Die jungen Wilden (1961)

Die jungen Wilden: Directed by John Frankenheimer. With Burt Lancaster, Dina Merrill, Edward Andrews, Vivian Nathan. A D.A. investigates 3 white teenagers accused of murdering a blind Puerto Rican kid.

“For The Young Savages Burt Lancaster went back to his roots. The actor was born and raised in the East Harlem section of Manhattan. At that time it had not become a Latino neighborhood, it was predominantly Italian where he grew up. To this day there are still a few Italian families in the area in and around Pleasant Avenue and neighboring streets. His had to be the only WASP family in the area at the time.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn 1961 just as you see in West Side Story the neighborhood was divided with racial and ethnic tensions. But these kids donu0026#39;t sing and dance between rumbles. They are a hard bitten bunch of punks on both sides.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn fact thatu0026#39;s where our story begins as three Italian kids leave their turf and go and stab a blind Hispanic youth. Itu0026#39;s a crime that shocks the city. Ambitious District Attorney Edward Andrews sees this as a case when successfully prosecuted could make him governor. He relies on one of his best men, ADA Burt Lancaster to bring home a victory and a trip to old Sparky as they called the electric chair in Sing Sing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOf course thereu0026#39;s a lot more to the case than meets the eye both in the crime and in Lancasteru0026#39;s conflicted loyalties. Heu0026#39;s happily married to pretty Dina Merrill from the suburbs. Sheu0026#39;s what you call a limousine liberal, one whou0026#39;s ideas are shaped by books instead of living the poverty sheu0026#39;s studied in school about. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIu0026#39;ve met many like that and it really is true many conservatives are liberals whou0026#39;ve been mugged. When one of the gangs gives her a bad experience, she sings a different tune.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut where The Young Savages falls apart for me is the fact that Lancaster was once involved with Shelley Winters, the mother of one of the three defendants. Iu0026#39;m sorry, but right then and there Lancaster in real life would have recused himself from this case. Of course Winters appeals to him for old timeu0026#39;s sake and Lancaster starts doing his own investigation and prods the police to do more on their end. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn the film also Lancaster is from that neighborhood. His characteru0026#39;s family name of Bell was once Bellini. Many families with ethnic names of all types anglicized them or had them anglicized by immigration officials. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film which according to a recent biography of Burt Lancaster was shot in 35 days on location in New York City. It was a project Lancaster did while waiting to do Birdman of Alcatraz. The Young Savages is notable for being Telly Savalasu0026#39;s big screen debut and for Lancaster using TV director John Frankenheimer on his first big assignment. Purportedly Lancaster was pretty rough on Frankenheimer, but in the end he impressed the star so that he did four more films with him including Birdman of Alcatraz. And Telly Savalas was in that one too.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThough the film is based on one horribly bad premise, the acting and directing are not bad. I had the same criticism of 12 Angry Men in which another young talented director, Sidney Lumet got his first break. The Young Savages remains a graphic look at a seamier side of New York City during the Kennedy years.”