Movie Review: Runaway Daughters (1956)
Synopsis: Three high school girls with troubled homes decide to runaway together and go to Los Angeles. Pursued by police and going further into delinquency by stealing a car and getting jobs at a seedy dance club, they soon find their lives getting worse until a tragedy strikes.
Who's in it? The movie stars Marla English, Anna Sten, Mary Ellen Kay, Gloria Castillo and John Litel.
Review: When I decided to watch Runaway Daughters this morning, I figured it would end up being yet another 1950s movie that focused on the corruption of youth and teenage delinquency. However, it instead turned out to be a pleasantly decent surprise.
For the most part, the movie is what I had expected, Audrey (English), Mary (Kay) and Angie (Castillo) are rebellious and as the film progresses, grow increasingly delinquent to the point their reputations and lives are ruined. From that point forward, it was easy to predict what would happen to them, though there were also some admittedly decent surprises too.
At the same time, however, it was also easy to see where each of those young women were coming from. Audrey's parents were drunks and her mom (Sten) seemed much more concerned about having fun and seeing her daughter get married than anything else. Angie's mother pretty much abandoned her for another husband and while Mary's dad (Jay Adler) seemed to be the one parent who truly cared for his daughter, it was to the point she felt like a prisoner. In other words, the movie's message seemed to be more about being a good parent than a good child, or at least a combination of those two messages.
I did think the movie took a little too long to get to the main plot about the girls running away together, something that doesn't happen until more than an hour into the film. While I thought it allowed the film to set up the girls' circumstances in a way that made it easier to understand their motivations, it also did get a bit repetitive after a while and left less time for what happens to them after they are runaways.
I also wasn't a huge fan of Mary's would-be boyfriend, Bobby Harris (Steven Terrell). I'm not saying I approve of her dad's parenting approach, but he also wasn't wrong about the guy. There was the age difference (he was 20, she was 17), the fact he was joining the military and expecting to be deployed and, most of all, the way he was pressuring her with the "marry me or you won't see me again" argument. I was very disappointed with the decision to not have her see the light as far as that unhealthy relationship goes.
Final Opinion: I liked how the movie offered some uniqueness or at least a bit of a twist as far as juvenile delinquency goes. It would have been better had the runaway part of it gotten more screentime but is still worth watching at least once.
My Grade: B
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Here are some reviews of other movies from 1956:
Movie Review: Nightmare (1956)
Movie Review: Crime Against Joe (1956)
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