***SPOILERS*** Overblown and overlong, 137 minutes, yet unintentionally funny movie soap opera about this Kentucky truck driver who in what seems like a few weeks becomes the darling of the New York literary set as well as the most sought after man, married or unmarried, by women all across the USA.
Artie "Youngblood" Hawke, James Franciscus,has been dabbling in writing the great American novel while making coal deliveries in rural Kentucky. It's when his literary talent is discovered by New York publisher Jason Prince, Lee Bowman, after getting a draft of Artie's book "Alms of Oblivion" that he saw a star in the making. Prince knowing a good thing when he sees one singed Artie up before any other publishing house grabbed him. It's Artie's copy editor Jeanne Green, Suzanne Pleshette, who fist fall head over heels for the handsome young writer but as we, and Jeanne, soon find out Artie is playing the field of rich and well connected women in NYC which she doesn't fit in to. Meeting her at a Christmas eve writers cocktail party Artie soon gets involved with married socialite Freda Padge, Genevieve Page, who's got, with her money and connections, a lot more to offer him then just plain working girl Jeanne Green.
The movie gets bogged down with Artie's adventures in writing and bedding down women that you soon get lost in what it's really trying to tell you: A story about someone who bit into far more then he can chew and in the end ended up choking on it. There's a very touching scene between Freda and Artie in her leaving her husband Paul, Kent Smith, in order to marry him that Artie turns down. Freda or actress Genevieve Page gave such an outstanding and electrifying performance in it that despite the crummy and ridicules film she was in she should have gotten the Best Actress Academy Award for 1964 just for it alone! In another Academy Award caliber scene Freda brakes the news to Artie that her son Paul Jr, Pat Cardi, who worships the ground that he walked on killed himself because he felt embarrassed in his classmates, in the private school he was in, taunting him about his mother having a secret affair with Artie while married to Paul's pop Paul Sr. This was a case of what's now called bullying in school that in times leads to the person being bullied ended up killing himself some 40 years before it was even mentioned or talked about!
One of the most unusual things about "Youngblood Hawke" is James Franciscus' hammy Kentucky or southern accent. Watching the movie Franciscus uses it in something like less 20% of the scenes he's in and sounded like he was doing a very corny and laughable imitation of it on the "Saturday Night Live" TV show. Franciscus who graduated magna cum laude from Yale University had such a difficult time talking like a native Kentuckian that he'd switch to his real talking voice, where he sounds like a collage English professor, in most of the dialog he had in the film! That made it look like he was playing two different parts or roles in the film. Which completely confused and even floored everyone watching the movie!
Artie "Youngblood" Hawke, James Franciscus,has been dabbling in writing the great American novel while making coal deliveries in rural Kentucky. It's when his literary talent is discovered by New York publisher Jason Prince, Lee Bowman, after getting a draft of Artie's book "Alms of Oblivion" that he saw a star in the making. Prince knowing a good thing when he sees one singed Artie up before any other publishing house grabbed him. It's Artie's copy editor Jeanne Green, Suzanne Pleshette, who fist fall head over heels for the handsome young writer but as we, and Jeanne, soon find out Artie is playing the field of rich and well connected women in NYC which she doesn't fit in to. Meeting her at a Christmas eve writers cocktail party Artie soon gets involved with married socialite Freda Padge, Genevieve Page, who's got, with her money and connections, a lot more to offer him then just plain working girl Jeanne Green.
The movie gets bogged down with Artie's adventures in writing and bedding down women that you soon get lost in what it's really trying to tell you: A story about someone who bit into far more then he can chew and in the end ended up choking on it. There's a very touching scene between Freda and Artie in her leaving her husband Paul, Kent Smith, in order to marry him that Artie turns down. Freda or actress Genevieve Page gave such an outstanding and electrifying performance in it that despite the crummy and ridicules film she was in she should have gotten the Best Actress Academy Award for 1964 just for it alone! In another Academy Award caliber scene Freda brakes the news to Artie that her son Paul Jr, Pat Cardi, who worships the ground that he walked on killed himself because he felt embarrassed in his classmates, in the private school he was in, taunting him about his mother having a secret affair with Artie while married to Paul's pop Paul Sr. This was a case of what's now called bullying in school that in times leads to the person being bullied ended up killing himself some 40 years before it was even mentioned or talked about!
One of the most unusual things about "Youngblood Hawke" is James Franciscus' hammy Kentucky or southern accent. Watching the movie Franciscus uses it in something like less 20% of the scenes he's in and sounded like he was doing a very corny and laughable imitation of it on the "Saturday Night Live" TV show. Franciscus who graduated magna cum laude from Yale University had such a difficult time talking like a native Kentuckian that he'd switch to his real talking voice, where he sounds like a collage English professor, in most of the dialog he had in the film! That made it look like he was playing two different parts or roles in the film. Which completely confused and even floored everyone watching the movie!