The Young Runaways

In 1974, our vice-principal -- who was also our guidance counselor -- made us watch this film. We were in Grade 8, it was the last week of school before the summer holidays, and we were soon going to experience the frightening world of high school.

Needless to say, we were completely absorbed. Our vice-principal's attempt to scare us straight certainly worked. To this day, I have never stolen a car! Thanks, Richard Dreyfuss.

Three young runaways find themselves in bohemian Chicago. Shelley Allen is tired of being sold to by her rich ad-man father Ray. She escapes from a creep driver and falls into the arms of prostitute Joanne Masters who is looking to turn her. Shelley escapes from Joanne and her Johns. She is saved by Dewey Norson who ran away for a mysterious reason. Deannie Donford is tired of her sexually repressed mother and father (Norman Fell). She moves in with musician Loch but then sleeps with his roommate Curly. A young Richard Dreyfuss has a supporting role. Meanwhile, the parents are searching for their kids.

This is a little transitional movie where the morality is mostly 50's but it's incorporating the 60's mostly as a cautionary tale. It doesn't give the parents a pass either. There is an attempt to bridge the gap. It's interesting to do the 60's in Chicago away from the cultural centers of NY and LA. It's also fun to see a young Dreyfuss doing his thing in one of his earliest film roles. The Deannie side of the story seems disconnected from the rest and could easily be cut. Mostly, this plays like a scared-straight movie.

I enjoyed the film -- a 1968 scared-straight, after-school ditty with some ridiculous elements. But it also includes some really good songs -- songs that could've come from the pen of Love's Arthur Lee. I'm writing this today because Jim Weatherly -- who wrote those songs -- done died a few days ago. His best-known song is "Midnight Train to Georgia", recorded by Gladys Knight & the Pips, but the couple that are here are memorable, too. When I first saw this film about six or seven years ago on TCM and noticed the songs, I emailed Weatherly and we talked about the tunes. That wouldn't have happened with John Williams.

Terrible writing, directing, acting, music, and plot combined to form an unintentionally funny pile of garbage!

It's worth watching for laughs, but it's also full of notable actors and actresses. Isabel Sanford, Duck Sargent, Richard Dreyfuss, Brooke Bundt, Norman Fell, et al.

Horribly out of touch film attempting to draw young people back to the movies.

Even the theme song seems like a spoof of itself!

This movie is a good cautionary tale... for filmmakers! See this movie and try, try, try your best not to make anything this dumb and hopelessly out of touch. This is "Rebel Without A Cause" on pablum, baby! The best thing about this movie is watching Richard Dreyfuss putting his all into these horrible, meaningless lines. I mean, this is my bag, know what I mean? I mean, I'm all hung up in my own hassles, baby! The dialogue is screamingly funny, baby, and Mike Myers' vision of the Sixties is more accurate! And he wasn't even there! Neither, obviously, was the screenwriter, because Orville Hampton was fifty-one when this gigglefest was released in '68. My advice: get together with some real Sixties veterans (they should be at least fifty years old), have a few beers (low-carb, if they insist) and laugh, laugh, laugh. Turn down the volume and make up your own dialogue. You won't miss anything.