Are You Popular?.

This 40's "social guidance" film seems particularly aimed at girls, reinforcing the double standard prevalent at that time. "Nice girl" Carolyn is portrayed as deserving of popularity, while "bad girl" Ginny, who parks in cars with boys at night (gasp!), is portrayed as a well-deserved social pariah. In general, teens are told that everything in their lives will run smoothly if they only follow a few simple rules of manners and morality. Parents are portrayed as eminently well-mannered and reasonable, so there's the implication that if a teen's own parents aren't like that, it's the teen's fault for failing to reach the standard of perfection displayed (and shown to be easy). It must have been depressing to be a teen at that time (as if being a teen is ever easy).

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.

Better Reading

Better Reading . Teenager Harold Wilson has a problem—he can’t read for (expletive deleted). So he has to spend all his free time studying ...