Arthur Bartley and Janet Willard are fairly typical 1950s teenagers. Their lives are turned upside down however when Janet becomes pregnant. Desperate to tell his parents of the predicament they find themselves in, Arthur finds that he cannot do so.
These sort of films are fun. Today (2017) it would be very realistic, not at all a fun movie. In the 1930s, it would be all fun and not at all realistic, using crazy scare tactics. But the 1950s had a bit of a middle ground. You could not be so blatant about things, and yet you still wanted to be serious... so you get this half-baked middle ground.
On some level, though, you have to admire them for even making the film (despite changing certain elements to make it pass the censors). We are often lead to believe that the 1950s was a decade of family values, and surely people were not getting their high school girlfriends pregnant -- and there is no way abortion existed. But, of course, these things did exist. (Often if you do a little basic math, you will notice how common it was for babies to be born less than nine months after a wedding in those days.)
These sort of films are fun. Today (2017) it would be very realistic, not at all a fun movie. In the 1930s, it would be all fun and not at all realistic, using crazy scare tactics. But the 1950s had a bit of a middle ground. You could not be so blatant about things, and yet you still wanted to be serious... so you get this half-baked middle ground.
On some level, though, you have to admire them for even making the film (despite changing certain elements to make it pass the censors). We are often lead to believe that the 1950s was a decade of family values, and surely people were not getting their high school girlfriends pregnant -- and there is no way abortion existed. But, of course, these things did exist. (Often if you do a little basic math, you will notice how common it was for babies to be born less than nine months after a wedding in those days.)