The Metro Goldwyn Mayer studio was by the late 1960s in serious decline due to a number of factors, so much so that they eventually started to experiment with product that just a decade or so earlier they never would have touched. "The Young Runaways" was one of those experiments, an attempt to tap into the growing youth market. But I'm sure that any youths back then that saw this movie probably found it somewhat unbelievable and unrelatable. The movie plays out in an extremely dated way even by 1968 standards. It doesn't understand that most youth runaways were fleeing households that were truly abusive and unlivable - the problems facing the youth runaways in this movie seem really insignificant. And the lives of youth runaways in this movie seem really cushy compared to the hellish life youth runaways typically have on the street. All this is somewhat silly, but it isn't inspired enough to make the movie true unintentional comic gold. Most of the movie feels really bland and predictable instead. By the way, if you think that you might be getting the opportunity to see some serious exploitation due to the fact that the movie got an "R" rating in 1968, be warned - by today's standards, the movie would (barely) get a "PG" rating, and could play on prime time network television without any edits at all.
Review of The Young Runaways
