Blast from the Past: Altman’s Directing Debut
Robert Altman produced, wrote and directed The Delinquents, his debut, which he shot in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri during the summer of 1956 on a minuscule budget $63,000 budget.
It is also the first film to star Tom Laughlin, who would become a big star in the 1970s.
In suburban Kansas City, a group of hot-rod greasers and carousing delinquents stir trouble in a bar when they are denied drinks. Cholly and Eddy, the leaders of the gang, respond by breaking a window.
Scotty White, 18, and Janice Wilson, 16 are in love, but her parents stand between them because Janice is “too young to go steady” and Scotty “hangs out with the wrong crowd”; her dad orders him to stay away.
Scotty, going to college in the fall, is told he could see her during Christmas vacation.
At the drive-in alone that night, Scotty gets wrongly targeted by a gang looking for the person who slashed one of their tires. Cholly comes to Scotty’s rescue. Cholly cooks up the idea of posing as Janice’s new boyfriend and bringing her to meet Scotty the next night.
The plan works well, and they meet at an abandoned mansion. However, the party gets out of hand with wild drinking and dancing, and Scotty and Janice leave after Cholly and Eddy dance suggestively with Janice.
The police appear and break up the drunken free-for-all. Cholly and his right-hand-delinquent Eddy suspect Scotty of tipping off the police, and the gang kidnaps Scotty and force him to gulp down an entire bottle of Scotch when he won’t admit to being the informant.
The gang begins to drive him out to the country with the intention of abandoning him on the side of the road but on the way they pull into a service station to get some gas. Eddy decides to hold up the station, but Scotty unknowingly bungles it when he wakes up. Cholly hits the station attendant on the head with a gas pump, and the gang speeds off, leaving Scotty behind with the cash and the attendant.
Scotty staggers home, finds the gang has kidnapped Janice, has several fights, and then has a switchblade fight with Cholly (told by a psychotic Eddy to kill Scotty to kill the only witness) in a home kitchen.
Wounded, Scotty then goes to the police as the Whites and Wilsons reclaim their kids.
Symmetry: Voiceover Begins and Ends the Film
The film begins with voiceover describing it as a tale of violence and immorality.
It also ends with voiceover: “This is one story. Who’s to blame? The answers are not easy, nor are they pleasant. We are all responsible, and it’s our responsibility not to look the other way. Violence and immorality like this must be controlled, channeled. Citizens everywhere must work against delinquency, just as they work against cancer, cerebral palsy, or any other crippling disease.
For delinquency is a disease. But the remedies are available: patience, compassion, understanding, and respect for parental and civil authority. By working with your church group, with a youth organization in your town, by paying closer attention to the needs of your children, you can help prevent the recurrence of regrettable events like the ones you have just witnessed. You can help halt the disease before it cripples our children, before it cripples society.”
Inspired by Blackboard Jungle, The Wild One, and Rebel Without a Cause for influence, Altman wrote the screenplay for The Delinquents in five to seven days.
Altman employed friends and Calvin co-workers on the crew, including Reza Badiyi as assistant director-associate producer and his sister Joan as production manager.
Altman shot The Delinquents in three weeks during the summer of 1956.
Altman’s film crew was made up mostly of his Calvin co-workers. Calvin photographer Charles Paddock was director of photography, and Badiyi was assistant director.
The Delinquents has been noted for its technical excellence, particularly the quality of the black-and-white photography.
The finished film was picked up for distribution by UA for $150,000, who wanted a teenage exploitation film to compete with the other studios.
United Artists altered the ending and added a moralistic narration by a stock actor at the beginning and end.
Altman did not know about the change until he saw a preview of the film.
The Delinquents received its “gala world premiere” in Kansas City in February 1957. The showing was preceded by live music, a dance contest, and a parade of Corvettes carrying residents who had worked on the film. It was all covered by a live radio broadcast and the theater’s house lights were brought out.
The film was rejected by the British Board of Film Classification in 1957.
United Artists released the film worldwide the next month. It played mostly in drive-ins, and managed to gross $1,000,000.
When Hitchcock saw the film, he was impressed and offered Altman to direct episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” which led to more TV work for the next decade.
Cast
Tom Laughlin as Scotty White
Peter Miller as Bill Cholly
Richard Bakalyan as Eddy
Rosemary Howard as Janice Wilson
Leonard Belove and Helen Hawley as Mr. and Mrs. White
James Lantz and Lotus Corelli as Mr. and Mrs. Wilson
Christine Altman as Sissy Wilson
