Youth Runs Wild (1944)

During WWII, adults are either off fighting or busy in the factories, so juvenile delinquency becomes a major problem back home. Danny Hauser, a wounded soldier, finds this out as he returns and three young boys are promptly placed in the care of him and his wife by the court after some hooliganism. How to keep them straight?

Director: Mark Robson. Assistant Director: Harry D'Arcy. Script: John Fante. Story: John Fante, Herbert Kline. Inspired by a Look magazine picture story Are These Our Children? Additional Dialog: Ardel Wray. Photography: John J. Mescall. Editor: John Lockert. Art Directors: Albert S. D'Agostino, Carroll Clark. Set Decorators: Darrell Silvera, Ross Dowd. Special Effects: Vernon L. Walker. Music: Paul Sawtell. Musical Director: C. Bakaleinikoff. Costumes: Edward Stevenson. Sound Recordist: Frank McWhorter. Technical Adviser: Ruth Clifton. Topical Research: Madeleine Dmytryk.

Bonita Granville (Toddy), Kent Smith (Danny), Jean Brooks (Mary), Glenn Vernon (Frank), Tessa Brind (Sarah Taylor), Ben Bard (Mr. Taylor), Mary Servoss (Mrs. Hauser), Arthur Shields (Mr. Dunlop), Lawrence Tierney (Duncan), Dickie Moore (George Dunlop), Johnny Walsh (Herb Vigero), Rod Rodgers (Rocky), Elizabeth Russell (Mrs. Taylor), Juanita Alvarez (Lucy), Gloria Donovan (Nancy Taylor), Jack Carrington (Bart), Ida Shoemaker (Card Player), Claire Carleton (Taxi Driver), Art Smith (Mr. Hauser), Harold Barnitz (Stevie), Frank O'Connor (Cop), Rosemary La Planche and Joan Barclay (Women), Margaret Landry (Hysterical Girl), Harry Clay (Good Humour Man), George De Normand (Fireman), Danny Desmond (Eddie Wilson), Fritz Lieber (Judge), Robert Strong (Juvenile Officer), Tom Burton (Soldier with Sarah), Russell Hopton (Dickens), Chris Drake (Usher), Edmund Glover (Lineman), Lee Phelps (Fireman), Gordon Jones (Truck Driver), Harry Harvey (Watchman), Maxwell Hayes (Priest), Bud Wiser (Motor Cop).

Notes:

• Ruth Clifton (technical adviser) was a 16-year-old who had gained fame with a plan to deal with delinquency in her hometown of Moline, Illinois.
• The State Department was unhappy with the film, they feared that it played into Axis hands by showing America's inability to handle its youth.
• After the first preview screening, RKO deemed the film too controversial. They held it back to re-shoot some scenes and cut many others, thus removing one whole subplot (dealing with parenticide) and drastically changing the ending. Then they released it, while the Lewton unit filmed and released Mademoiselle Fifi in the meantime.
• Tessa Brind later changed her name to Vanessa Brown and with that name, had parts in several other movies including The Heiress and The Bad and the Beautiful.
• One of the first female cab drivers in Hollywood movies (to indicate one of the war's effects on the workforce back home).
• As a result of the changes forced by the studio on the film, Lewton asked to have his name removed from it, but was refused.

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