"Dangerous Years" is one of the worst courtroom dramas I've ever seen. It's filled with ridiculous twists...ones so bad that I found myself laughing as I watched. However, it STILL might be worth watching, as it's Marilyn Monroe's first film.
The story is awful...but the actors really tried hard and the acting is NOT the problem (aside from one young lady whose acting on the witness stand is really silly). The problem is the writing. It's filled with several really ridiculous plot twists.
When the story begins, a group of teens are committing a burglary. Their leader is a young adult, Danny (Billy Halup), and when a social worker catches them, this punk kills the social worker. The remainder of the movie is about Danny's court trial. Now here is where the story falls apart. First, Danny learns that the girl he grew up with in an orphanage just happens to be the Prosecutor's daughter! What a crazy coincidence. But later, in another twist, he learns that the girl is really NOT the Prosecutor's long-lost biological child...HE is!!! Apparently, the woman in charge of the orphanage changed records in order to convince the Prosecutor that the girl was his biological child he never knew about....but in reality the boy was his child through some affair with a now dead woman. And, a woman from the orphanage shows up in court and intends to tell everyone that Danny is the Prosecutor's son! The scene is ridiculous and the lady jumps up in court and without finding out WHY and WHO she was or letting the attorneys learn more, the judge just tells her to step into the witness box to testify!! Now it gets even crazier...as she's about to tell everyone that Danny is the Prosecutor's son, she DIES of a heart attack!!!! And, the young man, ready to take his deserved punishment, doesn't tell anyone the truth because he doesn't want the girl to know the truth AND because he deserves his punishment!! None of this made any sense and really was impossible to believe....and left me mad that I'd even wasted my time with the movie.
As far as Monroe goes, she plays a waitress and has a few lines near the very beginning of the film. Nothing remarkable here...and her delivery is very different from later movies, as she sounds quite a bit different. This alone is the ONLY reason to watch this crappy movie.
The story is awful...but the actors really tried hard and the acting is NOT the problem (aside from one young lady whose acting on the witness stand is really silly). The problem is the writing. It's filled with several really ridiculous plot twists.
When the story begins, a group of teens are committing a burglary. Their leader is a young adult, Danny (Billy Halup), and when a social worker catches them, this punk kills the social worker. The remainder of the movie is about Danny's court trial. Now here is where the story falls apart. First, Danny learns that the girl he grew up with in an orphanage just happens to be the Prosecutor's daughter! What a crazy coincidence. But later, in another twist, he learns that the girl is really NOT the Prosecutor's long-lost biological child...HE is!!! Apparently, the woman in charge of the orphanage changed records in order to convince the Prosecutor that the girl was his biological child he never knew about....but in reality the boy was his child through some affair with a now dead woman. And, a woman from the orphanage shows up in court and intends to tell everyone that Danny is the Prosecutor's son! The scene is ridiculous and the lady jumps up in court and without finding out WHY and WHO she was or letting the attorneys learn more, the judge just tells her to step into the witness box to testify!! Now it gets even crazier...as she's about to tell everyone that Danny is the Prosecutor's son, she DIES of a heart attack!!!! And, the young man, ready to take his deserved punishment, doesn't tell anyone the truth because he doesn't want the girl to know the truth AND because he deserves his punishment!! None of this made any sense and really was impossible to believe....and left me mad that I'd even wasted my time with the movie.
As far as Monroe goes, she plays a waitress and has a few lines near the very beginning of the film. Nothing remarkable here...and her delivery is very different from later movies, as she sounds quite a bit different. This alone is the ONLY reason to watch this crappy movie.