Youth Aflame

Youth Aflame (1944)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Sister Katy (Joy Reese) and Laura (Kay Morley) are about to hit the dating scene, which isn't smiled upon by their widowed father (Ed Cassidy). Soon Laura starts going around with a bad guy while Katy and her friends start up a "Jive" club where they can listen to music and drink milk. However, the club gets into trouble when someone spikes the milk.

YOUTH AFLAME was, for some reason, re-released several times including under the title of HOODLUM GIRLS. No matter what you call it this is a rather weak melodrama that was later sold as some sort of exploitation film. If you're expecting something like REEFER MADNESS, SEX MADNESS or THE COCAINE FIENDS then you're going to be disappointed because the only "bad" thing going on here is someone slipping some alcohol into the good kids drinks.

I will say that for the most part the performances really weren't all that bad and I thought the film moved along well enough. At just 57 minutes there's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but if you enjoy these types of movies then there are certainly much worse out there. The biggest problem here is the lack of story and the bottom of the barrel attempt at a "naughty" subject. I'm sorry but a milk bar?

"Youth Aflame" is an exploitation film that was intended to both fill theater seats with all sorts of talk of debauchery as well as warn against the behaviors it glamorizes! I love these sorts of film...and recommend you try it if you can tolerate these sorts of things!

Katy is a lame girl for many reasons. First, although her sister Laura is wild and headed for a major fall, Katy repeatedly covers for her in some misguided attempt to help her. Second, well, she's just really lame....and loves to hang down at the 'milk bar' with the other teens...where they dance, socialize and drink milk! As for Laura, she's infatuated with a criminal who pretends to want to marry her. And, since Laura is apparently no smarter than a peanut, she helps the guy but stealing her father's gun and giving it to the boyfriend! You can clearly see it's all headed for disaster....and DEATH!!!!

This film is unintentionally funny....like most exploitation films. While it's not as over the top as the best (worst???) of them (such as "Sex Madness"), it is needless to say quite entertaining because it's so bad and the message delivered so poorly....with bad acting, dialog and a silly message about crime not paying. Worth seeing if you like this sort of thing..otherwise, it is clearly a very bad film.

"Maybe most parents these days don't understand their children but they try." "The problems of youth confront the world today." "What is this younger generation coming to?" "You young people sure make it hard on your parents these days." "One generation has always blamed the other."

The above quotes from the 1944 flick Youth Aflame remind me of the saying, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." People are always apt to to think "these days" are the most stressful and bizarre in history just as today's young people are always the most rebellious in history.

Of course, there are changes that are real and I was reminded of that as well when characters in the film spout lines like "Police work is a man's job" and "Guns aren't for girls."

Youth Aflame begins with teenager Katy White (Joy Reese) lying in a hospital bed, clearly distraught and perhaps at death's door. After making the observation that begins this review, she tells most of the film's story in flashback. She is the good girl of the family, concerned about her rebellious sister Laura (Kay Morley) who is hanging out with an adult man named Al Simpson (Michael Owen) who is more than a bit anti-social. Expecting to marry Al, Laura steals a gun from her widowed Dad (Ed Cassidy) to give to Al. The no-good Al and crime partner Harry Ketchall (Edwin Brian) want the firearm for their nefarious doings but I'm getting a bit ahead of the story.

Katy hangs around with the more acceptable fellow teenager Frank Monahan (Warren Bur). The two plan to marry when they graduate high school.

Police officer Amy Clark (Mary Arden) shows up at the White home because she is concerned about Laura, Katy, and their fellow schoolmates. Together with the teens, a plan is made to keep them off the mean streets and out of trouble by forming a "Jive Club" at which the kids can socialize in a wholesome manner, imbibing milk and punch as well as dancing.

Some of the best parts of this black and white film are those of music and dancing. Performers Sheila Roberts and Johnny Duncan enthusiastically jitterbug at the Jive Club. Lindsay Bourquin, Laverne Thompson, and Betty Phares perform a wonderfully acrobatic dance at an adult nightclub. Karl Kiffe shows his masterful skill at the drums in a truly exciting Jive Club performance. Kiffe is worth mentioning because he was a teenager – 19 – when playing a teenager! By contrast, Rod Rogers was no less than 32 when playing the teen-aged Lester. Burr was a young adult – 21 – when playing high school student Frank. Although dates of birth were not given for the other major stars in this show in the Internet Movie Database, I believe it is safe to guess those playing the high school kids were in their twenties.

The Jive Club is a rousing success. But Al Simpson sees it as a threat so he and Laura spike the punch with booze. Then Al makes an anonymous call to the cops to tell of the under-aged drinking at the supposedly wholesome Jive Club. This leads at least one teen girl, Peggy Baker (Julie Duncan) to get punished in a nasty way by her mother which leads the youngster close to suicide.

Katy and Laura end up in a bedroom cat-fight, both in their pajamas, when each defends her respective boyfriend. While the cat-fight was probably meant to sexually appeal to the male audience members, a far more devastating event takes place when Laura realizes that Al is not the marrying sort.

Since I enjoyed the film, I looked up info on its major stars and found there was not much. They seemed to drop out from view after making this film or a few others.

Youth Aflame is not a masterpiece. However, the cheaply made film is well worth its rather brief viewing time of only one minute over the hour. The events move at a quick clip and the acting is more than acceptable. Like other juvenile delinquent films from past eras, it can function as a reminder of certain basic truths: yesterday's rebellious teen is today's old codger. After all, the people who played the teen characters in this film, young adults at the time, are likely to be dead of old-age related illnesses today.

Although if Warren Burr, Kay Morley, Joy Reese, Sheila Roberts, and/or Julie Duncan happen to be alive, I'd like to thank them for playing their roles well in this film.

No 70s rock concert of teensploitation movie is complete without a drum solo.

If teenage sisters--a good sister and a bad sister--a teenage gangster's moll, lingerie, stilted, preachy dialogue, outdated sexism, plenty of "swell" and girls with guns isn't enough to grab your attention, how about a drum solo?

A girl wakes up in the hospital and launches us into flashbacks explaining how she got there. Bad sister is dating an adult man who just happens to be a gangster. His hoodlum buddy wants to have a foursome with the younger, good sister involved, but that may have had a different meaning in the 40s. What is clear he has the hots for the younger girl. Bad sister seems to think corrupting her innocent sis is A-okay. Her virginity is saved in the nick of time, but the two girls end up in a pajama catfight.

All in all, this is a lame teensploitation film, but if you like cheesy camp, it is slightly fun.

Ed Cassidy has been raising his two girls since their mother died. Joy Reese is turning out well: good grades in school, and a boyfriend who's serious-minded. But Kay Morley thinks that old people don't know anything, despite her sister talking about what they owe their father. Social worker Mary Arden is trying to set up a club where the kids can jitterbug and drink milk, but Miss Morley prefers the nightclub with her older boyfriend. They have acts out of a late-1930s Educational Pictures variety short!

It's pretty tame for a roadshow exploitation movie; Miss Morley thinks the boy is going to marry her. Go over to Youtube and check out "Sprinkle Sprinkle" and you'll find modern gold diggers that would make a pre-code flapper blush. Was this intended as a switch-and-bait, in which people would pay, thinking they're going to see something shocking? Directors Elmer Clifton and Lewis Collins either can't or don't bother to get decent line readings from half their cast.