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Centron ProductionsProcrastinator, The (1952)

When Jean becomes chairman of the social committee, she habitually fails to plan and use time wisely in carrying out her responsibilities. When she is unable to get everything together in time for the school dance, her schoolmates are justifiably upset with her. Filmed with a cast of nonprofessionals in Lawrence, Kansas. Writer: Margaret Carlile (Trudy) Travis.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Centron Productions
Sponsor: N/A
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keywords: Social guidance; Teenagers; Morality

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: ERD - - March 8, 2006
Subject: Comes Across
Cute little film teaching teenagers of 1952 the consequences of procrastinating. Some of the regional accents of the actors made the performacnes a little inconsistent, however.

Reviewer: Retro Geek - - March 7, 2006
Subject: Demand a recount
Jean is elected chairman of the social committee for the class party. Although she has several months to plan, she "fiddle faddles" her time away. This ultimately results in her showing up late on the night they need to decorate the gym with only a small paper bag with just a few rolls of crepe paper. Her friends are shocked and angry and Jim decides to tell her off.

Why were they shocked? We learn at the beginning of the film that all her friends KNEW she was a procrastinator. Jim was sorry that Marge was not elected as the chairman and indicated that Jean "never sees things through". This is where we learn that Jean was chairman of the class assembly the year before and everything had been done at the last minute and everyone was so mad!
So if this was an "elected" position, why in the heck did they all vote for Jean again? Will they vote for Jean again next year?

A great little film and very amusing to watch. One of my favorites.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - March 17, 2004
Subject: Sorry, My Foot!
Another amazing production put forth by my faaaaavorite teen guidance film maker, Young America films! In this film Jean procrastinates procrastinates procrastinates, putting off everything, and she's in charge of her school social committees and parties! Her parents and school principal goes after her, but she doesn't listen, and it all winds up horribly, with the students coming down on her harshly. The actress playing Jean is alright, but special bonus points go out to the actress playing her Mother, who seems to put a comma after every two words, her enunciation is bizarre. And the actor playing Jim, who looks EXACTLY like the boy pal Cindy has in Cindy Goes To A Party.. Same voice, same inuncations. But, this was made 4 years earlier then that classic film. I'm at a loss to explain this. Highly reccomended!

Reviewer: RepRev - - November 2, 2003
Subject: Good stuff
Not the best film on this site, but a reasonable watch. Rather heavy on the morals, as always, but mostly it's true stuff. Yet again the teacher suggests creating a list! What I really want to know is... is Jim the same actor as the guy in "Cindy Goes to a Party" (another classic film, btw)? We can't decide...

Shotlist

Deals with individual who habitually fails to plan and use time wisely in carrying out responsibilities.

Jean disappoints her peers when she becomes chairman of the social committee. She always puts everything off to the last minute and as chairman she says, "I'll take care of everything" and then cannot live up to her words. Her classmates urge her to get things started early and to divide up the workload, a teacher suggests that she make a "to do" list with time allotted for each task but instead of heeding their advice she isn't able to get everything together for the school dance and everybody is justifiably upset with her.

Shots:
Close-up of a foot tapping in the air in a penny loafer shoe with white bobby socks and patterned skirt
Close-up of young woman twisting her hair
Close-up of doodling on notebook paper
Close-up of a calendar fading from October into April
Mother on telephone
Children in an empty gym



SOCIAL GUIDANCE SELF HELP TIME MANAGEMENT PLANNING PROCRASTINATION