Popular Culture Review Vol. 14, No. 1, February 2003 | Page 20

Popular Culture Review

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a typical middle-class existence with Mike. Joan will also become content in emu
lating the lives of her parents. While these films seemed shocking at the time with
their portrayals of out-of-control kids and rock-and-roll soundtracks, they were
encouraging the teen audiences merely to adopt the values of their parents. If the
shortcomings of individual parents were often exposed, the world of adults was
still firmly in place as the right kind of conformity for a teenager to follow.
Arkansas State University

Cyndy Hendershot

Notes
Thanks to Antony Oldknow for his help with this article.
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Lindner’s 1944 book Rebel Wiihout a Cause was optioned to Hollywood, but when it reached the
screen in the 1955 film of the same name, nothing was retained from the original except the title.
See McGee and Robertson for a discussion of this.
As David Webster notes, by 1995 The Lonely Crowd had sold 1.4 million copies, which was
“over twice as many as those sold by any other work o f sociology written by American and
Canadians sociologists who were alive in 1995” (66). The popularity of the book resulted in
Riesman, in 1954, being the first sociologist to appear on the cover o f Time.
Gilbert notes that while earlier films incorporated delinquency as a topic, films such as Knock on
Any Door (1949) and Blackboard Jungle “fundamentally shifted H ollyw ood’s treatment of
delinquency . . . in which traditional elements remained as a backdrop for contemporary action”
(183).
McGee and Robertson argue that “With the release of Blackboard Jungle the music and juvenile
delinquency became inseparable bedfellows. Many people were firmly convinced that the music
actually caused delinquency” (27).
In Rebel Without a Cause, Lindner comes to this conclusion, arguing that “There seems to be
little doubt that the special features of psychopathic behavior derive from a profound hatred of
the father, analytically determined by way of the inadequate resolution of the Oedipus conflict
and strengthened through fears o f castration” (8).
As McGee and Robertson note. Allied Artists and American-International Pictures were the two
most prolific production companies o f JD films (59).
Breines argues that “This is the common thread o f girls' experiences in the 1950s: contradictory
cues, ambiguity of intention, the possibility of new experiences, restlessne.ss, hesitation and
dissemblance” (156).
McGee and Robertson argue that the only shocking element of American International’s JD pictures
were the ad campaigns: “The contents of the pictures were quite often dul