Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Nostalgia Central
    • Home
    • Blog
      • Lists
    • Television
      • TV by Decade
        • TV – 1950s
        • TV – 1960s
        • TV – 1970s
        • TV – 1980s
        • TV – 1990s
      • Comedy
      • Drama
      • Kids TV
      • Variety
      • News & Sport
      • Advertisements
    • Music
      • Music by Decade
        • Music – 1950s
        • Music – 1960s
        • Music – 1970s
        • Music – 1980s
        • Music – 1990s
      • Artists – A to K
        • Artists – A
        • Artists – B
        • Artists – C
        • Artists – D
        • Artists – E
        • Artists – F
        • Artists – G
        • Artists – H
        • Artists – I
        • Artists – J
        • Artists – K
      • Artists – L to Z
        • Artists – L
        • Artists – M
        • Artists – N
        • Artists – O
        • Artists – P
        • Artists – Q
        • Artists – R
        • Artists – S
        • Artists – T
        • Artists – U
        • Artists – V
        • Artists – W
        • Artists – X
        • Artists – Y
        • Artists – Z
      • Artists – 0 to 9
      • Genres
      • Music on Film & TV
      • One-Hit Wonders
      • Playlists
      • Online Radio
    • Movies
      • Movies by Decade
        • Movies – 1950s
        • Movies – 1960s
        • Movies – 1970s
        • Movies – 1980s
        • Movies – 1990s
      • Movies – 0 to 9
      • Movies – A to K
        • Movies – A
        • Movies – B
        • Movies – C
        • Movies – D
        • Movies – E
        • Movies – F
        • Movies – G
        • Movies – H
        • Movies – I
        • Movies – J
        • Movies – K
      • Movies – L to Z
        • Movies – L
        • Movies – M
        • Movies – N
        • Movies – O
        • Movies – P
        • Movies – Q
        • Movies – R
        • Movies – S
        • Movies – T
        • Movies – U
        • Movies – V
        • Movies – W
        • Movies – X
        • Movies – Y
        • Movies – Z
    • Pop Culture
      • Fads
      • Toys & Games
      • Fashion
      • Decor
      • Food & Drink
      • People
      • Technology
      • Transport
    • Social History
      • 1950s Year by Year
      • 1960s Year by Year
      • 1970s Year by Year
      • 1980s Year by Year
      • 1990s Year by Year
      • Events
    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1970s
    Movies - 1970s Movies - W 2 Mins Read

    Wanderers, The (1979)

    Share
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email

    In a newly integrated Bronx neighbourhood in 1960s New York, Ritchie (Ken Wahl) leads the Italian American gang ‘The Wanderers’.

    He’s a stud and has his sights on bohemian chick Nina (Karen Allen), but when he knocks up the daughter of a local mobster, he’s pushed into a shotgun marriage.

    The Wanderers’ tough-talking runt Joey (John Friedrich) shows potential as an artist but his overly macho father discourages his sensitive side. He befriends his new neighbour Perry (Tony Ganios), a big sweet brute with his own parental problems.

    The other main gang member is Turkey (Alan Rosenberg), but he has his sights on joining the much tougher posse, ‘The Fordham Baldies’ (lead by Erland van Lidth). Turkey shaves his head to look like them but still never seems to win them over.

    Most of the gangs are realistically race-based; ‘The Wongs’, for example, are Asian kids, while ‘The Ducky Boys’ are almost mythically monstrous.

    The film flashes between the gang’s boyish antics – like cheating at strip poker – with the almost surrealistic predatory danger of life in the Bronx.

    An early film from Philip Kaufman who went on to direct the likes of The Right Stuff (1983) and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988).

    wanderers_003

    Though less lauded than the broadly similar American Graffiti (1973), and more variable in its tone and quality (it’s a bit episodic), this tale of the high-school life of a bunch of Italian-American kids in New York’s Bronx in the early 1960s remains thoroughly entertaining.

    Indeed, in some quarters it has become something of a retro cult fave.

