Age 13 (1955) watch online HD

Following the untimely death of his mother, a youngster(age 13) begins to exhibit signs of social disconnection and unbalance. Gradually, his disordered mental state mounts, bolstered by various unfortunate factors(excessive solitude, schoolmate cruelty, and a cold, neglectful stepfather). With his "elan vital" quietly shattering, the boy's future looks quite bleak and uncertain.

This is a highly incongruous public-awareness film, and substandard in most technical departments. It does, however, manage to succeed surprisingly well in adducing its grievous message. Deeply dispiriting, even borderline surreal at times, AGE 13 is a film which exists in a strange gray area between underfunded filmtrash and visceral outsider art. A troubling espial on society's miscreant and maladroit, and the heartbreaking ways they are "made". Stylistically, it's obviously quite dated, but there's certainly an eternal relevance and urgency to this story.

Memorable, rather moving, and recommended...warts and all. 6.5/10

13 year-old Andrew has a couple of problems: his mother has recently died, and he has the voice of an 8-year old. This anti-masterpiece of post-syncing is unintentionally hilarious at times, but it's also an utterly bizarre and oddly compelling educational film. Andrew tries to bring back his mother by using her powder puff (good job his loveless, belt-wielding stepfather misses THAT scene) and fixing her radio. Trouble even arrives at school when his sleeve literally falls off in class. Things later really go south for the lad, and you know he's hit rock bottom when he eats a meal at a skid row mission, hears jazz music, and witnesses a burlesque show. But don't worry: by film's end, Andrew has received the psychological help he needs (as well as a full battery of Rorschach tests) and is petting kittens and playing volleyball with the other kids.

While the film grammar may seem a bit stilted in places, and there are some issues with lighting and focus, the framing is excellent and the film overall is both compelling and touching. The film focuses on a troubled young boy whose mother has recently died and whose stepfather is stern and unloving. Parts of the film are surreal, showing for instance a montage including a toy boxer, a burning lightbulb, pool balls spinning about, and a wailing saxophone, unexplained, whereas other parts such as the scenes at school are dealt with realistically. The conclusion is especially affecting, and nearly moves me to tears every time.

Age 13 (1955)

*** (out of 4)

Interesting drama about a 13-year-old boy named Andrew (Michael Keslin) whose life turns upside down after his mother dies. He is forced to live with the stepfather who really doesn't understand him and soon the boy starts to turn violent and steal. Producer Sid Davis is probably the main source to a lot of the material here even though director/screenwriter Swerdloff gets most of the credit. As with other Davis shorts, this one here was shot silent and then narration and voice overs were added at a later time. I think this takes some away from the film because some of the dubbed voices just don't match with the actors on screen. With that said, this is still an impressive educational short that runs smoothly and quickly. The 27-minute running time flashes by thanks to a good performance by the young Keslin. The kid certainly isn't remembered today but he's still quite good here. The supporting players are a tad bit rough as is the entire film. The ultra low-budget makes for a more realistic picture, which is a good thing in a movie like this.

Simply awesome melodrama about a kid who loses his mother and then starts his downward spiral, striking everything in his path down. I am guessing this was the coup de grace for Sid Davis, as this film tries with some really creative cinematography, angles and acting from the lead, who was REALLY quite good. Unfortunately, everything else suffers (but in a good way). The dubbed voices sound like they are coming from 2 people only, the other actors in the cast don't shine as the lead, and there's some rather weird directorial flourishes you wonder if old Sid was tipping his hat to Ed Wood Jr or Dolores Wishman. Nevertheless, I can't recommend this movie enough, and of course is a MUST SEE on this site!

Young Michael Keslin who is the only member of the cast to receive any screen credit stars in this short subject about a kid heading for trouble because he can't cope with the death of his mother.

The other cast members should be grateful that they did not get any credit for posterity, possibly because the level of acting doesn't come up to a high school play let alone an ABC afternoon special from the Seventies.

One thing that really got me was that the stepfather lavished more attention on the pet cat than his stepson. Normally people like that are not animal lovers as well, that just did not gibe with me.

