Blue Denim (1959)

Blue Denim was a successful Broadway play by writer James Leo Herlihy, the author of the novels All Fall Down (1960) and Midnight Cowboy (1965). 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.

Blue Denim has never been released on home video media.

Synopsis

The story is set in Dearborn, Michigan, during the 1950s, and revolves around sixteen-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.

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