User reviews

As awful as most of the musical numbers are, it's great to see Eddie Cochran performing!

Mamie Van Doren is pretty good in this movie, as corny as it is. John Russell is great as the jerk ranch owner; very convincing bad guy.

When the film begins, a cop comes upon two sexy sisters skinny dipping. When taken to court for this, it becomes obvious that the arrest was part of a scam to get free labor at a local cotton farm. Once sentenced to this work farm, the women (Mamie Van Doren and Lori Nelson) see that it's practically slave labor...and the 'pay' they are to receive is next to nothing....and they feed them dog food! Can anything be done to stop this obvious abuse of power?

This is a weird film. It easily could have been a great exposee film. However, instead of just focusing on this work farm, the film ALSO is a rock 'n roll flick....and seeing folks picking cotton and singing rock is surreal to say the least...as well as a bit ridiculous! After all, they are worked like dogs all day yet somehow have the energy to rock all night long!! Too bad most of the singing wasn't all that great.

So is it any good? Well, it is entertaining though not exactly subtle! And, because the Catholic Legion of Decency panned the film because of its overtly sexual plot...lots of Catholics lined up to see it! Regardless, the picture made a lot of money...so Warner Brothers got the last laugh! But overall, it's not an especially good film due to its strange combination of exposee and second-rate rock....it just didn't make a lot of sense. It would have been much better with less rock and less cheesecake and more on the abuse of power. Overall, an enjoyable 'trash' film that might also make you laugh at times....but not a particularly good movie.

By the way, if you do watch this film, get a load of that final number about the Calypso! It's hilarious!!

The story of an unscrupulous cotton farm owner who uses the local correction system for his personal profit, the focus of "Untamed Youth" is really the unbridled sexuality of rock and roll, then in its infancy.

Consider this tagline: "Starring the girl built like a platinum powerhouse-- Mamie Van Doren." The film offers some scenes of rock and roll dancing awkwardly shoehorned into the scenes of dramatic social injustice. And those scenes of dancing are not bad, despite the corny gyrations of Van Doren. The story as a whole is a mess.

Best viewed as a novelty, "Untamed Youth" fits perfectly into the genre of low-grade drive-in movie fare.

Okay, I confess to paying money to see this exploitation flick back in '57. No doubt the juicy title plus mammary goddess Van Doren is what pulled this horny teenager in. Then too, it's likely my standards haven't risen much in the meantime. Anyway, back then, I thought the movie just plain weird—after all, the sight of super stud John Russell passion kissing a frumpy 50-year old Irene Tuttle was like seeing him, oh my gosh, passion kiss his mother. But now I think the movie's just plain goofy.

It's really two films badly stitched into one, like some mismatched two-headed critter that can't make up its mind. On one side is the rock-and-roll skin show, with kids in trouble but having a lot of fun anyway. The wild rebellious dance scene is still a grabber and could stand for that teen era, as a whole. Now, however, Van Doren looks more like a cartoon than anything real as she keeps slipping sideways for the camera.

The other half is a serious type expose with Russell showing no sense of humor or fun, at all. And he's backed up by a lot of corrupt county officials and thuggish henchmen who keep threatening the kids. Too bad the movie guys in charge didn't split this serious side from the R&R. With a little work and that monster cotton-combine, they might have had a follow-up to the classic farm-nightmare of Border Incident (1949).

Instead, this flick leaves us to ponder the eternal question of why Calypso didn't replace R&R as record exec's of the time expected. Oh well, some cosmic mysteries just aren't meant to be solved. In the meantime, I guess I'll have to hunt down more of these silly old teen flicks.

On their way to seek fame and fortune in Los Angeles, top-heavy singer Mamie Van Doren (as Penny Lowe) and her guitar-strumming accomplice Lori Nelson (as Janey Lowe) are caught hitch-hiking. The sisters are brought before a small-town southern judge. Apparently, filmmakers decided the shapely pair would be more alluring skinny-dipping than hitch-hiking, so this is how the film opens. The script says hitching, but the visual suggests nudity (of course, their naughtiest body parts are hidden). Looking sexy and sexier, Ms. Nelson and Ms. Van Doren are sentenced to pick cotton on a farm...

They are treated very poorly by dastardly John Russell (as Russ Tropp). He is secretly involved with matronly judge Lurene Tuttle (as Cecilia Steele). Her handsome son Don Burnett (as Bob Steele) arrives to set things right and romance Ms. Nelson. "Untamed Youth" features a tightly-attired, ample-bodied and highly arousing Ms. Van Doren. She sings pseudo-rock 'n' roll in a slip, swinging and swiveling. The soundtrack highlight is Eddie Cochran (as Bongo) performing Les Baxter's derivative "Cotton-picker". The song arrangement doesn't really rock, but Mr. Cochran makes it seem authentic.

