Plot
The film was adapted from the novel of the same name by author Criena Rohan. Lola and Brownie are teenagers in the Australian town of Bundaberg during the 1950s. They fall in love, but because of their age must fight their parents and welfare, who try to keep them apart. Lola falls pregnant and the couple runs away so they can keep their baby and live happily ever after. Lola's mother and the police find them and take Lola home, where her mother insists on an abortion for Lola. Brownie joins the crew of a ship so he can sail the coast and look for Lola. Meanwhile, Lola moves to Melbourne, becomes a waitress ands bleaches her hair. Eventually Brownie finds her working in the pub and takes her on board the ship. Lola is taken away by her mother and welfare to live with a caretaker in the country side, until she comes of age.
When a former charge visits for lunch, Lola realises that her caretaker has thrown all Brownie's letters in the bin. Lola and the caretaker fight, and Lola runs away.
Finding her mother drunk and unsympathetic, Lola is enrolled into an all-girls school. The day after a riot started by the girls, Lola meets up with Brownie and runs away with him. They move in together and meet another young couple named Lyle and Mavis. They have one daughter and Mavis is heavily pregnant with their second child. The birth does not go well and both Mavis and the baby die.
Although Lola and Brownie offer to adopt Mavis' surviving daughter, they are unable to as they are too young and unmarried. Lyle leaves the child with Lola to give to welfare as the child will be placed in foster care and Lyle is unable to bear the thought of giving up his only child. After the child has been taken, Lola and Brownie are reunited once more and they prepare to wed. The film ends with their wedding with their families in attendance.
Read more about this topic: The Delinquents (1989 film)
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