It didn't start with The Amboy Dukes but that 1947 novel helped lead the way. America was soon realizing that its teenagers were disaffected and revolting against societal norms, and that meant big business and big profits. By the 1950s America was hooked on juvenile delinquents; films such as 1953's The Wild Ones and 1957's Rebel Without a Cause and The Blackboard Jungle were reaping in big money. Popular novels by Hal Ellson and others, the fear mania against comic books spearheaded by Dr. Fredric Wertham, the unexplained popularity of rock and roll among the younger crowd, the supposed blase attitude among many parents becoming comfortable in their new lifestyles, the plethora of nonfiction warning of the dangers of juvenile gangs -- all this combined into a national juvenile delinquent mania. Rebels were cool and Hollywood was eager to cash in.
And cash in they did, producing some of the most imaginative and unimaginative dreck committed to film. Case in point: The Violent Years, written by an uncredited Ed Wood (he of cashmere sweaters and Plan Nine from Outer Space) and directed by William Morgan (Mr. District Attorney, Heart of the Rio Grande, The Bells of Capistrano -- he returned to directing after a thirteen year gap to direct The vilent Years, his final film).
Former Miss Hollywood and Playboy's October 1955's Playmate of the Month Jean Moorhead (The Amazing Colossal Man, Motorcycle Gang, Attack of the Puppet People -- if she is still alive, she'd be 91) as Paula Parkins, the leader of a gang of juvenile delinquent high school girls. Among her gang are Theresa Hancock (no other IMDb credits) as Georgia ("George"), Gloria Farr (ditto no other IMDb credits) as Phyllis ("Phil"), and Joanne Cangi (she's also credited in two episodes of 1955's It's a Geat Life as a switchboard operator and a receptionist) as Geraldine ("Jerry"). Local criminal Sheila (Lee Constant, also with no other IMDb credits), a member of the Communist Party, instructs the girls to wreck a local school. Gerry and Phil are shot and killed as they try to get away and Paula guns down one of the cops. Paula and George report back to Sheila, who (because she is an untrustworthy Communist, I suppose) tries to turn them over to the cops, but Paula shoots and kills her. Paula and George try to get away in Sheila's car, but in the ensuing car chase, they crash through a storefront window and George is killed and Paula hopitalized.
Because Paula is a juvenile, she cannot be sentenced to die, but the judge sentences her to life without parole. And then -- surprise! surprise! -- we learn that Paula is pregnant, perhaps from a man she and the gang raped, or perhaps from lone of their "makeout" parties. Paula's parents are denied custody of their granddaughter because of the neglectful way they raised Paula.
Paula's gang evinces a laissez-faire "so what?" attitude throughout the film.
Let this tale of teenage angst, woe, and bad behavior be a moral lesson for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9o2pqF4gKE
Another Ed Wood "classic" (so to speak).
ReplyDeleteFavorite line: one cop doesn't understand how kids can behave this way, but his partner has the answer:
"They're not kids. They've morons."
I know I laughed.