The Young Ones (1961)

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General		Extras
Category	Musical	Main Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer
Rating	?
Year Of Production	1961
Running Time	103:48
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Sidney J. Furie
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Cliff Richard Carole Gray Robert Morley The Shadows Susan Hampshire Richard O'Sullivan Melvyn Hayes Una Stubbs
Case	?
RPI	Box	Music	Brian Bennett Roy C. Bennett Various Others

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

      In the mood for a bit of sentimentality? Hair Brylcreemed? Pointy shoes polished? Petticoats primped? Then come on kids - let's groove!!

      This film is probably best watched by the already converted. I imagine it'd be a bit of a hard sell to get my teenaged progeny to sit down and watch this movie without making pointy eyebrowed faces or rude gagging gestures. I myself am only *just* of an age to remember a world this innocent, but my husband (a product of 1947 - no doubt a very good year) was singing and bopping away within moments of this movie cranking up in the machine. The whole experience of watching this makes one realise the chasm between the early 60s and these noughties - from drop-down record players to MP3 recorders, from jammin' the airwaves of the BBC to instant global communication on the Net - my oh my haven't things changed.

      But I digress. This movie is one of Cliff Richard's "Big Three", the others being Summer Holiday and Wonderful Life (aka Swingers' Paradise - yikes!).

      And so to the story itself, as if you didn't know!

      Young Nicky (Cliff Richard) and his girlfriend Toni (Carole Gray) are the royalty of their local Youth Club, where they hang out with all the other kids, dancing to Nicky and The Shadows' music, and playing records and games. They are hip and they are cool. So imagine their horror when their pal Ernest (played by a very young Richard O'Sullivan, who would later feature in Doctor films and Man About The House and Robin's Nest) confirms that their hangout is indeed about to be overtaken and bulldozed by the corporate tycoon, Hamilton Black (Robert Morley). Oh no!!! How will the kids save their clubhouse!

      Here's a great idea - why don't they put on a show!!!! So - will the kids endure all the complications and triumph? Well, who am I to spoil the ending!

      In all truth, it's really rather long for such a flimsy little plot, but somehow we forgive it because it evokes a more optimistic and energetic era, or so it seems in the dustier light of hindsight. There are times when the staging is utterly hysterical, with early attempts at special effects coming across as self conscious in the extreme, and the scripting is almost a triumph of vapidity. This is cheesy in the extreme, or, as the trailer suggests, "The gayest movie in years!" - well you said it daddyo!!

Video

     For a forty odd year old film, it's really not too bad at all.

     The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.

     Considering the age of the original stock, the sharpness and luminance are surprisingly good. There's little low level noise and shadow detail is really not a problem. Occasionally there's a slight opacity to some scenes, but overall not enough to distract or qualify as poor. Grain levels were reasonably fine.

     Colours also were surprisingly pleasing. There was occasional posterisation of a minor scale which made the colours a tad blocky, but overall, skin tones were very good and a full and rich colour palette was on display.

     With the exception of a hint of telecine wobble at times, there were really only appearances of the major culprits, aliasing and motion blur, but not at too great a level. I've certainly seen worse examples of both sins in far more recent films. There was a small amount of moiré appearing on the odd tweed jacket and a touch of detail loss in mid and background parts of some scenes, but again, these crimes have been far more aggressive in other films I've seen. There was the odd scratch or dust blight, but these I am prepared to draw a veil of discretion over, as they did not distract from the film overall.

     There were no subtitles available on this film.

     The Young Ones is presented on a dual layered disc with the movie confined to a single layer (Wonderful Life, reviewed separately, takes up the other layer).

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The single English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack available does its job.

     Most of the time, dialogue was distinct and clear, although occasionally, there was a faint buzzing that was obviously annoying, but mercifully intermittent. Audio sync was a bit of a minor challenge, though the worst offences definitely occurred through the musical numbers which at times were horribly mimed and way out from the audio. Ah well - we've all seen a few movies like that in the past!

      There's plenty to get sentimental about musically, with original Shadows numbers being performed and a myriad of known and not so well remembered early 60s songs. The music is precisely what you'd expect, and is nostalgia to the nth degree.

     Overall, the sound was pretty nondirectional and a tad sharp and tinny at times. The subwoofer was nonexistent, and there was some variance to the timbre and quality of the sound. Sometimes it sounded shrill and tinny, then it sounded a bit like it was underwater. This was noticeable but not exceptional to the point of fury.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Theatrical Trailer - The Young Ones (3:28)

      The two regions seem to offer the same, so R4 is the winner for reasons of proximity.

     It's cheesy, it's silly but it's oh-so sentimental. If you've seen them before, you know what to expect. This movie hearkens back to a kinder, gentler time, when the world could be fixed with a song and a little im-ag-in-ation. A quite respectable transfer of a bit of nostalgia.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall