The Restless Years (1958) User Reviews

Interesting Account of a Bygone Era

[mrb1980 · 6/10 · 12 October 2005]

I've always liked "The Restless Years", but the film shouldn't be considered a great movie or some sort of serious social commentary. However, the movie is an intriguing look at small-town life during the late 1950s and it has a very attractive cast.

Sandra Dee is the star, of course. She plays a high school student and the daughter of neurotic Teresa Wright, who is desperate to conceal the fact that Dee is--gasp!--illegitimate. Dee becomes involved with sensitive outcast Saxon, causing tongues to wag all over the local high school. Meanwhile, Saxon's dad (Whitmore) is desperately (and unsuccessfully) trying to get ahead in the small town, and is dealing with his deteriorating marriage to Lindsay. I used to live in a small town, and this sounds pretty typical.

The ending has Saxon beating up his chief tormentor (McCrea) at the senior prom, and Whitmore deciding to leave town and start over. Dee waits faithfully by the mailbox for a letter from Saxon, and Wright seems to be almost normal, in a satisfying wrap-up.

Though pretty tame by today's standards, "The Restless Years" is a reminder of a much more simple and innocent time. I recommend it as a pleasing diversion and as a glimpse of small-town Americana that no longer really exists.

Another forgotten heavy breather from Universal...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 25 August 2007]

Of all the major Hollywood studios, Universal's vault is probably the one most filled with lost artifacts of the '50s and '60s. If it's shame that's keeping Universal from promoting DVD releases of their drive-in classics, they needn't be so worried; there's always appreciative audiences out there for angst-ridden teen tales and heavy-petters like "The Restless Years". Written by Edward Anhalt, an adaptation of the play "Teach Me How To Cry" by Patricia Joudry, and produced by no less than Ross Hunter, the picture stars Sandra Dee as a small town lass with a secret and a strange-acting mother, as well as a possible boyfriend in well-meaning John Saxon. Still quite young at this point, Saxon knows instinctively how to work his brooding handsomeness for effect (and it's refreshing to see him using it on a nice-guy role for a change and not as the villain of the piece). The story threads are dated, of course, but the look of the film and the tone are both intriguing. Still, the simplicity behind the melodramatics are no longer relevant, which makes the heated clinches all the more amusing. **1/2 from ****

Nothing special but not bad

[preppy-3 · 6/10 · 1 May 2009]

Black and white soap opera about a small town in the 1950s. Single mom Elizabeth Grant (Teresa Wright) is heavily neurotic and scared that the town will find out her daughter Melinda (Sandra Dee) is illegitimate. Melinda falls for Will Henderson (John Saxon) whose parents (James Whitmore, Margaret Lindsay) are having problems of their own. Naturally it all ends happily.

Very tame by todays standards but this was probably shocking in 1958. There's nothing really special about this but it's pretty well-written and has a very good cast. All the acting is good and it's fairly well directed. The main reason its of interest today is for its cast. Mostly all of them went on to bigger and better things after this (especially Saxon and Dee). Seeing Saxon so young and playing the good guy for once is pretty amusing and Dee is actually pretty good. A lot of people make fun of her acting but she was never really that bad. So a pleasant time waster--nothing exceptional but not bad either. I give it a 6.

Downsided look at small town life

[crazy-12 · 28 September 1999]

While the story centers around teenagers with a lot of nostalgia attached, it seems to depict small town living, at least that one, as unpleasant. My past experience is the opposite of that. One thing which raised my eyebrows a little is the mention of marijuana in this film about high school kids in 1958. I have never seen a teenage film from the 50s infer that kids used that stuff then, even though did it exist.

Juicy rip-off of 'Peyton Place'

[HotToastyRag · 6/10 · 8 July 2023]

The year after the scandalous Peyton Place was made into a movie, a complete rip-off was released in the form of The Restless Years. If you like the genre of small town scandals, you can definitely check it out. It'll give you everything you're expecting: melodrama, teenage sexual angst, needless conflict, alcoholism, illegitimacy, secrets, and shame.

Teresa Wright plays the Lana Turner part to Sandra Dee's Diane Varsi. Teresa is very overprotective over her daughter, especially when it comes to boys. When Sandra wants to try out for the school play, will all the heightened dramatics corrupt her? John Saxon is the new boy in town, and his father James Whitmore wants him to become friends with the "right people" so he can become more successful in his business. John is far more interested in the scandal-tainted Sandra, even with her emotional problems that flare up whenever she's alone with him.

For die-hard fans of Peyton Place, this will come in a very distant second. If you don't really care about which story came first, and you just like juicy teen drama, you might really like this movie. It's extremely dated, but that can be part of the fun. If you like Sandra, she's very sweet and innocent in this movie. It's hard to imagine her ever growing up!

"Restless" is the operative word!

