The Delinquents (1989) on Netflix
In 1950s Bundaberg, Australia, teenagers Lola and Brownie fall in love. Their parents and welfare authorities oppose the match because the two are underage and try to separate them.
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- Netflix2.9/5
- IMDb5.7/101,183 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Lola Lovell and Brownie Hansen are teenagers in Bundaberg, Australia, during the 1950s. They fall in love, but their youth makes the match unacceptable to their parents and to welfare authorities, who work to keep the pair apart. When Lola becomes pregnant, she and Brownie leave town so they can raise their child together. Lola's mother and the police locate them and bring Lola home. Brownie signs on with a ship's crew, hoping to travel the coast and find Lola again. He befriends a sailor named Bosun, who offers him a job aboard. Lola is in Brisbane with her mother, while Brownie sails the coast in search of her.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Delinquents (1989)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- David Bowie announced in 1987 that the novel would make a good film and was later announced as composer of its score, but he distanced himself from the production, citing 'a large artistic disagreement with [the] producers' over the film's direction.
- The film had an American lead actor and an American composer to appeal to the US market, yet it was never released in the United States, partly because of a distribution problem, and the production company sued Village Roadshow Pictures and the FFC.
- Ben Mendelsohn was signed to appear opposite Kylie Minogue, but the producers replaced him with the imported American actor Charlie Schlatter so the film might appeal to an international market.
- Media reports during production said US executives interfered with the script and casting, faxing numerous script changes to reduce the use of Australian references and slang.
- Director Chris Thomson did not like the script but thought the book was wonderful, and persuaded the producers to hire Mac Gudgeon, who had made Waterfront with him in 1983, to work on it.
- The film's source, Criena Rohan's 1962 novel, had been written in a TB hospital and submitted for the Miles Franklin Award; Rohan died in 1963, having published only one other book in her lifetime.
