The Flaming Teen-Age (1956)

Genres - Drama  |   Sub-Genres - Docudrama  |   Run Time - 67 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
  • AllMovie Rating
    2
  • User Ratings (0)
  • Your Rating

Share on

Synopsis by Mark Deming

A teenage boy learns about the dangers of alcohol while another man tumbles from booze into dope addiction in this exploitation drama. After his high-school-age son is found passed out by the side of the road in a drunken stupor, a father chooses an unusual form of punishment -- taking the boy to the sleaziest beer halls and juke joints in town. After an evening of watching hopeless drunks in their natural environment, the boy begins to learn his lesson. Later, we are introduced to Fred Garland (Noel Reyburn), an ambitious young man who owns his own candy shop while still in high school but dreams of bigger and better things. After enjoying some spiked punch at a party, Fred develops a taste for liquor and sells his shop to move to New York City. Fred lands a part in a vaudeville show and is enjoying life on the road until his drinking makes his unreliable, and a later job running a variety show for the owner of a drugstore goes no better. Fred fares a bit better when he opens a talent agency, but after he's talked into going into a confidence game with his partner, he's found guilty of fraud and takes it on the lam. Falling deeper and deeper into alcohol and despair, Fred's bad luck gets even worse when a "friend" introduces him to heroin. The Flaming Teen-Age was originally released as Twice Convicted and named for a play about the real-life travails of Fred Garland; the framing story of the teenage alcoholic was later added in order to sell the picture as a juvenile delinquency epic.

Characteristics

Keywords

abuse, addiction, alcoholism, drugs, exploitation, evil