***** Untamed Youth (5/10/57) Howard W. Koch ~ Mamie Van Doren, Lori Nelson, John Russell, Don Burnett

Mamie Van Doren stars in this little teen-exploitation flick about two sisters (of which Ms. Van Doren is one) who are caught trespassing while swimming in a pond. The sisters are charged with hitchhiking, and their sentence is to work on a cotton farm whose owner is the secret husband of the judge who sent them there.

The cotton farm for these prisoners is a 20th century version of the company store, where the "costs" associated with their employment outpace their "wages", keeping them in continuous servitude to the farm's owner.

The filmmaker wastes few opportunities to showcase Ms. Van Doren in her underwear, or in tight fitting sweaters. Curiously, for supposedly being fed dog food, these "untamed youth" have a surprising amount of energy to pick cotton all day, and then dance the night away without a care in the world. Mix into the cast a beatnik cook who is out of place in this agricultural gulag, and you have an embarassing film that shows youth as rebels only in the sense that they do not conform to the arbitrary standards of the crooked, yet wooden authority figures.

If you want to see one of the first films condemned by the Catholic church, tune in to see why. If you want to improve your MST riffing skills, this movie is for you. If you want to see this as a double feature with The Grapes of Wrath, rent the Milagro Beanfield War instead.

If they edited out the music bits, this film would have been quite enjoyable. The musical numbers are mostly brain-clawing but they have their merits on their own.

I came across this film through MST3K and I have to say this film was a bad choice for the show. It was too good for MST3K and that their commentary was only necessary through the musical numbers.

As for the acting, not spectacular but passable enough to make me not cringe or anything like that. Even the musical numbers were passably choreographed. The plot was alright, had some themes that have haunting overtones 50 years after the fact - and that may have been the saving grace of the film. In fact, in the oblique fashion of an exploitation film, the theme was done justice in the film. If it had been a disparaging polemic on the subject, it would have gone into the deep end of ultimate Heinleinian hot-air. But it didn't do that. No, it danced around the subject as though we were supposed to be more afraid of the adults who were going to put us in our place by instigating fear into the teenagers and children of the time.

As for the musical numbers - I'd rather listen to them on a CD, not spliced into a film at random intervals. The writing could have been a lot tighter here and that is probably why it stunk for so long.

Saw this on an episode of MST3K and not the type of movie I would have ever watched without the gang of the satellite of love. A rousing musical type with an evil farmer. The film though does have a the benefit of having a very attractive leading lady in Mamie Van Doren. Unfortunately, usually when the camera is on her, she is singing a very bland tune that sounds pretty much like everything else in the film. The other girls are cute too, but you get to see Mamie's panties and she is definitely the one whose looks stand out the most.

The story has a judge who sends teens and youthful offenders to a farm to work out their sentences. The conditions on the farm are harsh and the sun outside is brutal. However, though the teens are exhausted, they somehow manage to party during the night! The owner of this farm is dastardly though, and he has evil schemes aplenty. One of the people who are forced to work on this farm is having severe problems, but the owner does nothing to help this person.

This movie made for an okay episode of MST3K, but I prefer it when they make fun of horror or science fiction films. This one is almost a musical which does not work as well with the riffing format as other film genres. The movie taken by itself just does not work for me, because it is more of a musical than anything else. The film is almost like one of those prison films of the 70's, just minus the soft core sex scenes. This was in the 50's though so a peek at some panties as the hot girl twirls is about as good as it got during mainstream films during this era.

You have to be a real stick in the mud not to get a kick out of this movie; or it's sister film "Girl's Town." I am still wondering what inspired Pinky's great speech ("I am a just man") but the rest is simply. Cheesy rock and roll, cool chicks, and a moral lesson driven home with the subtly of a huge Cotton gin falling on you. Many of the current political problems with our immigrant work force are foreshadowed. If only today's politicos had a Mamie to help iron out all the fuss. If only they had given Eddie Cochran a better song.... The MST3K version is worth seeking out; but this is one that stands on it's own.

While the story may seem contrived (hitchhikers arrested and forced to do farm labor) , it was a fact that certain rural agricultural California towns did exactly that, for decades. Farmers who grow crops that must be hand-picked always need cheap labor and are never too fussy about where they get it. Mamie Van Doren steals the show. OK, the musical numbers are a bit silly but the cast members can dance. Some of them are doing goofy dance steps for laughs, but watch the other couples - that is a demonstration of 1950s teen dancing as good as you will see in film. If you just watch the musical scenes, you won't miss anything because the plot is predictable, and nothing really interesting happens when Mamie isn't singing and the kids aren't dancing.

