Too Young to Love *** (1960, Thomas Mitchell, Pauline Hahn, Joan Miller, Jess Conrad) – Classic Movie Review 10,586

‘If this happened to your daughter… would you be to blame?’

Director Muriel Box’s provocative and controversial 1960 British drama Too Young To Love is an intriguing dramatised account of the sad life of a teenage prostitute in New York’s Brooklyn district when a middle-aged man goes on trial for having underage sex with a 15-year-old girl.

Too Young To Love is a conscientious adaptation of Elsa Shelley’s successful play Pick-Up Girl, which benefits from a sterling performance by Pauline Hahn as the 15-year-old hooker Elizabeth Collins taken to juvenile court, and another sterling performance from Thomas Mitchell as the judge who delves into why she has ended up on the streets and talks her into a life of reform. A 47-year old man is caught with the 15-year old girl, but he claims he did not know she was so young.

Bizarrely Too Young To Love is shot in the UK, and therefore lacking in the expected location photography, but it certainly feels authentic and there is plenty of courtroom action to capture the attention in what is basically a courtroom drama.

Jess Conrad plays Peter Martin in Too Young to Love (1960).

Also in the cast are Joan Miller, Austin Willis, Jess Conrad as Peter Martin, Bessie Love, Alan Gifford, Cec Linder, Vivian Matalon, Charles Farrell, Sheila Gallagher, Miki Iveria, Cal McCord, Robert Henderson, Michael Bell, Robert Desmond, Bee Duffell, Nicholas Evans, Ilona Ference, Tom Gerrard, Margaret Griffin, Eric Hewitson, Ian Hughes, Malcolm Knight, Larry Martyn, Roma Miller, Titus Moede and Bill O’Connor.

Too Young To Love is directed by Muriel Box, runs 88 minutes, is made by Beaconsfield and Welbeck Films, is released by J Arthur Rank Film Distributors (1960) (UK) and Go Pictures (1961) (US), is written by Sydney Box and Muriel Box, based on Elsa Shelley’s play Pick-Up Girl, is shot in black and white by Gerald Gibbs, is produced by Sydney Box and Herbert Smith, and is scored by Bruce Montgomery.

It is shot at National Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, and Beaconsfield Studios, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England.

Pauline Hahn was born on 10 October 1941 in the US. She is an actress, known for Too Young to Love (1960), her only film.

On 26 November 2020, Jess Conrad tweeted: ‘In 1959, I was thrilled to star with Thomas Mitchell (who played Gerald O’Hara in Gone with the Wind) alongside Pauline Hahn in Too Young to Love airing tonight on TalkingPicsTV at 1.55am.’

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,586

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