Trailer
Plot summary
Two gangs share the blocks of East Harlem: the Puerto Rican Horsemen and the Italian Thunderbirds. A blind fifteen-year-old named Roberto Escalante is knifed in the street in daylight while people watch, and three Thunderbirds, Arthur Reardon, Anthony 'Batman' Aposto and Danny diPace, are arrested. The district attorney's office assigns Hank Bell to prosecute; Dan Cole, who wants to run for governor, backs the first-degree charge. Hank grew up in this neighborhood and knows its people, so he questions the families and the gang members himself, and both sides answer with threats of violence against him and his wife Karin. She finds the charge harsh against a boy of fifteen. The accused claim Escalante came at them with a knife.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Young Savages (1961)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- According to director John Frankenheimer, the film was made for economic reasons: the production company Hecht-Hill-Lancaster was deeply in debt and had agreed to do four very inexpensive pictures, so Burt Lancaster was paid $150,000 instead of his usual $750,000.
- The 1961 film drew on real youth gang violence in New York City of the time, including the Salvador Agron case.
