The Prime Time

Bored with her comfortable home life, rash seventeen-year-old Jean Norton demands that her parents allow her to go out for yet another night. While her mother refuses, her father relents when he hears that Jean has a date with neighborhood boy Tony Jackson, of whom the parents approve. As Tony drives Jean into town, he tries to interest her in a quiet night together, but once they reach the teenagers' soda shop, Jean borrows Tony's car to rendezvous with policeman "Mack" McKeen, with whom she is having an affair. Earlier, Mack and another officer find beatnik portrait artist The Beard at his studio where they accuse him of molesting minors while drawing them. Although Mack harshly deals with the beatnik, after his partner leaves, Mack hands The Beard a matchbook listing the time that night Mack will return to use the studio for his rendezvous with Jean. Later, Mack, unable to leave work, calls The Beard at the Golden Goose bar, where the artist recites poetry and draws customers for money, and orders him to return to the studio to tell Jean to go home. Meanwhile at the soda club, Tony's friends, wanting to cheer him up, convince him to go swimming. Smitten with Tony, Gloria gives him a ride, but when they reach the lake, Tony is so glum about Jean's rejection that he refuses to leave the car. All the kids are skinny-dipping when Gloria finally decides to join them, but when one of the boys scares her with a frog, Gloria runs into Tony's arms. Unable to resist her naked body, Tony kisses her, then joins in the fun. Back at the studio, Jean decides to pose nude for The Beard, hoping to make Mack jealous, but when The Beard tries to adjust her body in the light, Jean is so repulsed that she calls him a "little shrimp." Furious, The Beard attacks her and then ties her up. When Jean does not show up at the soda shop by eleven o'clock that evening, Tony decides to wait for her with shop owner Luigi, who is cleaning after closing. Hours later, Tony finally asks Gloria to call the Nortons to see if Jean has returned home on her own, but Gloria learns that Jean is not there. After a call to the police reveals that no accidents have been reported, Gloria and Tony search the town for his car and finally locate it, although Jean is nowhere to be found. Tony returns home where his parents and the Nortons bitterly reprimand him, even though he tells them that Jean was not with him for the evening. While the Nortons believe Jean might have run away, when Tony checks her room the next day, he finds no evidence of her packing for a long trip. Instead he finds several matchbooks with times for rendezvous written on their covers, including one that asks Jean to meet at The Beard's. Tony enlists his friends, who all use pictures of Jean to find out where she was last seen. Showing her photo to a bar hostess, Tony learns that Jean was a frequent visitor who had seduced policeman Mack and planned to leave town to become a stripper in the city. Meanwhile, friend Shorty discovers that The Beard is a regular at the Golden Goose, where the bartender told him that Jean was a prostitute. Furious, Tony storms over to the Golden Goose and demands to know where The Beard is, but the belligerent bartender throws him out. After Shorty knocks the man out, Tony orders him to arrange for The Beard to meet him at the Golden Goose that evening. Back at the studio, The Beard tells Jean that he has forged farewell notes to her family and friends announcing that she is leaving town. When Jean continues to belittle and mock him, The Beard threatens to kill her. Meanwhile, Mack is sent in to investigate Jean's disappearance. Tony offers him the evidence he has found, but Mack loudly orders him to stay away. Unaware that Jean is being held captive at the studio, Mack orders The Beard to leave town to protect himself from police scrutiny for sleeping with a minor. Meanwhile, Tony, believing that McKeen is probably the "Mack" whom the hostess mentioned, rushes to the Golden Goose to interrogate The Beard, who claims that Jean "blew town." Soon after, The Beard hurries home, with Tony and Gloria in pursuit, but The Beard loses them. Arriving at his studio, The Beard sedates Jean and packs his bags. As he turns on all his gas burners to asphyxiate the young woman, The Beard drops a pocketful of matches and his last remaining money without noticing. After rushing out to catch the next train, The Beard realizes that he must return to fetch the money. Tony and Gloria spot him and follow him back to his apartment, where The Beard picks up the money, but as he tries to escape out his kitchen window to elude Tony and Gloria, he slips on a match underfoot and ignites the room. The resulting explosion propels him out the window to his death. Tony rescues the unconscious Jean and hands her to Mack, telling him "she's yours." As she comes to, the conniving Jean, desperate to escape her parents, threatens to expose Mack for consorting with a minor if he does not marry her. Mack relents, but warns her that she will live to regret rash decisions.