The March Of TIme - Youth In Crisis

This 1943 black and white staged documentary film examines the issue of juvenile delinquency in the context of the World War II effort, framing a shortage of mentally fit draftees as an issue rooted in childhood (TRT 18:30).

Opening titles (0:08). An “Editor’s Note” thanks the film’s participants (0:21). “Youth in Crisis” (0:34). A queue of young men file down a staircase, following a sign with an arrow, “Selectees” (0:46). The selectees stand before medical examiners in their underwear, paper tags hung around their necks. Doctors examine them using stethoscopes, otoscopes, head mirrors (0:56). A young man approaches an adult in a cubicle wearing a suit and tie, who asks, “have you ever had any obsessions?” He responds with a history of suicidal ideation (1:18). Men waiting for their psychological exams. A newspaper clipping, “Mental Rejections High” (2:00). A meeting of military personnel, led by Lewis B. Hershey, Director of the U.S. Selective Service System (2:13). An office door, “The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Dr. Lawson G. Lowrey, Editor.” Dr. Lowrey speaks on the subject of discharges for psychological neuroses (2:44). Teenage boys loitering. Young men sip from Coca-Cola bottles at a lunch counter with young women (3:28). Boys with helmets and toy rifles play “war.” A child pretends to die (3:39). A young boy listens to a radio broadcast dramatising gun violence. An air raid siren. A crying child is consoled (3:55). A National Guardsman on urban patrol. Two white police officers attempt to disperse a crowd of African American men from a street corner. Firefighters spray a flaming automobile with a fire hose. A headline: “State Troops Called In After 11 Die in Race Riots” (4:26). Teenage boys are unloaded from a paddywagon. Troops patrol a city street, carrying long rifles (4:44). An industrial factory clouded in smoke. A bustle of working people in various uniforms. A propeller-driven aircraft under construction. A woman factory worker assembles an engine. Women wear safety glasses while working at machines (4:56). A teenage girl arrives home to find a kitchen sink filled with dishes. A note reads: “I won’t be home after work till very late…” (5:21). Boys run through a park of mobile homes. Boys playing catch are narrowly missed by a passing automobile. A boy sets a piece of newspaper on fire as a girl looks on, smiling. Teenagers in an alleyway unbox a pair of marijuana joints (5:55). Adolescent boys at a newsstand magazine rack. A vendor wraps a bottom drawer item in a newspaper. Two boys review their contraband purchase with excitement (6:48). A woman with two children. A father and son argue at a family dinner table. Neon lights, sailors in “dixie cup” hats. Youths dancing, smoking, drinking in a cafe (7:10). Young women are “picked up” by passing sailors (8:13). A teenage girl arrives home late at night, calls her mother a “fuddy duddy” (8:56). Teenagers at a police station. “Municipal Building.” Elected officials discuss budget cuts (9:11). Magazines covering juvenile delinquency. Statistics show an 89% increase in “offenses against common decency” by girls under 21 (10:14). A doctor hands test results to a nurse, who makes an appointment with a young woman (10:45). Exterior “Federal Bureau of Investigation.” A woman in a feathered hat speaks (11:16). A residential street. A family plays with Tinkertoy Construction Set. A girl does dishes. A church (12:02). A police officer speaks with two boys. A sign: “Children’s Division of the Domestic Relations Court.” A young woman receives probation. A child guidance clinic (12:57). A “Day Nursery.” Youngsters organize a Victory Bond drive and discuss the war effort (14:08). An extracurricular model building class. An aircraft identification chart. Boys using machines. Exercising in a gym (15:06). A boxing match, a basketball game (16:18). A “dry nightclub” offers table tennis, soda (16:47). A rural 4-H club fair. Prize cows. Working in a victory garden (17:06). Marching troops. Delinquents. “The End” (17:52).