Took me awhile, but I finally figured out why I kept watching...it's Dirty Dancing on a work farm instead of a resort in the Poconos. Darker, sure, but still. Got cute girls, the boys full of angst, a pregnant girl, music and dancing and secrets. Couldn't figure out who the really tall young male dancer was (standing still with his hand on the girl's head while she danced around him) but he was fun to watch whenever he was in the scene. It was a cute little film.

Untamed Youth (1957)

** (out of 4)

If you look at any critic books you're probably going to find this one with a BOMB rating and it being called one of the worst films of all time. Something this entertaining can't be considered one of the worst ever made. Period. Sisters Penny (Mamie Van Doren) and Jane (Lori Nelson) Lowe gets picked up by a crooked Sheriff and the two are sentenced by a crooked judge to a work farm where the owner abuses the workers and gets his pockets filled with their hard work. Soon the judge's son (Don Burnett) returns home from the Navy and begins to see what's really going on at the camp. UNTAMED YOUTH is one of many drive-in juvenile flicks that were released in this era and while it has one of the worst reputations of any, this is just so memorable because of all the camp, wild dialogue and unbelievable situations. I'm really not sure where you start but there's some of the most memorable dialogue that you're ever going to find in a film. There this: "Don't hit me in the mouth again. You'll break my dental plate". Also this: "If you had two heads you'd still be a moron." You've also got an opening sequence with the two beautiful blonds skinny dipping with the perverted Sheriff spying on them. There's also some very campy musical numbers, which for some reason the "inmates" are able to put on. I'm still not sure why the evil owner allowed all of this considering everything else he was doing to them. Then there's the hilarious ending where the people finally can't take any more. I won't ruin what exactly happens but it's certainly funny. Mamie Van Doren, as you'd expect, gives a pretty blah performance but that pointy bra is constantly at work. Nelson actually gives a pretty good performance as she's the only thing that doesn't come off campy. The supporting players all fit their roles nicely. UNTAMED YOUTH is pure camp and I'd say it deserves the right to be considered a cult classic.

Mamie Van Doren and Lori Nelson a pair of blond sisters do a bit of skinny dipping while making their way to California. They get picked up by the local law and get sentenced to 30 days on a prison farm run by John Russell.

They grow cotton on the Russell plantation and that's just about how he treats the prisoners. Feeding them on cheap slop and paying next to nothing Russell gets a steady supply of labor courtesy of his wife Judge Lurene Tuttle. She's a recent widow and it's more than hinted at that Tuttle has some itch that needs scratching.

Even before Cesar Chavez organized the farm workers apparently even they were paid better than Russell's convict labor. Scarlett O'Hara would be proud.

It's not all bad, it's a coed prison farm with a coed prison recreation hall that has a jukebox. The prisoners also includ Eddie Cochran before he found there was no cure for the summertime blues.

When Yvonne Lime dies from overwork and lack of pre-natal care that marks the beginning of the end for Russell's set up. Besides our blond leads young Don Burnett who is Tuttle's son by her first marriage helps bring his wilfully naive mother to her senses.

Untamed Youth is trash through and through. But Mamie while she can't act is sure nice to look it. John Russell resisted the urge I'm sure to camp up his villainy and plays it painfully straight. Then there's Eddie Cochran to sing a bit.

Still anyone who thinks this film is worthwhile is out of his cotton pickin' mind.

Entertainer sisters Penny (Mamie Van Doren) and Jane Lowe (Lori Nelson) are hitchhiking to L.A. for a gig. They are caught skinny dipping and sentenced to work on a cotton farm for thirty days. Greedy womanizing farm owner Russ Tropp is secretly married to the judge. It's a scam to get cheap labor. The judge's son Bob Steele returns from the Navy to start working at the farm. He falls for Jane and discovers the corruption.

The best part of the movie happens in the first five minutes. It goes downhill real fast and does not bounce back. It may be exploitation but the skinny dipper uses the girls' best assets. Mamie Van Doren is the discount Marilyn Monroe and it is heavily discounted in this movie. There is no hoping for any acting excellence. It's got African antics. It's trying to get the youth market by tapping in the new fandangle Rock and Roll. Is this rocksploitation? It's all very campy.

