A blind Puerto-Rican boy is stabbed to death in Spanish Harlem and three teenage gang-members are arrested for the crime. Politically ambitious D.A Hank Bell (Burt Lancaster) presses for the death penalty for all three boys, but as he probes deeper he realises what seemed an open and shut case is ever more complex beneath the surface.

Based on the novel A Matter of Conviction by Evan Hunter, who two years later was to write The Birds for Mr. Hitchcock, and directed by John Frankenheimer, "inventively and arrestingly" according to Variety, the film has been described more than once as a non-musical version of West Side Story, which was released the same year, and features an intriguing support cast that includes Shelley Winters and Telly Savalas (who plays a police lieutenant, don't you know). The Young Savages is an early examination of gang violence and racial tension, and the first film in a long-running collaboration between Lancaster and Frankenheimer.

The Young Savages will be released on UK DVD on 4th May 2009 by Optimum Home Entertainment at the RRP of £15.99, but without any extras.