    Like Mean Streets and American Graffiti before it, The Wanderers is loaded with classic doo-wop and rock n’ roll music, most notably The Four Seasons and Dion. This helps to give the film’s sense of period detail an even stronger feel.

    Late in the film, as Ritchie questions what to do with his life, he wanders into a Greenwich Village bar and sees Bob Dylan singing (not shown on screen).

    Of its stars, only Karen Allen really went on to bigger if not necessarily better things, playing the love interest in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Starman.

    Richie
    Ken Wahl
    Joey
    John Friedrich
    Nina
    Karen Allen
    Despie Galasso
    Toni Kalem
    Turkey
    Alan Rosenberg
    Buddy
    Jim Youngs
    Perry
    Tony Ganios
    Peewee
    Linda Manz

    Director
    Philip Kaufman

    Video

    Related Posts

    • Blindman (1971)
      Blindman (1971)
      One of the most stylish and enjoyable Spaghetti Westerns to come out of the early ’70s features blind gunman (Tony…
    • Get Carter (1971)
      Get Carter (1971)
      If The Italian Job (1969) celebrated Britain's 1960s supremacy in everything from football (soccer to you lot on the left-hand side of…
    • Yesterday's Hero (1979)
      Yesterday's Hero (1979)
      Rod Turner (Ian McShane) is a washed-up drunken footballer trying to get his life back on track. Turner is signed…
    • Cross and the Switchblade, The (1970)
      Cross and the Switchblade, The (1970)
      David Wilkerson is a relatively young parish priest in 1950s Philipsburg, Pennsylvania. His church sends him to the slums of…
    • Lords Of Flatbush, The (1974)
      Lords Of Flatbush, The (1974)
      Sylvester Stallone (in his first top-billed role), Happy Days star Henry Winkler, B-movie heart-throb Perry King and Paul Mace are…
    • Bitch, The (1979)
      Bitch, The (1979)
      This dreadful but equally commercially successful sequel to the tedious kitsch classic, The Stud (1978) sees Joan Collins reprises her…
    • Innocent Bystanders (1972)
      Innocent Bystanders (1972)
      Featuring Stanely Baker’s last big-screen role, Innocent Bystanders looks and feels like a hard-boiled low-rent James Bond. Proof that Baker…
    • Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes (1974)
      Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes (1974)
      Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes is ostensibly about Pasha (Paul Harris), a crime lord who runs a numbers…

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleConvoy (1978)
    Next Article Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)

    Comments are closed.

    Follow us
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
    You May Also Like
    • Eamonn Andrews Show, The
      1 9 6 4 – 1 9 6 9 (UK) 179 x 45 minute episodes This […]
    • Delta House
      1 9 7 9 (USA) 13 x 30 minute episodes This sitcom version of the […]
    • Angel (1984)
      23-year-old Donna Wilkes plays 15-year-old Molly, or […]
    • All-New Super Friends Hour, The
      1 9 7 7 – 1 9 7 8 (USA) 15 x 60 minute episodes Batman, […]
    • Barney
      Barney & Friends was an inane PBS children’s […]
    • Goonies, The (1985)
      It didn’t earn half as much money as fellow 80s family […]
    Twitter Feed
    Please note


    Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 1999 and contains some words and references which reflect the attitudes of those times and which may be considered culturally sensitive, offensive or inappropriate today.
    Popular Tags
    1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 1976 Action Figures Amicus Arcade games Australia Beach movies Beatles Blaxploitation Board games Britpop Canada Crime Disney Doo-Wop Elvis Presley Girl groups Glam Goth Hammer Heavy Metal Irwin Allen Labels Merseybeat Mod revival Motown New Romantic New Wave NWOBHM Oi! One-hit wonders Power Pop Pub rock Punk Radio Scotland Ska Soul music Sport Surf music
    Search Nostalgia Central
    Copyright © 1998, 2022 Nostalgia Central
    • About Nostalgia Central
    • Contact
    • FAQ

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.