The Young Sinner Reviews

An early effort from the creator of BILLY JACK and not a bad outing at all. He's a high school athlete who is confessing the story of his life to a priest. At first he is a top football player with hopes of getting a scholarship. His home life, with an alcoholic father and a working mother, is a shambles. One day he gets into trouble by using the school pool after hours and is put on probation. Though in love with Powers, he dates March, the daughter of wealthy family, until the parents catch the two in bed. Next he's wrongly accused of taking part in a robbery and expelled from school. With no one to turn to, he accompanies Heard, a 14-year-old sexpot, to a secret place in the church in hopes of making love. However, he is disgusted with himself and goes to confession, seeking advice. Despite his quadruple credits of star-producer-director-writer, Laughlin keeps his ego in check to produce a surprisingly interesting story of teenage angst. The sex is never exploitative, and Laughlin wisely filled his cast with some good character actors, resulting in believable people who make the story work. This was originally released in 1961 under the preview title AMONG THE THORNS but was withdrawn for four years before it's final release. It was to be the first part of Laughlin's trilogy entitled "We Are All Christ," but neither of the other two works ever was produced. Instead, Laughlin introduced his Billy Jack persona in BORN LOSERS in 1967 and achieved great, though short-lived, popularity with in 1971 with the followup, BILLY JACK.