Editing John Frankenheimer (section)

===''The Young Savages'' (1961)===

Frankenheimer's second cinematic effort is based on novelist [[Evan Hunter]]'s ''A Matter of Conviction'' (1959). United Artists publicity executives changed the box-office title to the vaguely lurid ''The Young Savages,'' to which Frankenheimer objected.<ref>Pratley, 1969 p. 44, p. 47: the director "disliked" the new title, Gow refers to its "cheaply made second feature" impression.</ref> The story involves the attempted political exploitation of a brazen murder involving Puerto Rican and Italian youth gangs set in New York City's [[Spanish Harlem]].<ref>Stafford, 2005 TCM</ref> District Attorney, Dan Cole ([[Edward Andrews]]), who is seeking the state governorship, sends assistant D. A. Hank Bell ([[Burt Lancaster]]) to gather evidence to secure a conviction. Bell, who grew up in the tenement district, has escaped from his impoverished origins to achieve social and economic success. He initially adopts a cynical hostility towards the youths he investigates, which serves his own career aims. The narrative explores the human and legal complexities of the case and Bell's struggle to confront his personal and social prejudices and commitments.<ref>Stafford, 2005 TCM: "Bell uncovers the true murderer while making an important decision involving his own career."<br>Barson, 2021: "The Young Savages...an overheated but often potent courtroom drama that starred Burt Lancaster—in the first of five movies he made with the director..."</ref> The film's arresting opening sequence depicting a killing, which is key to the plot, reveals Frankenheimer's origins in television. The action, "brilliantly filmed and edited", occurs preliminary to the credits, and is accompanied by an impelling soundtrack by composer [[David Amram]], serving to quickly rivet audience interest.<ref>Pratley, 1969 p. 45</ref>

''The Young Savages'', though focusing on juvenile delinquency, is cinematically a significant advance over Frankenheimer's similarly themed first film effort ''The Young Stranger'' (1957).<ref name="Pratley, 1969 p. 48-49">Pratley, 1969 p. 48-49</ref> Film historian Gerald Pratley attributes this to Frankenheimer's insistence on hand-picking his leading technical support for the project, including set designer Bert Smidt, cinematographer [[Lionel Lindon]] and scenarist [[JP Miller]].<ref>Stafford, 2005 TCM<br>Pratley, 1969 p. 48</ref> Pratley observed:

{{blockquote| "''The Young Savages'' is far more alive and real than [''The Young Stranger'']...the youths might well be some of those we met in the first film, but now further along their delinquent ways. The acting throughout is authoritative, with vivid portrayals by the Italian and Puerto Rican players...the entire film is photographically alive with a strong, visual sense which was to characterize all of Frankenheimer's future work…"<ref name="Pratley, 1969 p. 48-49">Pratley, 1969 p. 48-49</ref>}}

Though "contrived and familiar in its social concerns" Frankenheimer and leading man Burt Lancaster, both Liberals in their political outlook, dramatize the "poverty, violence and despair of city life" with a restraint such that "the events and characters seem consistently believable."<ref>Pratley, 1969 p. 47-48<br>Stafford, 2005 TCM: The film script "appealed to the liberal Democrat in Frankenheimer and Lancaster..."<br>Baxter, 2002: "It launched a movie career that allowed the director, a liberal, who wrote and directed all of Robert F Kennedy's television appearances, to buck the system, and make several landmark social and political works."</ref>
Frankenheimer recalled "I shot ''The Young Savages'' mainly to show people that I could make a movie, and while it was not completely successful, my point was proved...The film was made on a relatively cheap budget and shooting on location in New York for a Hollywood company is very expensive. Those were the days before [[John Lindsay|Mayor Lindsay]] when you had to pay off every other cop on the beat…"<ref>Pratley, 1969 p. 55</ref>