Probably was well received in its time, today it is an object of ridicule.

Age 13:

This film is like any other bad fifties educational film I've seen, complete with the melodrama, monotonous voices, and rigid performances. And I expected no more. Thank God Kevin Moore from Chroma Key (ex-Dream Theater member to those unfamiliar with Chroma Key) saw potential in Age 13 to make an out-standing album out of it. He wrote all of the music on that album (called Graveyard Mountain Home) to the film. I suggest you pick up Graveyard Mountain Home and skip the Age 13, because the album comes with a bonus DVD of the film with the music over it.

Here we have an American live action short film named "Age 13" from 1955, so this one is already over 60 years old, actually soon 65, and the writer and director here is Arthur Swerdloff and it is one of not too many filmmaking efforts by him and not the only somewhat educational short from him. You could say that in the widest sense this is a film about grieving the death of a beloved one. In the center of it all, we have a teenage boy and his mother died recently. We watch his struggles with getting along with the new situation. At school and at home. And this is where the strangeness begins. Actually, the mother died only 3 days ago or so. Why the hell is he even at school. And why oh why does he end up with a gun in his hands in the school yard. And why does his steppfather treat him like dirt so shortly after such a huge tragedy. This film did not have anything to do with reality at all. There are so many strange sequences and scenes, also towards the end in particular, but also on several occasions in-between. I find it really difficult to find anything about this film. For every good moment, there are like 10 bad ones. But lets still end the review on a high note. The perhaps best moment was when the film described the boy's anger that is also directed at his mother for leaving him alone and that reference felt very authentic and true. Let me tell you that as somebody who lost his father at a relatively young age. But yeah, sadly these really rare good moments do not keep this film from being a failure. This (almost) half-hour watch was way worse than maony, actually most, of the films made fun of by MST3K, so it is baffling why this one has a higher rating than pretty much all of these. people need to think themselves again and not suck in what other people tell them is quality or garbage. This one we got here is definitely the latter. Stay far away, not even worth seeing from a film historian's perspective.

In 1955, this little short tries to get to the root of the emerging juvenile delinquent problem - in this case, a boy from a broken home, living in poverty compared to his peers and ashamed of his second hand clothes, and further isolated from society when his mother dies when he is just 13, leaving him with only a stepfather as family. The stepdad is not cruel but is not a warm and tender guy either. He shows all of his affection to his cat.

So slowly the boy rebels. At first he turns to theft to get the tools he needs to try and fix his mother's radio which stopped working when she died, somehow thinking that the two are tied together. When his stepfather sends all of his mother's old clothes to charity the boy puts the stepfather's cat in a railroad car (????) headed out of town as a kind of payback....I guess.

But school officials are watchful and get the boy the kind of emotional help he needs, and somehow the cat is in the household at the end of the short. I'm not sure - logistically - how THAT happened. This is one of the shorts Turner Classic Movies usually exhibits as part of TCM Underground, trying to show a piece of Americana that has long passed. At least it shows that, even in the idealized 50s, not everything was perfect and carefree for everybody.

As other reviewers note, Age 13 seems rigid, clunky and stiffly acted from a 21st-century perspective. However, it may have had wide distribution and a very important and positive impact for viewers at the time.

For me, it was interesting to try and imagine some of the other things that might have been in the minds of people while seeing this kind of material in the mid-1950s. The Korean war? Reconstructing Germany? The music of Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, Little Richard, Duke Ellington or Jackie Wilson? Only someone old enough to remember can really know. Also interesting for me is how Age 13 portrays the institutional approach to child psychoanalysis and psychotherapy at the time. How much things had changed, even twenty years later.

The fantastical runaway sequence, starting at 21 minutes, was reminiscent of the final scene of Francois Truffaut's 400 Blows ('Les 400 Coups') of 1959, in which the troubled young protagonist also flees his environment - but ending with sadness and ambiguity rather than the convenient settling down and happy ending that is cosily portrayed here.