The 1960 Movie "Exodus"

The movie Exodus was released in December 1960. Baby Houseman certainly watched this popular movie while it was playing in the New York movie theaters in December or January. At that time, Baby was 14 or 15 years old. The movie portrays the situation and events in the founding of Israel in 1948. Here is the movie trailer:

One of the movie's main characters is a Jewish girl named Karen Hansen Clement, played by the actress Jill Haworth. Karen is a Jewish girl from Denmark who had survived the Holocaust and emigrated to Israel in 1947. During the movie story, she is 14 and 15 years old -- the same age that Baby was when she watched the movie.

Through the movie story, Karen is infatuated with a young Jewish man, Dov Landau, played by the actor Sal Mineo. This character's age is not stated in the movie, but the actor Mineo was about 20 years old when the movie was filmed. In the following video (beginning at 0:56), we see Karen and Dov talking with each other while they are riding a ship sailing from Cyprus to Palestine. Karen is trying to persuade Dov to be more moderate and peaceful about how he intends to act in Palestine.

Karen is an idealistic liberal. Nevertheless, Karen finds herself attracted romantically to a man who is very different from herself. Her attraction is based largely on her idealistic desire to reform him, to convert him to her own idealistic liberalism. In other words, Karen is very similar to Baby.

The movie's subplot about the romance between beautiful Karen and handsome Dov was featured in the movie's publicity campaigns.

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The actor Sal Mineo was somewhat similar to the actor Patrick Swayze. Mineo already had appeared in a series of movies, and he was adored by young female fans. His two most famous previous performances had been in 1) the 1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause, for which he had been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and 2) the 1959 movie The Gene Krupa Story, where he played the lead role. He was featured often in magazines that targeted teenage girls -- the magazines that Lisa Houseman brought home.

In the years following the release of the movie Exodus, such magazines reported about a romance between the actor Sal Mineo and the actress Jill Haworth. Although neither Mineo nor Haworth actually was Jewish, it's likely that Lisa and Baby Houseman fantasized about themselves being in such a beautiful "Jewish" romance.

Click on the images to enlarge them.

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Near the end of the movie, there is a scene where 15-year-old Karen essentially entices 20-year-old Dov to become sexual with her. The circumstances do not allow him to get sexual at that moment (he is on guard duty), but he indicates for the first time that he intends to marry her soon. Therefore, the movie audience gets the impression that Karen and Dov will become sexual with each other rather soon.

Here is that dialogue (I could not find a video clip), which begins with Karen arriving from the base to Dov's guard post.

Dov

Halt! Stay where you are.

Karen

It's me, Dov.

Dov

Watch out. What are you doing out here?

[ .... ]

Karen

You can come back [to the base] now.

Dov

No, I don't go back until somebody relieves me of this [guard] position. Stay down. There are Arabs out there.

Karen

Ari said they won't attack until tomorrow night.

Dov

I killed one about three hours ago. Down there.

Karen

Dov, you have a beautiful name. Sometimes I whisper it to myself. I'm 15 years old now. I'm not little anymore.

Dov

You shouldn't have come here in the first place.

Karen

But, Dov, you're always fighting, and you're always in a place where you might be killed. If anything should happen to you before I told you how much I love you, I just wouldn't want to live anymore. Please, love me. I'm not afraid. Honest, I'm not.

Dov

When things are all over, I'm going to marry you. You'll be Mrs. Dov Landau. You're going to have respect. They will tip their hats when you go by, and I will smile. I'v told you to go back twice already. From now on, you do what I say.

At this point, Karen obediently heads back to the base, happy that she and Dov soon will become a romantic, sexual, married couple. However, on her way back to the base, she is seized by Arabs and soon will be murdered.

For the young females in the movie audience who have been identifying with Karen, the murder of Karen is profoundly tragic.

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For sure, 15-year-old Baby herself was moved emotionally by this tragedy when she watched the movie, and she remained affected thus through the following years.

Karen's bold sexual enticement of Dov inspired Baby's bold sexual enticement of Johnny.