Bronco Bullfrog (1969)

Bronco Bullfrog is a really enjoyable British kitchen sink drama that has garnered cult status for its realistic portrayal of youth subcultures of the late 60s. Filmmaker Barney Platts - Mills (Private Road) hired the cast of non professional teenage actors from the streets to go in front of his camera and play out his truthful script. The group of amateurs hired weren't completely randomly chosen. They had been the centre of his short documentary called "Everybody's an actor Shakespeare Said" , where he filmed  the positive effects of bringing the kids off the street where they could get arrested for loitering and into a new world of expressing themselves in the local community playhouse (run by Joan Littlewood). This documentary was the inspiration for Bronco Bullfrog. Apart from these two projects the group of teenagers never appeared in another film, but watching this movie makes you gain interest in the unknowns and wonder whatever happened to them.

The teens of East London have little to no opportunity and so they just tarry along trying to find excitement in what little their working class community has to offer. Hanging around the cinema, cafe, bomb sites and joining in the local underground criminal ring led by the films namesake Bronco Bullfrog (Sam Shepherd), whose on the lam. The protagonist is 17 year old Del (Del Walker) a welder's apprentice. He and his 15 year old girlfriend Irene (Anne Gooding) live out a Romeo and Juliet romance. Because their parents are against their relationship they go behind their backs seeking freedom and adventure on Del's motorbike.  They also get in trouble with the law after a train robbery, so Del decides to head out of town, taking Irene with him and the two reside wherever possible. Their adolescent attempts to escape authority is where the story picks up some speed but its slightly painful because you know the outcome will be dim for the twosome, as they are unprepared money-wise and otherwise to live as outlaws. The film ends abruptly as Del, Irene and Bronco are fleeing from the authorities and the couple wonder what to do next...and what they will end up doing is a mystery.. Bronco's not the main character of the film but he serves the purpose as the major badass and the one the other tearaway kids idolize; because he makes his living out of the goods he steals and lives without boundaries set up by interfering parents.

The film is very much of its day, as far as the main story line goes it reminded me of Ricky Gervasis's Cemetery Junction: A comedy/drama set in a picturesque small town in the 70s where a group of kids are just bored out there minds and wonder if they missed out on all the fun of the swinging 60s, they pick fights, cause scandal, until finally the main couple find the courage to leave the boring town behind them. While I think Cemetery Junction owes a lot to numerous Brit New Wave films,  it didn't quite reach that level as greatness that I think it was trying to achieve. Bronco Bullfrog doesn't give any sense its trying at all, the cast just walk and talk like drained out, bored  teenagers, there's absolutely no hint of pretension in their actions. The authenticity makes it so interesting to watch, especially as Del and Irene awkwardly "communicate" to each other, its so real; I sometimes felt as if I were invading on their lives while watching it, if that makes sense. Barney Platts did encourage the teenagers to improvise and contribute their real life experiences to the story, its defiantly a glass half empty film, Barney Platts was just trying to tell it how it is: Grim, you really feel for the poor sods.

If you are interested in the era's suedehead subculture and just love British new wave this is a must see for you! it has recently been restored by the BFI. For a film that had a budget of £18,000 it certainly is triumphant. 

Anne Gooding (Irene)  and Del Walker (Del)

So, what ever became of the cast? you ask:

"The director says Gooding is dead ("died on the dancefloor"), while another performer was killed by a car. But Walker is still around, and is now a grandfather on the Isle of Wight. And it turns out that Shepherd, who played the title role, currently works as a market porter in Spitalfields. I ring his phone and wake him up. It transpires that he was the main ringleader of that long-ago protest in Oxford Circus – and that story, too, had an epilogue. A week later, Princess Anne did come to see Bronco Bullfrog, and took her seat beside Shepherd in the palatial splendour of the Mile End ABC. The actor bent down to kiss her hand and was later dragged away by police. "They told me if I ever pulled a stunt like that again I was for the high jump." - The Guardian - uk