[JohnHowardReid · 6/10 · 19 July 2017]

Copyright 1958 by Universal International Pictures. No New York opening. U.S. release: December 1958. U.K. general release through Rank Film Distributors: 6 October 1958 (sic). Australian release as the lower half of a double bill: 29 January 1959. 86 minutes. Censored to 84 minutes to gain a Universal Exhibition certificate in Great Britain. Cut to 76 minutes by Universal to fit lower halves of double bills in Australia. U.K. release title: "The WONDERFUL YEARS".

SYNOPSIS: When Melinda Grant (Sandra Dee), smeared by the gossip that she is an illegitimate child — a fact of which she is totally unaware — is offered a chance to try out for a part in her school production of "Our Town" by a teacher, Miss Robson (Virginia Grey), she refuses because of fear of her mother, Elizabeth Grant (Teresa Wright), who is living the life of a recluse.

However Melinda does go to a school dance where she meets Will Henderson (John Saxon). He and Melinda go for a walk toward an old bandstand and discover they enjoy each other's company a great deal. When Will tells his parents (Margaret Lindsay and James Whitmore), he has been with Melinda, they tell him to stay away from her and go with "nice" girls.Later, when the "Our Town" tryouts begin, Melinda, urged on by Will, wins the lead from Polly, and she and Will continue their friendship against the frantic wishes of parents of both families.

NOTES: First Hollywood film for director Helmut Kautner, whose The "Captain from Koepenick" had been nominated for the Foreign Language Academy Award in 1956 (losing out to "La Strada"). More than one reviewer described "Der Hauptmann von Koepenick" as the best German film of the year.

COMMENT: "Restless" is certainly the operative word here, aptly describing the reaction of most of the audience at the session I attended. Of course real-gone fans of sulky John Saxon or squeaky- voiced Sandra Dee may have received some joy from the movie. And the rest of us did have the opportunity to catch up with some old favorites like Margaret Lindsay, Alan Baxter and little Jimmy Whitmore.

But try as they might, the players are stuck with a lame-duck melodrama that most theatergoers would have found impossibly old hat, even back in the gaslight era. I'll admit that Kautner's direction has its moments, but his generally deliberate, super- careful approach adds little zest to Ernest Laszlo's often static CinemaScope photography.

Mix and mingle with the right sort

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 9 August 2017]

Gay people could truly identify with the characters that John Saxon and Sandra Dee played here in this Ross Hunter soap opera. This is a story of kids who don't fit in with a small town and I never knew a gay person from a small town with one exception who couldn't wait to get out. These are indeed The Restless Years for our leads.

Teresa Wright is Sandra Dee's mother whose husband left her years ago and she's raised Dee by herself with all the gossiping mouths speculating what happened. Dee's considered illegitimate so the adults snub Wright. On the other hand the kids who are her peers consider her easy at least the males think so.

It was only natural that when James Whitmore who is an air conditioner salesman moves back with wife Margaret Lindsay and son Saxon that Dee and Saxon are drawn together. Saxon is a rebel type and not fitting in at all with the country club set of this town. But Whitmore who knows what public relations is in his job wants very much for Saxon to mix and mingle with the 'right' sort.

Both Dee and Saxon make an appealing pair and the adults in support are perfectly cast. You might also make note of former Disney star Luana Patten as a mean girl, Hayden Rorke and Dorothy Green as her dysfunctional parents and Jody McCrea as her jock boyfriend who picks a fight with Saxon and regrets it.

The Restless Years, a nice depiction of those bland Eisenhower years with an undercurrent of rebellion.

A dirty little gossipy town.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 8 November 2020]

That's the description of his home town for James Whitmore, the father of John Saxon, a loner of a teenager who has begun to see sweet Sandra Dee who lives on the opposite side so attracts and is the daughter of the reclusive Teresa Wright, a woman with a scandalous past. Teacher Virginia Grey reaches out to Wright to convince Dee to audition for the leading role in the school production of "Our Town". As Dee comes out of her shell and begins to befriend some of the other students, the parents are in an uproar because they don't consider her good enough to hang out with their children. It's up to the younger generation to teach their elders about the power of acceptance and understanding, but like the town of Peyton place, this babbity and provincial community isn't open in the small minds of those who have lived there for decades.

It's the performances of Wright and Whitmore that stand out in this teen drama, with Whitmore having moved away years ago but forced to come back by his company so he can use his connections to drum up business. It's obvious that Whitmore hates being back, but it's the only option he has and that means he needs his son to be more careful with whom he chooses to date.

An interesting story but with cliched characters, this misses something by being in Cinemascope and black and white. The scenes between Dee and Saxon are very similar to what she would face three years later with Troy Donahue in "A Summer Place", and she would be reunited with Saxon two years later in "The Reluctant Debutante". This is overloaded with embittered characters whose stories are depressing, but fortunately, teacher Grey to give these maturing teenagers some Hope. On that level, the film works, but the title suggest something a little bit more gritty and real considering the atmosphere teens faced in the 1950's.

