Young people

For me the most interesting thing about this rather tepid drama from the early 60's is the number of young performers whose careers were just starting at this point. One can feel the excitement and optimism that must have pervaded the group, (which doesn't exclude other emotions, such as insecurity or rivalry). Their personal stories turned out to be at least as dramatic as this story.

TROY DONAHUE looked like a Troy Donahue but acted like a Merle Johnson. Still, he was hot stuff in 1961 and Warner Brothers was pushing him as their next big star. But his talent couldn't sustain his career and Robert Redford wound up with all the roles Merle might have had. By then it was low-budget films, failed marriages, drugs and alcohol. he wound up homeless and living in Central Park. He rallied a bit, got a job teaching acting aboard a cruise ship but his health deteriorated and he died shortly before 9/11 at the age of 65.

CONNIE STEVENS was a talented and beautiful singer and actress who became a TV star on Hawaiian Eye. She was ambitious for more, (she wanted to play Eliza in My Fair Lady, for example). Warners was promoting her as Troy's female equivalent. She appeared in several TV series and some films while maintaining a singing career as well. Things slowed down in the 70's but she made a big comeback in infomercials and is now a very rich lady. Also a caring one, being involved in several charities, a lifelong USO supporter and having been at Troy's bedside when he passed away.

DIANE MCBAIN was probably too gorgeous for her own good. She was still a teenager when she made this film but was already being typecast as a femme fatale. She was a better actress than she got the chance to show but couldn't escape her bad girl image and her career suffered because of it. She was a victim of rape in 1982 and has been an advocate for rape victims since then.

SHARON HUGUNEY was even younger than Diane. She was only 16 when this film was made. She was something of a prodigy, studying music and ballet as a child and actually writing a play. Her dark-haired beauty was drawing comparisons to Elizabeth Taylor. She met actor turned producer Bob Evans on the set of Parrish and married Evans, who was almost twice her age. He went to New York to get into the clothing business and her career basically ended until their marriage did a few years later. She tried to get her career going again but she was almost killed by a speeding police car in 1977 and took years to recover, only to succumb to cancer at age 52 in 1996.

SANDRA EDWARDS, the so beautiful you can't believe it wife of one the Raike boys, (Edgar), was a playboy centerfold in 1957. She married an actor named Tom Gilson, whom she shot and killed after he broke into her house when he was drunk. it was ruled a justifiable homicide. Unfortunately, her career died with him.

HAMPTON FRANCHER plays the bad guy, Edgar Raike. He's had along career as an actor and screen writer, (Blade Runner, The Mighty Quinn). But he never became a star.

DAVID KNAPP, who plays Wylie, the younger Raike brother, kept acting until 2000 but never made it big. He died n 2006 at the age of 67. Those lucky Raikes: they wound up married to Sandra Edwards and Diane McBain! On screen, at least.

But in 1961 they were all young, gorgeous and ambitious. The future seemed bright and limitless. That's what i think about as I watch this film.




The past is a series of presents. The present is living history we are privileged to witness