The Young Savages (1961)

☆ ☆ ½

The Young Savages (1961) – J. Frankenheimer

Sober social problem drama that tackles juvenile delinquency by pointing the finger directly at broken homes and the slum environment.  Burt Lancaster is the District Attorney, formerly from the slums himself, who wants to put three young hoods who killed a blind Puerto Rican boy into the electric chair.  His boss, aiming for the governor’s office, approves; his wife, a rich white liberal, disapproves.  Lancaster takes his time investigating both viewpoints, including the families of the victim and the accused murderers (with Shelley Winters as his former girlfriend, the mother of one of the accused) as well as other members of both the Italian and Puerto Rican gangs involved in the incident.  And then he basically throws the case in a quest for the truth, demonstrating to the jury how the killers came to be killers and why they should be treated with mercy – of course, the victim’s family is stunned and disappointed (especially because the truth involves a dose of victim-blaming).  If the film didn’t discuss the institutional racism present in America, one might worry that its conclusion itself smacks of bias.  But no one would disagree that Lancaster has done the right thing by showing mercy – it’s just that it’s all a bit preachy as directed by earnest young John Frankenheimer fresh from live TV and not yet up to the standards of his classic films (The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May).  Rather dated too.