Young Americans (1967)

Director:

Alexander Grasshoff

Release Date:

October 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

A behind-the-scenes look at the Young Americans, a show choir made up of young singers who project an...

Plot Keywords:

Independent Film

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Diane Adams	...	Diane
Phil Aubry	...	Phil
Nancy Austin	...	Nancy
Patricia Barker	...	Pat
Rich Chalet	...	Rich (as Rich Ciulei)
Dennis Heath	...	Dennis
Nancy Hornyak	...	Nancy
Connie Karcher	...	Connie
Vicki Lawrence
Katie Mulder	...	Katie
Nancy O'Brian	...	Nancy
Ralph Pettiford	...	Ralph
Ken Prymus	...	Ken
Judy Randel	...	Judy

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:Btl

Company:

Robert Cohn Productions

Trivia:

This film won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature of 1968. However, when it was discovered that the film had been shown in a single sneak preview in 1967, the film was declared ineligible and the Oscar was withdrawn just days after the ceremony.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 10 (2007) (V)

104 minutes of insufferable crap!

104 minutes of insufferable crap! One begins to wonder 10 minutes into this "documentary" just what was the nominating committee of the Academy Awards smoking? It was after all 1968. I threw this hard to find copy (it is now obvious to me why it's rare) into the dreck bin and I hope for the sake of all humanity that that was the last copy! Plot summary: A gaggle of squeaky clean All-American teenagers seek fame, not fortune, for they are too wholesome to accept dirty money, and go touring and sharing with us, their valuable theatrical abilities all across our fair country. This coven is seemingly led by the tiresomely spunky Vicki Lawrence - and who could ever forget the gnome-like Judy Thomas (cousin to Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor of world renown) who is always falling behind and constantly in need of the attention and assurances of the group, and so it plays out. On and on and on it goes, struggling to be the best they can be in-spite of the group frictions that such awesome talent generates and reconciling and recommitting to themselves and each other to be even better. Let us not forget that this pretentious travesty was filmed during bloodiest time of the Vietnam war. Our young men and women in uniform were dying in a distant land in an ever increasingly unpopular war and our nation was weathering some of it's deepest moral struggles to date and the Young Americans went on dancing and singing!