Blue Denim

Blue Denim Blue Jeans (UK)
Movie poster for Blue Denim
Directed by	Philip Dunne
Produced by	Charles Brackett
Written by	Philip Dunne Edith R. Sommer
Based on	Blue Denim 1958 play by James Leo Herlihy William Noble
Starring	Carol Lynley Brandon deWilde
Music by	Bernard Herrmann
Cinematography	Leo Tover
Edited by	William H. Reynolds
Distributed by	20th Century-Fox
Release date	July 30, 1959 (1959-07-30) (New York City)
Running time	89 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$980,000[1]
Box office	$2.5 million (est. US/ Canada rentals)[2]

Blue Denim is a 1958 Broadway play by writer James Leo Herlihy. It starred Carol Lynley, Warren Berlinger and newcomer Burt Brinckerhoff in the lead male role. Opening on February 27, 1958, the play ran for 166 performances at the Playhouse Theatre.

The following year, on July 30, 1959, the film version was released by 20th Century Fox with Lynley and Berlinger reprising their stage roles, but with a 17-year-old Brandon deWilde in his first "adult" role as the male lead Arthur Bartley. Macdonald Carey, Marsha Hunt and Roberta Shore appear as supporting characters.

Dealing with the issues of teenage pregnancy and (then-illegal) abortion, both versions were not without controversy. The play and the film each had different endings, and the word abortion was excised from the play's script when it was adapted into the film's screenplay.^[3]

Blue Denim was recently released on home media video for the first time.

Plot

The story is set in Dearborn, Michigan, during the 1950s, and revolves around fourteen-year-old Arthur Bartley (Brandon deWilde) and his schoolmates, fifteen-year-old Janet Willard (Carol Lynley) and Ernie (Warren Berlinger). While widower's-daughter Janet laughs at Arthur and Ernie's forays into smoking, drinking, and playing cards, she's always been interested in Arthur, and as Arthur's parents try to shelter him from negative things in life (like the euthanasia of the family dog, done while he's at school), he turns to Janet for comfort.

The relationship between Janet and Arthur results in her becoming pregnant. Unable to ask their parents (who misinterpret their pleas as "ordinary" teenage curiosity about sex and adulthood) for help, they turn to Ernie, who'd boasted earlier about "helping a sailor who got his girl in trouble" by directing him to an abortionist – only to discover Ernie made it all up, based on secondhand stories. The three seek together to arrange an abortion and raise the funds, only to be discovered by their parents at the last moment. In the meantime, Arthur and Janet find out how much they do not yet know about life – and how much they truly care about each other.

Cast

Differences between stage and film versions

In the original stage version, Janet does have her pregnancy aborted, and she and Arthur talk it over later as they settle their feelings for each other. When the play was adapted for Hollywood, however, strict production codes forbade anything but the condemnation of abortion, so the storyline was changed. Arthur and Janet instead go off together, to get married and stay with Janet's aunt in another city until the baby is born.

Critical and public reception

While the play and then the movie came and went, at first causing a minor controversy, then becoming part of the 'canon' of Broadway adaptations, and studied for its sociological impact, Blue Denim was still being decried as late as the 1980s by Fundamentalist preachers.

Home media

In other media

• In Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood (1966), Bobby Rupp, Nancy Clutter's beau, says, "We talked for a while, and made a date to go to the movies Sunday night - a picture all the girls were looking forward to, Blue Denim."
• Is seen briefly in Less Than Zero (when Clay and Blair are in bed in the loft).

See also

• List of American films of 1959

References

External links

• Blue Denim at the Internet Broadway Database
• Blue Denim on IMDb
• Blue Denim at AllMovie
• Blue Denim at the American Film Institute Catalog