Too Young to Love (film)

Last updated

Too Young to Love
"Too Young to Love" (1959).jpg
Original British quad poster
Directed by Muriel Box
Written byMuriel Box
Sydney Box
Based onPickup Girl (play)
by Elsa Shelley
Produced by Herbert Smith
Sydney Box
Starring Thomas Mitchell
Pauline Hahn
Joan Miller
Cinematography Gerald Gibbs
Edited by Jean Barker
Music by Bruce Montgomery
Production
company
Distributed by J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors (UK)
Release date
  • 1959 (1959) [1]
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Too Young to Love is a 1959 British drama film set in New York. It was directed by Muriel Box and starring Pauline Hahn, Joan Miller, and Austin Willis. [1] [2] It was based on the play Pickup Girl by Elsa Shelley. [3] An adaptation of the story was broadcast on British TV on 6 December 1957 in the ITV Television Playhouse series.

Contents

Plot

In New York, a policeman and a neighbour watch as a middle-aged man and a young man enter a house where a young girl can be seen getting ready for bed. After the young man leaves, the policeman enters the house to make an arrest. In a juvenile court hearing, it emerges that the 15-year-old Elizabeth has been found in a compromising position in her bedroom with a 47-year-old man, Mr Elliot. Elizabeth is one of four children in a struggling working-class family, her mother a hard-working cook, her father ran into debt while he was unemployed and found a job working in California. In the evenings, at the home of an older girl Ruby Lockwood, teenagers have frequent dance and necking parties, sometimes attended by older men. Eventually, Elizabeth recounts her story (in flashback) before the judge. Elizabeth's life is grim and joyless, and she has been neglected after the constant absence and lack of guidance from her parents. Led astray by Ruby, she has sex with a sailor and has an abortion. The judge is sympathetic, but a report sent to the judge puts Elizabeth's fate in the balance.

Cast

Reception

TV Guide wrote, "Mitchell does all he can to keep this picture from failing, but it's not enough ... this is hurt mainly by its excess of courtroom scenes." [4]

Monthly Film Bulletin said "Apart from being pointlessly toned down, Elsa Shelley's old club theatre success has been adapted to the screen with depressingly unimaginative fidelity and an almost total lack of cinema sense. The result is another teenage problem picture in the manner of The Young and the Guilty , at its worst distinguished by Vivian Matalon's tiresome Method parody as the young pimp, and at its best by the reassuring sympathy and strength of Thomas Mitchell's judge." [5]

In British Sound Films David Quinlan writes: "Modern-day morality play, heavy going." [6]

Leslie Halliwell said: "Tepid filming of a popular exploitation play of the fifties, mysteriously made in England." [7]

Related Research Articles

Cast a Dark Shadow is a 1955 British suspense film noir directed by Lewis Gilbert and written by John Cresswell, based on the 1952 play Murder Mistaken by Janet Green. It stars Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Lockwood, Kay Walsh, Kathleen Harrison and Robert Flemyng. The film was released on 20 September 1955, distributed by Eros Films Ltd. in the United Kingdom and Distributors Corporation of America in the United States. The story concerns a husband who murders his wife.

<i>Its Great to Be Young</i> (1956 film) 1956 British film by Cyril Frankel

It's Great to Be Young is a 1956 British Technicolor musical comedy film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Cecil Parker and John Mills. It was written by Ted Willis. The story concerns an inspirational school music teacher.

<i>A Place of Ones Own</i> 1945 film

A Place of One's Own is a 1945 British film directed by Bernard Knowles. An atmospheric ghost story based on the 1940 novel of the same title by Osbert Sitwell, it stars James Mason, Barbara Mullen, Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price and Dulcie Gray. Mason and Mullen are artificially aged to play the old couple. It was one of the cycle of Gainsborough melodramas.

<i>The Last Page</i> 1952 British film by Terence Fisher

The Last Page, released in the United States as Man Bait, is a 1952 British film noir directed by Terence Fisher, starring George Brent, Marguerite Chapman and Diana Dors. The film was also known as Murder in Safety and Blonde Blackmail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pauline Moore</span> American actress (1914–2001)

Pauline Moore was an American actress known for her roles in Western and B movies during the 1930s and 1940s.

<i>Meet Mr. Lucifer</i> 1953 British film by Anthony Pelissier

Meet Mr. Lucifer is a 1953 black-and-white British comedy satire film directed by Anthony Pelisser starring Stanley Holloway, Peggy Cummins and Jack Watling. It is based on the 1951 play Beggar My Neighbour by Arnold Ridley. It opened on 26 November 1953 at the Haymarket Gaumont cinema in London. It was filmed at Ealing Studios, London, and is one of the Ealing comedies.

<i>The Magnet</i> (film) 1950 British film by Charles Frend

The Magnet is a 1950 British comedy film directed by Charles Frend and starring Stephen Murray, Kay Walsh, and in his first starring role James Fox. It was written by T. E. B. Clarke. A young Wallasey boy obtains a magnet by deception, leading to much confusion. When he is acclaimed as a hero, he is shamed by his own sense of guilt.

<i>Vote for Huggett</i> 1949 British film

Vote for Huggett is a 1949 British comedy film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison, Susan Shaw and Petula Clark. It was written by Mabel Constanduros, Denis Constanduros and Allan MacKinnon. In this, the third in the series of films about the Huggetts after Holiday Camp (1947) and Here Come the Huggetts (1948), Warner reprises his role as Joe Huggett, the head of a London family in the post-war years who decides to run as a candidate in the municipal election. It was followed by The Huggetts Abroad (1949).

