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'''''Teenage Doll''''' is a 1957 film noir directed by [[Roger Corman]], starring [[June Kenney]] and John Brinkley.
'''''Teenage Doll''''' is a 1957 film noir directed by [[Roger Corman]], starring [[June Kenney]] and John Brinkley. It was financed by Lawrence Woolner, who had previously made ''Swamp Women'' with Corman. One writer called it Corman's "most impressive teen flick".<ref>{{cite book|page=225|title=Kings of the Bs : working within the Hollywood system : an anthology of film history and criticism|year=1975 |publisher=E. P. Dutton}}</ref>


==Plot==
==Plot==
Line 42: Line 42:
Roger Corman made the film for syndicates of theater owners.<ref name="franco">Ed. J. Philip di Franco, ''The Movie World of Roger Corman'', Chelsea House Publishers, 1979 p 84</ref>
Roger Corman made the film for syndicates of theater owners.<ref name="franco">Ed. J. Philip di Franco, ''The Movie World of Roger Corman'', Chelsea House Publishers, 1979 p 84</ref>


⚫
Charles Griffith was hired to write the script, based on an idea by Bernard Wollner. He said "They wanted a gang picture, as it was the time of the street gangs and juvenile delinquents. I told them I had one called “The Rat Pack” and they said they wanted a girl gang. So I got to work on ''Teenage Doll'', which was [[Larry Woolner]] taking the title of [Elia] Kazan’s ''[[Baby Doll]]'' [1956]. But the Johnson Bureau, or the Hays Office – I forget which was in at the time – rejected the story."<ref name="senses">[http://sensesofcinema.com/2005/35/charles_b_griffith/ Aaron W. Graham, 'Little Shop of Genres: An interview with Charles B. Griffith', ''Senses of Cinema'', 15 April, 2005] accessed 25 June 2012</ref> This meant Griffith had to rewrite the script over the weekend:
Charles Griffith was hired to write the script:
⚫
<blockquote>They wanted a gang picture, as it was the time of the street gangs and juvenile delinquents. I told them I had one called “The Rat Pack” and they said they wanted a girl gang. So I got to work on ''Teenage Doll'', which was [[Larry Woolner]] taking the title of [Elia] Kazan’s ''[[Baby Doll]]'' [1956]. But the Johnson Bureau, or the Hays Office – I forget which was in at the time – rejected the story.<ref name="senses">[http://sensesofcinema.com/2005/35/charles_b_griffith/ Aaron W. Graham, 'Little Shop of Genres: An interview with Charles B. Griffith', ''Senses of Cinema'', 15 April, 2005] accessed 25 June 2012</ref></blockquote>
This meant Griffith had to rewrite the script over the weekend:
<blockquote>In the original version, the girls were all stealing weapons or making weapons in order to kill the good girl...I wrote all these jokes in English to be said in Spanish. Roger called up the only Spanish agent around for that and it wound up that they were the best actors in the picture. But they were in the background the entire time! In the foreground, this Mexican girl makes a potato grenade. She sticks a potato peeler in one end for a handle and then a double-edge razor-blade all around the potato so she could just flip the handle and the grenade would hit somebody...Another girl stole her father’s pistol from his holster and, while she’s stealing it from his bed, the phone rings and the father has a conversation on the phone without opening his eyes and hangs up again. But the Hays office made me change these things so that they were stealing these weapons to sell for money to get a lawyer to attack the girls in some legal way. I mean really obnoxious and really stupid. It all had to be redone overnight.<ref name="senses"/></blockquote>
<blockquote>In the original version, the girls were all stealing weapons or making weapons in order to kill the good girl...I wrote all these jokes in English to be said in Spanish. Roger called up the only Spanish agent around for that and it wound up that they were the best actors in the picture. But they were in the background the entire time! In the foreground, this Mexican girl makes a potato grenade. She sticks a potato peeler in one end for a handle and then a double-edge razor-blade all around the potato so she could just flip the handle and the grenade would hit somebody...Another girl stole her father’s pistol from his holster and, while she’s stealing it from his bed, the phone rings and the father has a conversation on the phone without opening his eyes and hangs up again. But the Hays office made me change these things so that they were stealing these weapons to sell for money to get a lawyer to attack the girls in some legal way. I mean really obnoxious and really stupid. It all had to be redone overnight.<ref name="senses"/></blockquote>
Filming started 28 February 1957.<ref>Fred Clark in Tip-Top Comedy Role; 'Godfrey' Claiming David Niven
Filming started 28 February 1957.<ref>Fred Clark in Tip-Top Comedy Role; 'Godfrey' Claiming David Niven
Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File); Los Angeles, Calif. [Los Angeles, Calif]20 Feb 1957: C7. </ref>
Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times 20 Feb 1957: C7. </ref> Fay Spain's casting was announced in March.<ref>New Policy Set at Players' Ring Los Angeles Times 16 Mar 1957: B2. </ref>
==Reception==

