Blue Denim is a 1959 American drama film based on a Broadway play by writer James Leo Herlihy.

The story is set in Dearborn, Michigan during the 1950s, and revolves around 14-year-old Arthur Bartley (Brandon deWilde) and his schoolmates, 15-year-old Janet Willard (Carol Lynley) and Ernie (Warren Berlinger).

As Arthur's parents try to shelter him from negative things in life (like the euthanasia of the family dog, done while he is at school), he turns to Janet for comfort.

Unable to ask their parents (who misinterpret their pleas as "ordinary" teenage curiosity about sex and adulthood) for help, they turn to Ernie, who had boasted earlier about "helping a sailor who got his girl in trouble" by directing him to an abortionist – only to discover Ernie made it all up, based on secondhand stories.

[8] In September Lynley was signed to a long-term contract at Fox and Dick Powell was to produce and direct.

Dunne wrote the script in collaboration with Edith Sommer, who just had a play on Broadway about teenagers titled A Roomful of Roses, which producer Charles Brackett had admired.

[12] In the original stage version, Janet does have her fetus aborted, and she and Arthur talk it over later as they settle their feelings for each other.

When the play was adapted for Hollywood, however, strict production codes forbade anything but the condemnation of abortion,[citation needed] so the storyline was changed.

[17] In April 1961 Variety reported the film would be made starring Fabian Forte in June from a script by William Noble based on a novel by James Herlihy.