THE YOUNG STRANGER
US, 1957, 84 minutes, Black and white.
James Macarthur, Kim Hunter, James Daley, James Gregory, Whit Bissell, Jeff Silver.
Directed by John Frankenheimer.
The Young Stranger is the first cinema feature film made by television director John Frankenheimer. It was a small budget black and white psychological study of an adolescent and his family. James Daley and Kim Hunter are convincing as the parents and James Macarthur, in one of his earliest films, is convincing as the adolescent. Macarthur went on to play in a number of Disney films and in Hawaii Five-0, and has had only an intermittent film career.
Frankenheimer stayed with television but in the sixties moved into the feature film bracket with such notable films as Birdman of Alcatraz, All Fall Down, Seven Days in May, Seconds. In the mid-sixties he moved into a wider scope with Grand Prix and a series of films exploring human endurance such as The Gypsy Moths and The Horseman. He also made The Fixer. During the seventies, his
career had ups and downs. He made the striking film version of Eugene O' Neill's The Iceman Cometh. By the mid-seventies 1e was well known for such action thrillers as French Connection 2, and Black Sunday. Young Stranger is an interesting introduction to Frankenheimer's career as well as being a sound study of relationships and problems.
1. The main impression of the film? Its interest and enjoyment? Title and themes?
2. The impression of the film as a first film of a Director who had an important subsequent career? The film as from the mid-50s?
3. Black and White photography, settings and style?
4. The issues of family, adolescence? The impact for the mid-fifties, for now?
5. Evoking audience interest and response to Hal? The scenes of his normal boyhood, schoolwork, friends? His being spoilt? Having so much money from his father? His arrogance? The sequences with the car etc.?
6. The highlighting of the lack of love and its effect on him? His pushing himself? Loneliness and need for love? His quick talking and smart remarks covering up?
7. The main impression of his father? His inability to talk to his son or to his wife? The preoccupation with work, position and money? His not believing his son automatically? The scenes of severity? Yet his working behind the scenes to sack Grubbs etc.?
8. The impact of Halls mother? Her weakness and compliancy? Her love for her son and helping him, like picking up his car? Her ability to talk but not authentically? Her wanting to talk to her husband? His devices for avoiding her?
9. The attention to detail in these family sequences: the sequence of the discussion with the clothes, the meal table, the attempts at talking?
10. The family conflicts and their melodramatic tone? How realistic for the theme and for the audience impact?
11. Your response to the theatre incident? The facts, the exasperation? The sympathies for the boys? Against them? Seeing the incident with a sense of proportion? The manager and the attendants? The violence and the antagonism towards young punks? How well communicated was this atmosphere of exasperation and violence?
12. The character of Shipley: as a policeman, his attitudes against youngsters, his severity? His attitude towards Halls father and telling him off? His realisation of his relationship to his own son? His change of attitude and belief? How humane a person and credible?
13. Jerry and his attitude towards Hal? Friendship yet the pressure from his father? The sequence of their horsing around, mowing the lawn? Jerry's attending Hal at the police station?
14. The questions of punishment and its administration? The way the father dealt with the matter? Grubbs' attitude? The police attitude? The effect on Hal?
15. The significance of the second visit to Grubbs? Halls desperation? Grubb's standing his ground? The repetition of the violence? Audience sympathies, sharing Halls exasperation about relating to adults?
16. How valuable and real was the resolution? Shipley's realisation about his own son, his confronting the father, his confronting Grubbs?
17. What insight and values about adolescence, family, parents, communication, love, frustration?