Peyton Place meets Carrie

[gslind · 8/10 · 28 October 2003]

John Saxon and Sandra Dee in all their 1958 youthful splendor explore teen sexuality and angst in Libertyville, USA.

Teresa Wright plays Dee's downtrodden, seamstress Mother living life as the town's neurotic spinster recluse, having once regrettably abandoned herself to a traveling trumpet player under the town's infamous bandstand, having later given birth to Dee as a result of her shameful tryst.

Hot Rods, hoop skirts, and gymnasium rock and roll abound, replete with alcoholic parents from both sides of the tracks fully represented. Luana Patten is wonderful as the snotty, slutty rich girl so accustomed to getting whatever she wants.

It's as cornball and cliche' as you can get, but good fun for a nostalgic look at small town Americana in the late 50's. You've seen Saxon and Dee much better than this, but it's remains a guilty pleasure to relish, particularly with Ross Hunter at the helm dishing up plenty of his particular style of small town pathos to keep you amused.

Look for Saxon's Pop (James Whitmore) near the end, driving off with the lovely Mrs. with a smile and a beer in his hand! Somehow, Toto, you know this kinda behavior tells us we're not in Kansas anymore.

There is a reason you've never heard of this movie

[Keatonics · 5/10 · 2 September 2017]

It is not very good.

Pretty corny white bread movie about morals in a Smalltown, USA. Even for its time it was out of date. The comparisons others make with "Peyton Place" aren't even close. Even if those were the morals of the day (and I am not sure they were), it is weak and overdone.

Starring Sandra Dee and John Saxon, it is pretty clear why neither of them had much of a career. The talent is just lacking.

The directing (by first timer in America Helmut Käutner) is so weak and schmaltzy you have to wonder what the film could have been in the hands of a Wyler or a Wise or a Capra. As a weak, black and white film in 1958, it just smells of Universal cutting corners as a trial vehicle for their new contract player, Sandra Dee. You have to wonder what could have been.

The saving graces of this movie are the sub-par performance of a couple of otherwise great actors: Teresa Wright and James Whitmore. Weak by their usual standards, but the best the movie had to offer. Better to spend your time with any other Teresa Wright or James Whitmore movie.

You will never get your 90 minutes back.

"The Story Of A Town With A Dirty Mind!"

[Noirdame79 · 8/10 · 20 February 2015]

. . . and the young people it tries to corrupt! If that tag line alone brings to mind images of "Peyton Place" (1957), you're not alone. However, "The Restless Years", is less known than the aforementioned film, but it deserves more recognition for its talented cast. John Saxon, Sandra Dee, Teresa Wright, James Whitmore, Margaret Lindsay, Luana Patten, Jody McCrea and Virginia Grey all did a decent job of portraying folks of a small town, beset by gossip and whispers. More intimate than "Peyton Place" but obviously shot on a lower budget (black and white CinemaScope), this effort is memorable in its own right. Sandra Dee, in only her second film, shows considerable promise as a dramatic actress, as she would demonstrate in later efforts such as "A Summer Place" and "Imitation Of Life" (both 1959). John Saxon, with just a few movies under his belt, already was displaying the intensity that he later became famous for.

Produced by Ross Hunter, the film seems tame by today's standards but is very entertaining and true to the emotions that ran at the time. It's truly a 50s melodrama, and that's really where the entertainment value lies.

Just recently, "The Restless Years" made its debut on DVD in the Universal Vault Series Collection. Unfortunately, the print is in non-anamorphic widescreen. Universal could and should do better.

John Saxon and Sandra Dee were a fine screen team, and also displayed this in two other films, "The Reluctant Debutante" (1958) and "Portrait In Black" (1960).

Show mean kids up for what they are

[georgeredding · 5/10 · 18 January 2023]

This movie ranks with some of the saddest I have ever known. John Saxon and Sandra Dee work well together as two high school kids terribly ostracized and are considered "Squares." (That dates the movie of the late 50's, since that term for kids who are different is definitely outdated.) Joel McCrae's son Jody is not put in a good light since he is a popular football player who scorns these two since in the movie, Teresa wright plays Sandra's strange mother who is hiding a secret. Luanna Patten is not in a good light either, since she, who plays McCrae's girl, is Dee's friend or, more accurately, her bogus friend, and even then for a very short while.

Saxon almost literally fights for his girl, and the "cool" and the ostracized are shown to be their selves.

The movie is well-done but tragic, and prejudice is exposed strongly, in this case tragedy toward people who are "different." Again, the movie is sad but does hit at a matter which should be addressed.