<i>The Weapon</i> (1956 film) 1956 British film by Val Guest

The Weapon is a 1956 black and white British thriller film directed by Val Guest and starring Steve Cochran, Lizabeth Scott, Herbert Marshall, and Nicole Maurey. It was made by Republic Pictures.

<i>Street Corner</i> (1953 film) 1953 film by Muriel Box

Street Corner is a 1953 British drama film directed by Muriel Box and starring Peggy Cummins, Terence Morgan, Anne Crawford, Rosamund John and Barbara Murray. It was written by Muriel Box and Sydney Box. While it is not quite a documentary, the film depicts the daily routine of women in the police force from three different angles. It was conceived as a female version of the 1950 film The Blue Lamp.

<i>The Man in the Sky</i> 1957 British film by Charles Crichton

The Man in the Sky is a 1957 British thriller drama film directed by Charles Chrichton and starring Jack Hawkins and Elizabeth Sellars. The screenplay was by John Eldridge and William Rose. A test pilot strives to land a stricken prototype plane.

<i>Doctor at Large</i> (film) 1957 British film by Ralph Thomas

Doctor at Large is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas starring Dirk Bogarde, Muriel Pavlow, Donald Sinden, James Robertson Justice and Shirley Eaton. It is the third of the seven films in the Doctor series, and is based on the 1955 novel of the same title by Richard Gordon.

<i>Saloon Bar</i> 1940 British film by Walter Forde

Saloon Bar is a 1940 British comedy thriller film directed by Walter Forde and starring Gordon Harker, Elizabeth Allan and Mervyn Johns. It was made by Ealing Studios and its style has led to comparisons with the later Ealing Comedies, unlike other wartime Ealing films which are different in tone. It is based on the 1939 play of the same name by Frank Harvey in which Harker had also starred. An amateur detective tries to clear an innocent man of a crime before the date of his execution.

<i>The Last Man to Hang</i> 1956 British film by Terence Fisher

The Last Man to Hang? is a 1956 crime film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Tom Conway and Elizabeth Sellars. It was produced by John Gossage for Act Films Ltd.

<i>The Man Upstairs</i> (1958 film) 1958 British film by Don Chaffey

The Man Upstairs is a 1958 British psychological drama film directed by Don Chaffey and starring Richard Attenborough and Bernard Lee. The film was produced by Robert Dunbar for Act Films Ltd.

<i>I Believe in You</i> (film) 1952 British film by Michael Relph and Basil Dearden

I Believe in You is a 1952 British drama film directed by Michael Relph and Basil Dearden, starring Celia Johnson and Cecil Parker and is based on the book Court Circular by Sewell Stokes. Inspired by the recently successful The Blue Lamp (1950), Relph and Dearden used a semi-documentary approach in telling the story of the lives of probation officers and their charges.

<i>The Case of Charles Peace</i> 1949 British film by Norman Lee

The Case of Charles Peace is a 1949 British crime film directed by Norman Lee and starring Michael Martin Harvey, Chili Bouchier and Valentine Dyall. The screenplay was by Lee and Doris Davison, based on the real-life Victorian murderer Charles Peace.

<i>Her Favourite Husband</i> 1950 film by Mario Soldati

Her Favourite Husband is a 1950 British-Italian comedy film directed by Mario Soldati and starring Jean Kent, Robert Beatty and Margaret Rutherford. The screenplay was by Noel Langley, based on an adaptation by Stefano Vanzina, Mario Monicelli and Soldati of the 1947 play Quel bandito sono io! by Peppino De Filippo. The film's art direction was by Piero Gherardi.

<i>Ill Be Your Sweetheart</i> 1945 British film

I'll Be Your Sweetheart is a 1945 British historical musical film directed by Val Guest and starring Margaret Lockwood, Vic Oliver and Michael Rennie. It was the first and only musical film produced by Gainsborough Studios. Commissioned by the British Ministry of Information, it was set at the beginning of the 20th century, and was about the composers of popular music hall songs fighting for a new copyright law that will protect them from having their songs stolen. Copyright scholar Adrian Johns has called the film "propaganda" and "a one-dimensional account of the piracy crisis [about sheet music in the early 20th century] from the publishers' perspective", but also highlighted its value as historical document, with large parts of the dialogue "closely culled from the actual raids, court cases, and arguments of 1900-1905."

<i>A Boy, a Girl and a Bike</i> 1949 British film by Ralph Smart

A Boy, a Girl and a Bike is a 1949 British romantic comedy film directed by Ralph Smart and starring John McCallum, Honor Blackman and Patrick Holt, with art direction by George Provis. The screenplay was by Ted Willis. The film is set in Wakeford and in the Yorkshire Dales and features cycle sabotage and cycling tactics.

References

  1. 1 2 "Too Young to Love (1959)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012.
  2. ↑ Harper, Sue; Porter, Vincent (2003). British cinema of the 1950s : the decline of deference. Oxford University Press. p. 161.
  3. ↑ Eleanor Mannikka. "Too Young to Love (1960) – Muriel Box – Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related – AllMovie". AllMovie.
  4. ↑ "Too Young To Love". TVGuide.com.
  5. ↑ "Too Young to Love". Monthly Film Bulletin . 27 (312): 26. 1 January 1960.
  6. ↑ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 390. ISBN   0-7134-1874-5.
  7. ↑ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 10410. ISBN   0-586-08894-6.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.