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I was challenged recently to name the film I
thought was the ultimate Teen movie. That is
the one movie that sums up a genre that I’ve
been studying with groups of A Level students
(you know who you are!) over the past year.
Naturally, being a teacher, it wasn’t possible
simply to name one film. That would be far too
straightforward. No, I would have to spend at
least a week making up my mind and then write
at least 2000 words explaining why I couldn’t
decide on just one and maybe after that perhaps
I would identify one anyway just to be awkward.
Wild one?
Firstly, I’d be tempted to go right back to the
pre-history of Teen movies; to Teen movies
that weren’t called Teen movies because the
term hadn’t been invented. The Wild One would
have to be a contender, partly because it’s a
reminder of what Marlon Brando looked like
when he was the epitome of cool, before he
became overweight and overpaid, and at a time
when he possessed enormous charisma as an
actor and was truly the embodiment of hip and
youthful rebellion. Astride his bike, he dominates
the opening titles of the film, which claim that
Brando is ‘The Wild One’, much in the way that, a
decade later, advertising would claim that Sean
Connery was James Bond. The close alignment
of actor with role is designed to encourage us
to forget that at some point somebody wrote
Rebel?
a script and that someone else directed them.
Less than two years later, James Dean was
It also helps to reinforce the persuasive power
the Rebel without a Cause, no less interesting
of the naturalistic acting style that had already
a film. And of course Dean, who died in a car
bought Brando critical acclaim as Stanley
crash weeks before the film’s release, became a
Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. In The
greater teen icon than anybody. But, watching
Wild One’s most famous filmic moment, Brando
Rebel today, lushly restored in rich colour and ...or Beach Blanket Bingo?
is asked ‘What are you rebelling against Johnny?’
cinemascope, Dean’s character’s angst seems This random moment – unmotivated by
and he replies, ‘What’ve you got?’ At which
distant, middle-class and suburban, whereas any narrative necessity – is one of the many
point we witness a near-perfect articulation
Brando’s was raw and somehow more complex. indiscriminate pleasures that the beach movies
of a confused youth at odds with society
And, of course, The Wild One was deemed so offer the modern viewer. Characters regularly
– forced to discover for himself why and how
dangerous in 1953 by the British Board of Film burst into song or enter a youth club where some
it works and what his place in it is. During the
Censors that it was banned until 1967, while fairly mature-looking ‘teenagers’ are ‘cutting a rug’.
film’s short running time, we see his biker gang
Rebel merely had a few scenes snipped here and Like most of the Beach Party cycle, Beach Blanket
terrorise a small American town, stealing from,
there by the censor’s stanley knife. Bingo is a widescreen, technicolor exploration
and intimidating its elder citizens. At the film’s
However, in a different vein, I’d have to admit of teen sexual politics, which basically means
heart, Brando electrifies almost every scene he’s
that many of my guiltiest pleasures are some of its about girls ‘proving’ they can be ‘as good as
in, but he doesn’t threaten or cajole; he somehow
the cheap Teen exploitation movies turned boys’. It’s typical of the cycle while also being one
manages to be both calm and tormented, lost
out by studios such as American International of the whackiest and most memorable entries.
and at home – a true nihilistic hero for the
Pictures (AIP) in the late 1950s and early Sky-diving ‘singing sensation’ Sugar Kane (Linda
modern age.
1960s. By this time the film distributors had Evans), is being groomed for stardom by PR
various terms to describe the emerging genre, man ‘Bullets’ (Paul Lynde). While series regular,
and the term Teenpic was used to describe films Erich Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) decides that
made essentially for the teenage market with kidnapping her will get him and his black-clad
few concessions to adult audiences. Indeed one motorcycle gang a piece of the action. Add silent
might argue that realistic adult characters comic star Buster Keaton into the mix as a lustful
should never be central to the narrative of pensioner, together with a gang member who
a Teen movie. AIP made a series of sequels to falls in love with a mermaid, not to mention a
their 1963 Beach Party, mostly starring Frankie psychotic villain in charge of a sawmill, and you
Avalon and Annette Funicello. These are great have a near-perfect Friday night’s viewing.
to watch late at night (way better than watching
contestants sleep or chatter to birdsong on Big
Grease or Rock ‘n’ Roll High
Brother, believe me). My favourite is probably
School?
Beach Blanket Bingo, but Ski Party (spot the
Beach Blanket Bingo doesn’t look quite like
subtle variation on a theme) comes close. One of
anything being made today, but echoes of the
the pleasures of these films are the cameo roles
cycle remain present in a great many more
and ‘guest star’ appearances of performers like
recent Teen movies. The bright colour palette
Stevie Wonder and James Brown. The Godfather
of the mise-en-scène remains a feature of many
of Funk himself turns up briefly in Ski Party to
high school movies, such as Mean Girls and Get
sing ‘I Feel Good’ in a ski lodge.
Over It. The 1978 musical Grease contains many
english and media centre | February 2008 | MediaMagazine 55
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