Why Take Chances? (Safety at Play)

Why Take Chances? (Safety at Play)

Rejissyor: Davis (Sid) Productions. Why Take Chances? was a sequel to Sid Davis' very successful picture Live and Learn (1951), another safety film for children that used bluntly forceful simulated accidents to show the results of carelessness. Sid Davis — child actor, stand-in for John Wayne, mountain climber and movie producer — made more than 100 films about dangers that befall children and teenagers, including accidents, narcotics, sexual transgression and psychological stress. Danger always lurks in the placid Southern California landscapes of his films, but as in many safety films, the fascination of danger and misbehavior often tends to distract from the intended cautionary messages. One doesn't always have to reject Davis' messages or doubt his sincerity in producing these films, but the films do tend to stimulate many different readings. One not-so-obvious issue I think was on his mind was the effect of rapid urbanization and population growth in the Los Angeles area after World War II (Davis himself had first settled in Los Angeles in 1926), when neighborhoods with a small-town feeling became quickly amalgamated into an almost-endless big city. In such an ugly city, "dangerous strangers" lurked everywhere, waiting to turn good girls into bad girls, to corrupt and injure youth. The postwar landscape and composition of LA — new neighborhoods, construction sites, backyards littered with obsolete prewar refrigerators — also formed a matrix of risks for children, a map of exposures to jeopardy and danger. Considering this, many of his films (including, certainly Why Take Chances) can be seen as protests against what the newer Los Angeles had become and as attempts to draw new boundaries for children. Davis received many awards from criminal justice and youth organizations and distributed his own films from 1948 through the early 1980s with great success. He is an excellent example of the self-taught entrepreneur who entered the educational film business after World War II, set up a vertically int

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