Delmar Daves is best known as one of the major director/producer/screenwriters of sprawling melodramas in the '50s and '60s, though his work in Hollywood began in the '30s. These films often featured young, up and coming stars, high production values, and ran over two hours. "Youngblood Hawke" was Daves' last foray into this kind of film. He only made one more movie, The Battle of Villa Florita, a year later.
Based on the novel by Herman Wouk, Youngblood Hawke concerns a young writer (James Franciscus) who drives a coal truck in his native Kentucky before being plucked from obscurity by a New York publisher who wants to publish his novel. Hawke is assigned an attractive editor (Suzanne Pleshette) and moves to New York City. He soon loses his way by taking up with a married woman (Genevieve Page) who has a powerful husband (Kent Smith), and he runs into a variety of difficulties while trying to do what he came to New York to do - write books.
Despite some great shots of '60s New York, Youngblood Hawke falls flat, mainly because of the lead performance. Franciscus, who died at the age of 57 from emphysema, was an extremely handsome actor who enjoyed a good career in television. As an actor, he was on the superficial side. Here, he plays a Kentuckian, a hick, who goes to the big city, cleans up well, and becomes overwhelmed by the good life. Occasionally Franciscus made an attempt at a down home accent but it was only an attempt and only occasional. As far as cleaning up well, he looked pretty darn good to me from the first reel and also came off as sophisticated from his first trip to NYC - way too sophisticated for a truck driver from Kentucky. We should see this naive, energetic, ambitious young man, rough around the edges, who evolves over time. In over two hours, there was no evolution.
The rest of the cast - Pleshette, Edward Andrews, Don Porter, Mary Astor, Lee Bowman et al. were all good. Though one of the posters here praised Genevieve Page, I had a great deal of trouble understanding her so I can't comment.
Youngblood Hawke is a fairly predictable story, entertaining in spots, but evocative of movies like "The Oscar" - big, overdone, without much substance. Daves in the past had better material.
Based on the novel by Herman Wouk, Youngblood Hawke concerns a young writer (James Franciscus) who drives a coal truck in his native Kentucky before being plucked from obscurity by a New York publisher who wants to publish his novel. Hawke is assigned an attractive editor (Suzanne Pleshette) and moves to New York City. He soon loses his way by taking up with a married woman (Genevieve Page) who has a powerful husband (Kent Smith), and he runs into a variety of difficulties while trying to do what he came to New York to do - write books.
Despite some great shots of '60s New York, Youngblood Hawke falls flat, mainly because of the lead performance. Franciscus, who died at the age of 57 from emphysema, was an extremely handsome actor who enjoyed a good career in television. As an actor, he was on the superficial side. Here, he plays a Kentuckian, a hick, who goes to the big city, cleans up well, and becomes overwhelmed by the good life. Occasionally Franciscus made an attempt at a down home accent but it was only an attempt and only occasional. As far as cleaning up well, he looked pretty darn good to me from the first reel and also came off as sophisticated from his first trip to NYC - way too sophisticated for a truck driver from Kentucky. We should see this naive, energetic, ambitious young man, rough around the edges, who evolves over time. In over two hours, there was no evolution.
The rest of the cast - Pleshette, Edward Andrews, Don Porter, Mary Astor, Lee Bowman et al. were all good. Though one of the posters here praised Genevieve Page, I had a great deal of trouble understanding her so I can't comment.
Youngblood Hawke is a fairly predictable story, entertaining in spots, but evocative of movies like "The Oscar" - big, overdone, without much substance. Daves in the past had better material.