(Dra '60,BW). Christopher Knight, Frank Gorshin, Venetia Stevenson, Carolyn Craig, Jack Nicholson, Dick Foran. A young man attempts to break away from his ghetto existence in this adaptation of the controversial James T. Farrell novel about Chicago's South Side district during the 1920s. Scripted and produced by Philip Yordan. Jack Nicholson stands out as one of Studs' cronies.

On New Year's Eve in 1919, in Chicago, eighteen-year-old Bill "Studs" Lonigan looks to 1920 with feelings of fear and uncertainty. Studs is torn between his love for younger Lucy Scanlon and his loyalty to a group of fellow, jobless wastrels comprised of Kenny Killarney, Weary Reilly and Paulie Haggerty. When Lucy, a "good girl" whom Studs has invited to an elegant New Year's Eve party, insists on leaving early, Studs goes to his gang's wild party and gets drunk. Stud's father Patrick is angered by his son's irresponsibility and aimlessness, while his very religious mother has dreams of him becoming a priest. Two unproductive years pass in which Studs struggles to find himself and spends his time playing pool, drinking and chasing girls. During a visit to a speakeasy, Studs and his friends humiliate a blowsy, drunken prostitute. Studs continues his chaste courtship of Lucy, but she wants to attend college in another city and sees no future with Studs. One evening, after his father calls him a "pool room bum" and hits him in frustration, Studs leaves home and asks two gangsters to give him a job. When the gangsters play a practical joke on him by requiring him to kill one of their friends, Studs finds himself incapable of murder. At his father's invitation, Studs returns home and begins to look for work, buys a saxophone and dreams of playing in a band. Studs is soon diverted from job hunting by a burlesque show, and stimulated by a stripper and liquor, visits pretty spinster Julia Miller, his former high school teacher. Drunk and delirious, Studs imagines that Julia is the stripper and after he attempts to rape her, breaks down in tears. Studs is sobered by his actions, and when Julia comforts him, they form a strong emotional bond and begin an affair. Lucy returns from college just as Studs is due to start work as a dental technician trainee, but she is no longer interested in him. Eventually, Studs resigns himself to joining his father's house-painting business, although he continues to fraternize with his friends. Realizing that their relationship is inappropriate, Julia stops seeing Studs. Paulie, who is now married, intends to open a nightclub with money given to him by his father-in-law to buy a taxicab, and plans to involve his friends in running the club. However, when Paulie is killed in an accident, his widow rails against his wastrel friends at his wake, prompting a shaken Studs to stop drinking. Still obsessed by Lucy, Studs attempts to see her, but after he discovers that she has moved away from Chicago, he starts drinking again and visits Julia, who introduces him to her pretty niece, Catherine Banahan. Although he begins dating Catherine, who falls in love with him, Studs is still haunted by memories of Lucy. Studs loses another friend when Weary is arrested for rape and is sentenced to ten years in the state prison. Studs is now twenty-eight years old and still working for his father when Catherine leaves him because of his drinking. When Kenny, the last of the group, leaves Chicago to become a traveling club comedian, Studs realizes that he has to face his problems alone. He visits Catherine after not seeing her for several weeks and learns that she is going to have his baby. When the stock market crash of 1929 destroys his father's business and leaves Studs jobless, he turns to his priest, Father Gilhooey, for advice. Gilhooey lectures him on his drinking and irresponsibility, then asks what it is he wants out of life. Studs answers "I want Lucy Scanlon." The priest then counsels him that the greatest single thing in the world is to love someone and to be loved, and tells him that Catherine still loves him. Studs rushes to Catherine, and after apologizing for his past behavior, says he loves her and begs her to stay with him. Although Catherine rejects him, he insists enigmatically that he "has got to love her."