User Reviews

The Production Code was still in firm control of movie-making in 1959, but "Blue Denim" really stretched the limits in its story of teenage pregnancy. Janet (Carol Lynley) and Arthur (Brandon de Wilde) are superb as high school lovers who must deal with Janet's unplanned pregnancy. There's a frank subplot about abortion and good glimpses of teenage life in the late 50s. The final reunion scene in a train's passenger car is very touching, as the young couple decide to marry and build a life together.

Even better than Lynley and de Wilde is Warren Berlinger, who plays Arthur's wise guy but good-hearted best friend Ernie. Berlinger brings great credibility to his role, which is essential to the movie's message. Macdonald Carey and Marsha Hunt are also very good as Arthur's parents. The funniest scene has Ernie with classmate Cherie (Roberta Shore), singing onstage at an afterschool party—no one can sing "Who, Baby?" quite like Berlinger (after which he says, "What do you expect for a buck? Pat Boone?"). The song is followed by Arthur catching Janet reading a chapter called "The First Stages of Pregnancy" in the school library.

To me, the most astonishing thing about "Blue Denim" is the youth of the main cast. De Wilde and Lynley were about 17 when this movie was made, Berlinger was 22, and Roberta Shore was 16. They all conduct themselves like old pros. This is no shallow youth soap opera, but instead is an excellent, frank, and under-appreciated little late 1950s gem. This movie's a real winner with a great cast; it's worth looking for.

***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!

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.

Changing the ending really changed the impact of this story. Hollywood could not handle a character actually having an abortion in the 50's. Of course, getting an abortion back then was a pretty horrendous undertaking but perhaps actually allowing Lynley's character to go through with it would have been the better choice dramatically. The Broadway play was quite powerful. This watered down version was probably the best they could do back then. The Bernard Herrmann score eerily foreshadows his classic Vertigo score especially over the opening credits.

I saw this movie when it was first released. I was 12 and never, ever forgot its message. This movie, more so than any parental warnings, directed my teen dating years so that I would never be in the same position. I know many in today's tarnished world will not see the beauty in this film but it was truly daring for its time (and for a 12-year-old to see). I also have never forgotten the bit of normalcy in the humor when Art and his friend are playing cards, interspersed with a liberal use of the word "damn". I am very grateful I saw this before films became more unnecessarily explicit. The entire message was realized without one moment of nudity. Brilliant film with its atmosphere and poignancy aided by its being in black and white. I bought the DVD as soon as it became available.

It broke my heart to see this movie tonite during the week miss carol lynley passed away. what a good little actress she was.would have loved to see her in more films. blue denim is a great little movie with no long moments. i know its the role she was playing but dam marsha hunt got on my nerves. not crazy over macdoald crey either.....but the rest of the cast did well. being pregnant in the fifties must have been hell...cause everything had to be hidden. just look at the film...no mention of rotection...abortion ect. so i recommend you to watch it only to witness carol lynleys fine work

Coming out the same year as the much more scandalous (and colorful) "A Summer Place", this adoption of a successful Broadway play takes a while to build up. It features sincere performances by Brandon DeWilde and Carol Lynley as basically nice teenagers who sleep together and decide to have the big "A". That word isn't even uttered in the 90 minutes running time, only insinuated when DeWilde asks friend Warren Berlinger the name of a doctor who perform such procedures. There's a lot of discussion over the moral responsibility and the fact that they are too young, and when they do try to get a marriage license, they are treated with disrespect not only by the license bureau employees but adults waiting to get licenses as well.

Veteran actors MacDonald Carey and Marsha Hunt play DeWilde's parents, struggling with their own days of their lives and an engaged daughter who fortunately doesn't go through the same ordeal. It's like "Father of the Bride" finds out that he's going to be a grandfather from one of the two sons, but here, when he tries to get help from his parents, he's treated like a child and not taken seriously.

It's obvious in the late 1950's that even with the code still in effect, Hollywood was trying to get past it in dealing with certain themes that society was dealing with and couldn't properly discuss without facing the wrath by the Catholic legion of decency. This film is obviously well-intentioned, but shows that the generation gap was really responsible for creating more problems than teams were finding as they grew up both physically and emotionally. This is not exploitive like other teen dramas, but doesn't have the lushness of the more popular and well remembered Sandra Dee / Troy Donahue film.

I only had vague recollections of "Blue Denim" from my seeing it as a teenager over 40 years ago, but I did recall that it stuck with me all these years as an important memory of my eventually "reaching 18 and knowing everything." (Carol Lynley line) I watched it again today, and it brought back pleasant memories.

Sound and photography were not what they are now. Microphones were relatively insensitive, so all the characters sound like they are on stage, talking to the back of the auditorium. Camera angles were stock, and camera panning or changing elevation during a scene was unknown. By today's standards the script is dated and simplistic. It was much easier back then for a teenager to "act rude" to parents.

SPOILERS - This 90-minute film plays out much like an "Ozzie and Harriet" episode, but one they never would have shown. Art (Brandon DeWilde) and Ernie (Warren Berlinger, the best actor here) are high school buddies who act big by playing poker, smoking cigarettes, drinking beer, and "cussing" (used 'damn' a lot) in Art's basement that has a door directly to the outside. Janet (Carol Lynley) and Art like each other, find themselves alone in a corner of the basement, and the next thing we know she is in the library reading a chapter titled "Pregnancy." "But they don't tell you how to make it go away", she pines.

Ernie is the mature one through all this. He tells Art "You gotta talk to your parents, don't be afraid. You can't help her have an abortion, that's murder." Art doesn't want the burden of thinking about that, but finally tries to talk to mom, then dad, but they are so wrapped up in older daughter's wedding plans that they never let him have his say.

Art and Ernie find a man in a bar who can arrange a back-room abortion at a secluded house in the woods, but they need to raise $150, a lot more difficult in the 50s. The last $92 they get by forging Art's dad's signature to a blank check. Janet is taken away in the night, blindfolded, accompanied by a woman who looks a bit like the wicked witch of the west.

The wedding happens, dad becomes aware of the $92 check, confronts Art, gets the whole story, in the best quick scene dad literally grabs and pulls the bartender half-way over the bar to get him to reveal the location of the girl, they arrive in time, she is sedated but fine, they take her home, her dad is angry, his dad is angry, his mom concludes "we never gave him a chance to talk to us."

Finding out that Janet was put on a train to go away and have her baby, which was the norm back then, Art finds out, dad says "here,you'll need this money, and permission to get married." The film ends as Art finds Janet at the first train stop, he sits, they hug, and we know they will live happily ever after as gas station attendants instead of the doctors, lawyers, or engineers they could have become if they had not foolishly done the "sex" thing.

The whole story is a morality play for teenagers. Sex is tempting, you don't know everything at 17, backroom abortions are dangerous, abortions are murder, you put your lives in a straightjacket and virtually give up your dreams of college and a better life. By today's standards this would be a very poor film, but for its time was very risque' I recall, and a fairly popular movie. Inconsistent, for me, was how quickly the parents went from an angry mode to "you need permission to marry her", as if they were saying marriage solves everything, even though you're not even 18 yet and there is a shotgun involved.

Carol Lynley has first billing and she sure was a cute, sexy starlet when this film was made. She had the looks, and acted well enough, I still wonder why she wasn't a bigger star. This will always remain the film that influenced my formation as a teenager, I'm glad I now have my own copy on VHS.

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.