 when teens getting pregnant was a horrible thing and the parents never explained anything to their children about sex and just figured they would all be educated through biology classes in school. This story is about a young innocent boy, Arthur Bartley, (Brandon DeWilde) who likes the girl next door, Janet Willard, (Carol Lynley) who liked Arthur and Janet decided to give Arthur a good lesson about love making and sex which usually starts a big event in people's lives, babies. Malcolm Bartley, (Macdonald Carey) Arthur's dad had great hopes for his son and he found out that his son was failing in Biology Classes and had straight A's in all his other subjects. Jessie Bartley, (Marsha Hunt) plays the role as Arthur's mother, who is a very calm woman and is very supportive of her family and gives an outstanding performance. By the way, Marsha Hunt had her 91st Birthday on Oct. 17, 2008, she was born on October 17, 1917 and was a great actress on the big screen and also on the New York City Stage. This film was entertaining, enjoy.

I saw this movie when it first came out in 1959 U was just a kid. The movie was well done for the times the topic of the movie was not discussed in those day. I think Carol Linley did a very good job and I became a fan of hers only after seeing this movie, and can't forget Brandon he died much too young he was a very good actor. How or where can I purchase this movie? We don't see this type of acting today.

Copyright 1959 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Victoria: 30 July 1959. U.S. release: August 1959. U.K. release: October 1959. Australian release: 12 November 1959. 8,046 feet. 89 minutes. U.K. and Australian release title: BLUE JEANS. SYNOPSIS: In a small suburban town, two teenagers fall in love. The boy, Arthur Bartley, is sixteen; a fairly good student and athlete, he finds it impossible to communicate with his preoccupied parents and spends most of his time in his basement den. The girl, Janet Willard, is a 15-year-old whose widowed father is trying to make her into an exact image of her late mother. Janet becomes pregnant. NOTES: Running a modestly successful 166 performances, Blue Denim opened on Broadway at the Playhouse on 27 February 1958. Barbara Wolferman and James Hammerstein were the producers and Joshua Logan was the director. Burt Brinckerhoff, Chester Morris, June Walker and Pat Stanley created the roles played respectively by de Wilde, Carey, Hunt and Shipman. For the film version, Lynley and Berlinger repeat their stage characterizations. Fox's 5th most popular film in the U.S./Canadian market for 1958-59. Initial rentals gross was close to $4 million. The movie came nowhere near duplicating this sort of success in other markets. In fact, I doubt if the British and Australian rental returns even managed to offset the movie's print, advertising and distribution costs. A sequel entitled "Blue Denim Baby" was planned for 1961, but never got off the ground, once the foreign rental returns were in the bag - or rather, NOT in the bag! COMMENT: The critics were right about this one. Offsetting the sincerity of the young players, the dullness of the direction, the excessive dialogue and the fact that the movie is obviously derived from a stage play, plus its very modest production values, plus the very routine behind-the-camera credits (aside from Leo Tover's slick photography), not to mention the obtrusive and ill-conceived music score, made the film somewhat less than mediocre entertainment for all but a section of really keen juvenile ticket-buyers.

This film was pretty frank for its time. Unfortunately, it isn't even dated. The problem will always be there as evidenced by shows like Pregnant at 16.

Teenager Arthur (Brandon De Wilde) gets his girlfriend Janet (Carol Lynley) pregnant. They're afraid to tell their parents (remember--this was 1959), abortion is against the law and they're too young to get married. So...what will they do? **SPOILERS** VERY dated in some terms. The teenagers "sex" talk and reactions to Janet's being pregnant are so naive it's actually sort of funny. Seriously--even in 1959 they had no idea what would happen? Also the parents in this weren't characters--they were caricatures. As for abortion--it was still illegal back and considered a negative thing but this overdoes it. I almost laughed when I saw the "evil" doctor preparing for the operation. BTW, the word "abortion" is never used (the Production Code wouldn't allow it). Also it leads to an ending which I thought was far from happy...or realistic. Still I DID like the film. I heard about this film first back in the 1970s. It was playing on late-night TV. I had no interest in it at all and didn't watch but my mom and sister did. By the end they were crying nonstop! Now I cry easily but I didn't think this would affect me. I was wrong. At least three times during this I broke down (and I'm a guy!)! The situations were dated but the acting wasn't. Lynley was good but this is De Wilde's movie all the way. His agony over what to do is believable (and heart-breaking) every step of the way. His reactions are what set me off. So it's dated but well-done and believable. Worth catching. I give it a 7.

Dated as it may be, BLUE DENIM, or BLUE JEANS as it was known overseas, is still an effective teen pregnancy film, and no doubt a big deal of it's time. Carol Lynley is by far the best actor in this modest but visually quite engrossing studio bound movie from Fox, with really beautiful c/s b/w imagery and TV style settings and acting. It reminded me a lot of COMPULSION and THE STRIPPER and KISS ME STUPID and even IN COLD BLOOD with its rural town suburbia in CinemaScope b/w, a style I have always thought atmospheric and effective. Brandon De Wilde clearly just 16 or 17 is quite puppy-fat terrific as the handsome nice boy with the Patty Duke Show style parents, but it is Carol Lynley who acts everyone else off the screen. I grew to really love this film as it went on and actually had a good cry. It still works if you are willing to see it as a very strong teen pregnancy film of its time which must have really had an effect on every teen who saw it. Tragic that DeWilde was killed at 30 in a car crash, as this film had the Rebel Without A Cause image and emotion well presented. Quite beautiful for many reasons and wonderfully frank for 1959. It must have made millions of dollars on a very low budget. There is a wonderful horrible Gothic moment with the abortionists car and the hag within.

So-so movie, really only watched to see Carol Lynley whom I love. But do have to say that we feel this movie was pretty ahead of it's time. I can remember when high school girls we knew 'went to live with her cousin in...' (usually another state) but it was really because they had gotten pregnant. There was a shame to it in those days, and it was always hidden. But a young girl's pregnancy is handled with candor in this film, so we think it was rare for it's time. As inappropriate as it may be to to write about here, it makes one wonder if there may have been a political message behind the story... Not trying to start a debate - hear me out!!! At that time these 'services' were indeed 'backroom' (illegal), and the film could be looked at as putting forth a position that the laws should be changed. On the other hand, in the end one could argue that the film shows how young people should take responsibility for the (young pregnancy) situation and work together with their families to sort it all out. Tricky! We found this to be THE MOST INTERESTING ASPECT of this film - especially considering the way 'unwanted' pregnancies were dealt with during that time in our history. So, you see, it really doesn't matter if the film intended to "send a message" - cause by the end groups on either side of the abortion debate should be satisfied with the way the story was told.

The kid from "Shane" is all grown up and has the hots for Carol Lynley. The attraction is mutual and before you know it, Lynley is pregnant and they're looking to get an abortion. Lord knows I love melodrama, but this film is so past the top it can't even see it anymore. It's amusing at time, but mostly it just seems to be inhabited by characters that are not recognizable as real people.