The 1959 Movie "Blue Denim"

In a previous post titled The 1982 Movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, I wrote that

... the first movie to make an abortion an important element of the plot was the 1967 movie In the Heat of the Night. The movie is primarily about racial relations, about a White sheriff and a Black detective investigate a murder. The investigation reveals that the murder's motive was to get the necessary money to pay for an illegal abortion.

The second movie was the 1972 movie Cabaret. The movie takes place in Germany in the 1931, but the female protagonist is an American woman working in Berlin. She becomes pregnant but does not know from which of her several lovers. An English student offers to marry her and help raise the baby. She considers his proposal but then, without consulting with him further, gets an abortion.

In the last couple of days, I have discovered two more movies that dealt with abortion -- the 1959 movie Blue Denim and the 1964 movie The Young Lovers. In this post here I will tell about Blue Denim.

I have not watched Blue Denim but I sure would like to do so.

Poster from the 1959 movie "Blue Denim"

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Below is the movie's trailer.

Below is Allison Anders' commentary about the trailer and about the movie.

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The Wikipedia article about Blue Denim includes the following passages.

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. .... .

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. ...

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.

The relationship between Janet and Arthur results in her becoming pregnant. Unable to ask their parents (who misinterpret their pleas as "ordinary" teenage curiosity about sex and adulthood) for help, they turn to Ernie, who'd boasted earlier about "helping a sailor who got his girl in trouble" by directing him to an abortionist – only to discover Ernie made it all up, based on secondhand stories. The three seek together to arrange an abortion and raise the funds, only to be discovered by their parents at the last moment. In the meantime, Arthur and Janet find out how much they do not yet know about life – and how much they truly care about each other.

In the original stage version, Janet does have her pregnancy aborted, and she and Arthur talk it over later as they settle their feelings for each other. When the play was adapted for Hollywood, however, strict production codes forbade anything but the condemnation of abortion, so the storyline was changed. Arthur and Janet instead go off together, to get married and stay with Janet's aunt in another city until the baby is born. ....

20th Century Fox released Blue Denim on DVD media on March 16, 2016. It plays occasionally on cable TV and video on demand.

I searched for the movie on my cable service but did not find it.

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The Turner Classic Movies website provides the following synopsis.

Arthur Bartley, a sensitive adolescent, comes home from school one day to find that his father Malcolm has put his beloved dog to sleep. Malcolm, a former Army major, treats his son like one of his enlistees, thus alienating the boy.

As Arthur and his father clash, Lillian, Arthur's sister, blissfully readies for her wedding to dentist Axel Sorenson.

That night, Arthur's smart aleck friend Ernie comes to the house, and using the pretense that they have to study, the boys disappear into the cellar, where they play poker and drink beer. Ernie, feigning an aura of sophistication, boasts that he has arranged for a friend to get an abortion.

Soon after, Janet Willard, an earnest young girl who has a crush on Arthur, comes to the cellar to ask Ernie to forge her father's signature on an absentee excuse from school. After Ernie leaves, Janet flatters Arthur into kissing her.

Upon returning home, Janet rebels when her father, Professor Jim Willard, compares her to his angelic late wife. Janet worries that her erudite father will intimidate her friends with his aloof, intellectual demeanor.

Later, at a school basketball game, Janet watches Arthur with adoring eyes as he plays with the team. Janet waits for Arthur after the game, and when he offers to walk her home, she asks if they can go steady.

Janet then confides that she is a virgin and asks Arthur if he has ever had sex. At first Arthur claims that he is sexually experienced, but then confesses that he is a virgin, too. They laugh at their response, then embrace and make love.

Some months later at the school dance, Janet moodily runs off to the library, and when Arthur follows, he finds her studying a book about pregnancy.

When Janet insists on hiding her condition from her father, they decide to apply for a marriage license, but are turned away because they are underage.

As Janet becomes more despondent, Arthur asks Ernie to arrange for an abortion. When Ernie denounces abortion as murder, Arthur, provoked, attacks him, and Ernie admits that he was bluffing about knowing an abortionist. Desperate, Arthur begs Ernie for help and together they locate a soda jerk who offers to arrange an abortion for $150. After selling their possessions, the boys are short $90.

Still opposed to the idea of an abortion, Ernie admonishes Arthur to marry Janet, but Arthur protests that he is not ready to rear a child. Ernie finally convinces Arthur to tell his parents about the baby, but when he tries to raise the issue with his mother Jessie, she is so engrossed with Lillian's wedding that she misunderstands and thinks that he is asking for advice about sex.

Arthur next turns to his father, who is so preoccupied with the cost of the wedding that he refuses to let Arthur speak and instead advises him to enlist in the Army, where his financial future will be assured. Desperate, Arthur steals a blank check from his father and has Ernie forge the major's signature.

After the wedding, Lillian and Axel leave for their honeymoon while Janet anxiously awaits the car that will take her to the abortionist. When the vehicle arrives, Janet begs Arthur to cancel the abortion. She then resolutely climbs in and drives away, and Ernie chastises Arthur for lacking the courage to tell his parents the truth.

When the banker presents Malcolm with the forged check, Malcolm confronts Arthur, who breaks into hysterics. Alarmed, Malcolm shows concern and Arthur finally tells him about the abortion. After eliciting the location of the abortionist from the soda jerk, Malcolm, Professor Willard and Arthur speed to the doctor's office, arriving just in time to prevent the operation.

They take the sedated Janet home, where Professor Willard and the Bartleys engage in self-recrimination. Realizing that they failed Arthur when he turned to them for help, the Bartleys worry that fatherhood will severely curtail their son's future.

After Professor Willard vows to abide by his daughter's wishes, Janet awakens and declares that she initiated the sexual relationship and therefore Arthur should not be held responsible.

Soon after, Arthur learns that Janet has left town to stay with an aunt while awaiting the delivery of their baby. Stricken with a new sense of responsibility, Arthur decides to meet Janet's train at its next stop and marry her. With his father's blessings, Arthur hurries to the station, and when the train stops, Janet looks up and is overjoyed to see Arthur.

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The Daily Bastardette website provides a couple of interesting essays about the movie.

Where We Came From: The Natural Mother in Adoption Film

Blue Denim: Another Lost Film

I will not excerpt either article here. I recommend that you read the entire articles there.

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Baby and Lisa Houseman were too young in 1959 to watch Blue Denim, but Johnny Castle, Penny Johnson and Robbie Gould might have watched it.