After "Manos - Hands of Fate", you might well ask yourself if there was ever a movie so bad that MST3K wouldn't touch it...... Well, ask no more. This movie was absolutely unnecessary. We follow a group of juvenile delinquents who end up indentured to a crooked cotton farmer to get his crops out of the field while he's trying to import some Mexican laborers to abuse. He feeds them "Grow Pup" and Pepsi, which apparently makes them want to stand out in the hot sun and dance like epileptics. Meanwhile, the sleazy judge that pretended she was doing them a favor by not keeping them locked up, has a mess to clean up.

Untamed Youth is the story of a couple of sisters headed to California to make their fortunes in show business. Along the way, the pair are picked-up on a trumped-up charge and sentenced to serve 30 days hard labor on a cotton farm. The sisters aren't alone - the farm is teaming with young people who are little more than slave labor for the less than upstanding cotton plantation owner.

This early teen exploitation film is an absolute blast. The IMDb rating of 2.0 is criminally low. It's not perfect, but it is better than a 2.0 rating would indicate. I feel sorry for anyone who can't watch a movie like Untamed Youth and enjoy it for what it is. You can't take this stuff seriously. I suppose part of the reason behind the low rating is that Untamed Youth appeared on Mystery Science Theater 3000. There are far too many people out there who foolishly assume that if a movie appeared on MST3K, it must be bad. That's just not the case. An interesting (albeit predictable) plot, Mamie Van Doren, rock-n-roll, a scandalous subplot involving unmarried pregnancy (racy stuff), the train-wreck of a relationship/marriage between the judge and the plantation owner that's impossible not to "enjoy", fights, dancing, a good baddie (John Russell is excellent), the always cute Lori Nelson, Eddie Cochran (though I admit he does very little for me), a sense of fun about the whole thing - it's one cool movie!

A few other thoughts - first, Mamie can't sing. Every song she belts out sounds just like the one before. Call me crazy, but I don't think she was hired for her vocal talents. Second, what was in that dog food they were feeding the kids? Must have been something good for them - pickin' cotton all day and rock-n-rolling all night. Third, it's hard to believe that Lori Nelson made this AFTER she made Revenge of the Creature. I would have thought that movie might have done more for her career. Third, Mamie in the shower - wow!

Cotton work farm in Texas for co-ed criminals is run by shady boss who has married the much-older female judge in town just to get the law on his side; the judge's son gets a job on the farm driving the harvester and smells a rat (or maybe it's just the dog food the rock-loving juvies are made to eat). Fruity teen opus from director Howard W. Koch and a slumming Warner Bros. Is poorly-written, acted and presented, with a Mamie Van Doren calypso number tacked on at the end that goes on forever. Drive-in dreck was originally condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency! Mamie-addicts will up the rating a notch or two. *1/2 from ****

50's Beach Blanket Bingo in potato fields; a soupçon of Giant with John Russell as Big Daddy. Misses James Dean, Paul Lynde, Don Rickles, Robbie the Robot and an alien or two to be a classic...we've Mamie Van Doren, Eddie Cochran, maybe it is!

Law and Order! Law and Order! How often have we seen and heard those words wreak untrue but in the bitter end the film Untamed Youth deserved a rightful ending and yes, the bad guys get their just reward and are put behind bars. Mamie Van Doren starred in this low budget black and white crime film and she got to show off her singing and dancing chops and of course she would not be Mamie Van Doren if she didn't deliberately open up her top to allow the male hormones a better gander of her singing and swinging lungs (no nudity).

Don't expect much when two sisters Penny (Mamie Van Doren) and Jane Lowe (Lori Nelson) are unceremoniously caught skinny dipping in a pond while 'en route to a paid singing gig when the local dirty sheriff arrests them for vagrancy and a forlorn female judge who is smitten by the ranch owner puts them on a cotton farm to pick cotton for him as cheaper labor than even the Mexicans would work for otherwise.

A romance begins brewing between Jane Lowe and a new ranch foreman Bob Steele (Don Burnett) who was recommended by his mother the cheating judge Judge Cecilia Steele/Tropp (Lurene Tuttle) to work for her secretly married husband the thieving cotton ranch owner Russ Tropp (John Russell) who runs his ranch patrolling his farm with two vicious Doberman Pincher dogs to keep both his prisoners and the farmhands in line.

Mamie Van Doren sings and dances as the girls are eventually freed from their wrongful imprisonment, and her sister Jane falls in love with the gentleman foreman Bob Steele who came to the prisoners rescue. So sing and dance your way as these young women and men are freed from their wrongful imprisonment and accept their fate as law and order eventually prevail.

I give the film a decent 6 out of 10 IMDB rating.