The Young Savages (Hecht; U.A.) is taken from Evan (The Blackboard Jungle) Hunter's novel, A Matter of Conviction, which chronicled some savage, real-life skirmishes in New York's teenage gang warfare. The film is at its best when at its ugliest—picturing punks prowling their tenement-glutted, garbage-strewn "turf" (territory), or an Italian gang stabbing a blind Puerto Rican boy to death, or the grim subway beating of Assistant D.A. Burt Lancaster, or the switchblade threats on his pretty wife. These scenes were excitingly photographed on location in Manhattan's juvenile jungle, but the plot is make-believe...
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