Naked Youth / Hothead

Juvenile delinquent "Switch" and his girlfriend Donna escape from a labor camp. Hitchhiking, they are picked up by Revis, a drug dealer with the FBI hot on his tail. Dumping him and stealing his car, the teenage rebels unwittingly take off with a massive heroin shipment. All three parties converge on the Mexican border for a violent shootout that none of them may survive.

Naked Youth star Robert Hutton's career stretched back to the 1940s. His youthful resemblance to James Stewart meant that he was often cast in roles that Stewart missed out on due to his service in World War II. These included Destination Tokyo (1943) and Janie (1944). Post-war, his career would slide into "B" pictures with solid performances in films such as The Colossus of New York (1958), The Slime People (which he also directed; 1963), and They Came From Beyond Space (1967). The lovely Carol Ohmart, who gives a compelling performance as a drug addict, appeared in two classic horror films, House on Haunted Hill (1959) and Spider Baby (1967). Richard LaSalle's score is at times extremely reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann's for Vertigo (1958).

PLUS: HOTHEAD (BW, 1963): Frank is a tough kid who gets into fights everywhere he goes. During one of his rampages, he inadvertently meets a homeless drifter who turns out to be the father he never knew. Not wanting to follow in his father's footsteps, Frank decides to change his ways before it's too late. Hothead's director, Edward Mann, mostly worked as an editor, on films as diverse as Dillinger (1945), Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958), and Birdman of Alcatraz (1962). Buxom starlet Barbara Joyce would years later play Batman's daughter, the Huntress, in the extremely short-lived spin-off Legends of the Superheroes (1979) with Adam West.