Former child actor Dean Stockwell makes his first grown-up appearance in The Careless Years. Stockwell plays a mixed-up high schooler who wishes to marry Natalie Trundy, but the girl's parents (played by John Stephenson and Barbara "June Cleaver" Billingsley) feel the couple should complete school first. Dean and Natalie impulsively run off to elope, while Natalie's anguished parents inaugurate a nationwide search for the wayward kids. Though it is fairly clear that Dean and Natalie have gotten to know each other intimately during their flight, they meekly return home and agree to "wait" until school is out. Careless Years served to introduce promising young actress Natalie Trundy, whose starring career was cut short by an auto accident that kept her off-screen until the late 1960s.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide