In suburban Kansas City, a group of hot-rod greasers and carousing delinquents stir trouble in a bar when they are denied drinks.

In panic after Scotty passes out from drinking, the gang begins to drive him out to the country with the intention of abandoning him on the side of the road but on the way they pull into a service station to get some gas.

By working with your church group, with a youth organization in your town, by paying closer attention to the needs of your children, you can help prevent the recurrence of regrettable events like the ones you have just witnessed.

During the mid-to-late 1950s, following the success of movies by American International Pictures aimed at the teenage market such as Shake, Rattle & Rock!

Common subjects of 1950s teen films included juvenile delinquency, rock and roll, horror, science fiction, and hot rods.

Rhoden Jr. was one of the first independent exhibitors to note these shifts in the film industry and was determined to make it work for his business.

It was the beginning of the days of the low-budget regional filmmaker, and Rhoden figured that if he budgeted his "teen-flicks" cheaply enough and peddled them to his own Commonwealth chain, he would be guaranteed a tidy profit.

Using several starting points such as Blackboard Jungle, The Wild One, and Rebel Without a Cause for influence, Altman wrote the screenplay for The Delinquents in five to seven days.

For much of the cast, Altman turned to the local Kansas City actors with whom he had worked in community theater and in industrial films, including James Lantz, Leonard Belove, and Kermit Echols, as well as his then-wife Lotus Corelli and his eight-year-old daughter Christine.

Altman and Rhoden also came back from California with soundman Bob Post and camera operator Harry Birch.

Altman employed his friends and Calvin co-workers on the crew, including Reza Badiyi as assistant director/associate producer and his sister Joan as production manager.

Altman scouted locations in Kansas City and chose to film in Loose Park, as well as at the Jewel Box Nightclub, one of his favorite hangouts, and also at several popular local teen hangouts including the Crest Drive-In Theater (which Rhoden owned) and Allen's Drive-In.

As Altman said years later, "I wrote the thing in five days, cast it, picked the locations, drove the generator truck, got the people together, took no money, and we just did it, that's all".

Also with Altman's Kansas City crew were Californians Harry Birch (camera operator) and Bob Post (sound recorder).

To Altman, Laughlin was "an unbelievable pain in the ass", guilty that he had not become a priest, "with a big Catholic hangup and a James Dean complex".

[5] Altman's experimental directing style was still developing, but one sign of his future directorial achievements can be seen in a story told by one of Altman's young cast members, SuEllen Fried, about the shooting of a party scene in the film: "He rented an old house off Walworth Boulevard and told us to pretend we were having the wildest party of our lives, while he moved the camera from room to room and just filmed whatever was going on.

Altman (who described writing the film as one done over a weekend that he dictated to his sister Joan that would see the scenes improvised on set) expressed his thoughts about doing a script as one where he tried to avoid the characters having the same voice, where the distinction in sources and voices seemed closer to reality that would push the actor into creating the part rather than having the writer or director just bring the elements prepackaged, which only works out if the actor is willing to take the responsibility.

In his contract with Rhoden, Altman had a clause stipulating that the film's post-production and editing would be executed under professional conditions in Hollywood.

In late August, Altman and Reza Badiyi traveled across the country by car (Rhoden would not approve the air fare) to edit the film in California with Helene Turner.