''Variety'' said the film's "Unremitting and unconvincing downbeat tenor, clumsily executed, deadens b.o. chances for any audience outside of sex-and-sadism fanciers. Characters in Charles B. Griffith screenplay talk a stylized jargon mainly derivative of other pix of this genre; engage In continual brutality and violence; and their motivations, delinquent or otherwise, bears only the, slightest resemblence of those' human beings."<ref>[https://archive.org/details/variety208-1957-10/page/n159/mode/1up/search/%22roger+corman%22?q=%28%22roger+corman%22%29+AND+creator%3A%28variety%29 Review of film] at Variety</ref>
==See also==
==See also==
* [[List of American films of 1957]]
* [[List of American films of 1957]]
Line 58: Line 57:
*{{IMDb title|id=0051062|title=Teenage Doll}}
*{{IMDb title|id=0051062|title=Teenage Doll}}
*[http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/92459/Teenage-Doll/ ''Teenage Doll''] at [[TCMDB]]
*[http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/92459/Teenage-Doll/ ''Teenage Doll''] at [[TCMDB]]
*[https://letterboxd.com/film/teenage-doll/ Teenage Doll] at Letterbox DVD
*[https://archive.org/details/variety208-1957-10/page/n159/mode/1up/search/%22roger+corman%22?q=%28%22roger+corman%22%29+AND+creator%3A%28variety%29 Review of film] at Variety
*[https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s204doll.html Review] at DVD Savant
*[https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b7c25a3 Teenage Doll] at BFI
{{Charles B. Griffith}}
{{Charles B. Griffith}}
{{Roger Corman}}
{{Roger Corman}}

Revision as of 06:05, 18 May 2020

Teenage Doll
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRoger Corman
Written byCharles B. Griffith
Produced byRoger Corman
StarringJune Kenney
John Brinkley
Music byWalter Greene
Production
company
Woolner Brothers
Distributed byAllied Artists
Release date
  • September 18, 1957 (1957-09-18)
Running time
71 min.
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Teenage Doll is a 1957 film noir directed by Roger Corman, starring June Kenney and John Brinkley. It was financed by Lawrence Woolner, who had previously made Swamp Women with Corman. One writer called it Corman's "most impressive teen flick".[1]

Plot

The Black Widows, a teenage girl gang, find one of their number killed; they suspect Barbara, sometime girlfriend of the leader of rival gang the Vandals. As the gangs prepare for a rumble, we glimpse the members' home lives, exaggerating every type of family dysfunction.

Cast

Production

Roger Corman made the film for syndicates of theater owners.[2]

Charles Griffith was hired to write the script, based on an idea by Bernard Wollner. He said "They wanted a gang picture, as it was the time of the street gangs and juvenile delinquents. I told them I had one called “The Rat Pack” and they said they wanted a girl gang. So I got to work on Teenage Doll, which was Larry Woolner taking the title of [Elia] Kazan’s Baby Doll [1956]. But the Johnson Bureau, or the Hays Office – I forget which was in at the time – rejected the story."[3] This meant Griffith had to rewrite the script over the weekend:

In the original version, the girls were all stealing weapons or making weapons in order to kill the good girl...I wrote all these jokes in English to be said in Spanish. Roger called up the only Spanish agent around for that and it wound up that they were the best actors in the picture. But they were in the background the entire time! In the foreground, this Mexican girl makes a potato grenade. She sticks a potato peeler in one end for a handle and then a double-edge razor-blade all around the potato so she could just flip the handle and the grenade would hit somebody...Another girl stole her father’s pistol from his holster and, while she’s stealing it from his bed, the phone rings and the father has a conversation on the phone without opening his eyes and hangs up again. But the Hays office made me change these things so that they were stealing these weapons to sell for money to get a lawyer to attack the girls in some legal way. I mean really obnoxious and really stupid. It all had to be redone overnight.[3]

Filming started 28 February 1957.[4] Fay Spain's casting was announced in March.[5]

Reception

Variety said the film's "Unremitting and unconvincing downbeat tenor, clumsily executed, deadens b.o. chances for any audience outside of sex-and-sadism fanciers. Characters in Charles B. Griffith screenplay talk a stylized jargon mainly derivative of other pix of this genre; engage In continual brutality and violence; and their motivations, delinquent or otherwise, bears only the, slightest resemblence of those' human beings."[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Kings of the Bs : working within the Hollywood system : an anthology of film history and criticism. E. P. Dutton. 1975. p. 225.
  2. ^ Ed. J. Philip di Franco, The Movie World of Roger Corman, Chelsea House Publishers, 1979 p 84
  3. ^ a b Aaron W. Graham, 'Little Shop of Genres: An interview with Charles B. Griffith', Senses of Cinema, 15 April, 2005 accessed 25 June 2012
  4. ^ Fred Clark in Tip-Top Comedy Role; 'Godfrey' Claiming David Niven Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times 20 Feb 1957: C7.
  5. ^ New Policy Set at Players' Ring Los Angeles Times 16 Mar 1957: B2.
  6. ^ Review of film at Variety
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