Platinum tressed sexpot Mamie Van Doren, poured into a pair of blue jeans and a too-tight sweater, shimmies and shakes her way through several godawful "rock 'n roll" song and dance numbers in the notorious '50s exploitation film UNTAMED YOUTH (1957). The "musical" numbers serve to pad out the 80 minutes running time which would otherwise clock in at less than hour without Van Doren repeatedly strutting her stuff.
UNTAMED YOUTH is the tale of a group of wayward teens and young adults (all of the actors are clearly way too old for the parts and totally unconvincing as "youth"), who are arrested and forced to serve their terms doing hard labor on a cotton farm. These kids can work in the cotton fields all day (often wearing improper clothing, no sign of protective hats and occasionally bursting into songs) and then dance and sing the night away back in the mess hall. Boy, do those kids have a lot of energy! Anyone else would be totally exhausted after a day of back breaking labor but not these untamed youth.
The cotton farm is owned by the sinister Russ Tropp (John Russell), a crook who is out to exploit not only the youth at his command but also a number of illegal alien workers about to cross over from Mexico. It's all part of a plot cooked up by Tropp and corrupt Judge Steele (Lurene Tuttle), who conveniently sentences young offenders that come before her to work on the farm. Turns out Tropp and Steele are secretly married (it's definitely a May-December romance), with Tropp using the Judge for his own ends.
Steele's son, Bob (Don Burnett), takes a job on the farm only to discover the misdeeds taking place there including the working to death of a young woman, Baby (Yvonne Fedderson), who is five months pregnant at the time of her death. Bob, along with the plucky Lowe sisters, Penny (Van Doren) and Jane (Lori Nelson), uncover Tropp's scheme and shut down the entire operation.
Cinematographer Carl E. Guthrie shoots most of Tropp's scenes from an extreme low angle making the already tall man seem even more visually imposing. Tall, dark and handsome, John Russell had a long career in both television and feature films. He starred on two television series in the 1950s, SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE (1955-1957) and LAWMAN (1958-1962) and appeared in three Clint Eastwood films: THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976), HONKYTONK MAN (1982) and PALE RIDER (1985).
Real life rock star Eddie Cochran is featured as "Bong", one of the "kids" and he's featured in a couple of musical numbers.
Lori Nelson is known to genre fans for her appearances in REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (1955) and Roger Corman's THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1955) while Van Doren's genre work includes THE NAVY VS. THE NIGHT MONSTERS (1966) and VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN (1965).
UNTAMED YOUTH is nowhere as taboo shattering as it's reputation would lead one to believe. It's a fairly routine story with a serviceable supporting cast. But make no mistake about it, UNTAMED YOUTH is Mamie Van Doren's film from beginning to end. She's there to sell tickets, raise eyebrows and quicken male pulses, both young and old.
She succeeds at doing these in a most magnificent way.
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