Blue Denim
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Blue Denim is a 1958 Broadway play by writer James Leo Herlihy. It starred Carol Lynley, Warren Berlinger and newcomer Burt Brinckerhoff in the lead male role. Opening on February 27, 1958, the play ran for 166 performances at the Playhouse Theatre.
The following year, on July 30, 1959, the film version was released by 20th Century Fox with Lynley and Berlinger reprising their stage roles, but with a 17-year-old Brandon deWilde in his first "adult" role as the male lead Arthur Bartley. Macdonald Carey, Marsha Hunt and Roberta Shore appear as supporting characters.
Dealing with the issues of teenage pregnancy and (then-illegal) abortion, both versions were not without controversy. The play and the film had different endings, and the word abortion in the play was not used in the screenplay.
Blue Denim was released on home media video for the first time in 2016.
Contents |
Plot
The story is set in Dearborn, Michigan during the 1950s, and revolves around 14-year-old Arthur Bartley (Brandon deWilde) and his schoolmates, 15-year-old Janet Willard (Carol Lynley) and Ernie (Warren Berlinger). While widower's-daughter Janet laughs at Arthur and Ernie's forays into smoking, drinking, and playing cards, she's always been interested in Arthur, and as Arthur's parents try to shelter him from negative things in life (like the euthanasia of the family dog, done while he's at school), he turns to Janet for comfort.
The relationship between Janet and Arthur results in her becoming pregnant. Unable to ask their parents (who misinterpret their pleas as "ordinary" teenage curiosity about sex and adulthood) for help, they turn to Ernie, who'd boasted earlier about "helping a sailor who got his girl in trouble" by directing him to an abortionist – only to discover Ernie made it all up, based on secondhand stories. The three seek together to arrange an abortion and raise the funds, only to be discovered by their parents at the last moment. In the meantime, Arthur and Janet find out how much they do not yet know about life – and how much they truly care about each other.
Cast
- Carol Lynley as Janet Willard
- Brandon deWilde as Arthur Bartley
- Macdonald Carey as Maj. Malcolm Bartley, Ret.
- Marsha Hunt as Jessie Bartley
- Warren Berlinger as Ernie
- Buck Class as Axel Sorenson
- Nina Shipman as Lillian Bartley
- Vaughn Taylor as Professor Willard
- Roberta Shore as Cherie
- Mary Young as Aunt Bidda
- Malcolm Atterbury as Marriage License Clerk (uncredited)
- William Schallert as George - Bank Vice President (uncredited)
In other media
- In Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood (1966), Bobby Rupp, Nancy Clutter's beau, says "We talked for a while, and made a date to go to the movies Sunday night - a picture all the girls were looking forward to, Blue Denim."
- It is seen briefly in Less Than Zero (when Clay and Blair are in bed in the loft).
See also
