Page "The Delinquents (1957 film)" Paragraph 3

Due to the “ consent decree ” component of the “ Paramount Ruling ” of 1953, the major studios were constrained from booking their own chains by this antitrust ruling.

But the Commonwealth circuit and other small regional independent film companies, by virtue of not having previously existed as film producers, were exempt from this rule.

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.

So, in the spring of 1956, he raised $ 63, 000 with the help of other local businessmen in Kansas City, decided his first teen film would be about troubled teens, thought up a title for it and nothing else, and hired local filmmaker Robert Altman ( who knew Rhoden Jr. casually and had been directing industrial films and documentaries for the local Calvin Company ) to write and direct the film.