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4.0 out of 5 stars
Good message, wrong audience, Jul 10 2006
You know, I think The Violent Years is actually a pretty decent film, despite its over handed commentary on the whole juvenile delinquency craze that swept through Hollywood in the 1950s. It's hard to believe, but filmmakers actually used to make films with messages, exhorting viewers to straighten up and fly right - or else, this could happen to you: kids with no respect for anyone, committing crimes just for the kicks, man, etc. Of course, the effectiveness of such movies can be called into question - but more on that below.
As for the film, witness one stone-faced young blonde with impeccable sweater-wearing skills and a lust for thrills. She leads a gang of buxom hooligans on a crime spree that escalates from gas station holdups to a physical attack on a young man (probably the highlight of the poor dope's entire life, truth be told) to fencing stolen goods to Communist-inspired vandalism to murder. Poor Paula Parkins (Jean Morehead) has been forced to grow up with rich parents who don't spend enough time with her, always out working or organizing charity events. Naturally, she has to rebel - and her parents, despite all of their money, are somehow incapable of buying a clue. Paula is a bad, bad girl, and it's only a matter of time before she discovers why living dangerously is in fact dangerous.
I could go into all the crimes they stuff into this one film, but that doesn't get to the heart of this movie. The whole point of The Violent Years is to lay the blame for juvenile delinquency squarely on the parents. Certainly, Paula's parents share some of the blame for their daughter's actions, since they were always too busy to talk to her or make sure she was really the good girl they thought her to be, but The Violent Years pins all the blame on Ma and Pa. Weren't these films targeted at young audiences? What good did it do to lay all blame for juvenile delinquency on the parents? Sure, judge, I robbed that store and shot a man in cold blood - but we all know I'm not to blame; it was those rotten parents of mine. Fortunately, Paula does pay the price for her crimes in this film, but she never takes responsibility for her own actions.
Well, maybe the big ending will help convince all those kids in the audience not to make juvenile delinquents out of themselves, even if they have bad parents. Uh, no - it doesn't. What you get is an exceedingly long and boring speech from a judge whose monotone could put kids to sleep by the thousands on the night before Christmas. As it turns out, none other than Ed Wood wrote the script for The Violent Years, and that does a lot to explain the judge's big speech at the end, which has him mandating a return to God and the rehabilitation of the whole woodshed industry. It's a good and valid message, but the excessive moralizing and seemingly endless length of the whole speech robs it of any real effectiveness.
To sum up, I think The Violent Years is a pretty good, albeit campy, film with an important message, but I think the message is directed at the wrong audience and thus fails to accomplish its obvious goal of curbing juvenile delinquency.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A quartet of leather-jacketed delinquent devil-dolls..., Jun 21 2003
"The Violent Years" is a camp classic with the emphasis on the camp. This 1956 film scripted by the legendary bad movie director Ed Wood (the film is actually directed by William Morgan) begins with four young hellions walking disdainfully by a blackboard on which the rules of propriety have been written. Meanwhile, a narrator intones: "This is a story of violence, of violence born in the uncontrolled passions of adolescent youth and fostered by this generation of parents, those who, in their own smug little world of selfish interests and confused ideas of parental supervision, refuse to believe today's glaring headlines." There is Georgia (Theresa Hancock), Geraldine (Joanne Cangi), Phyllis (Gloria Farr), and the leader of the pack, Paula Parkins (Jean Moorhead). Paula's parents are too busy to have heart to hearts with their little girl anymore and so she and the other gals start up a gang so they can rob gas stations, attacks young men at Lover's Lane, and mainly having as much fun as they can on the road to Hell.
Now, as you have come to expect with any film bearing the Ed Wood label, the dialogue is horrible, the acting is nonexistent, and the lecture the judge gives Paula's parents at the end of the film is an absolute hoot, all of which speaks to the appeal of this film. It is so bad that you keep munching on the popcorn through all the pajama parties, heavy petting, murder, mayhem, dope rings, and the baby born in jail to keep your jaw from laying on the floor. On this Rhino video the 70-minute film is sandwiched by the commentary of former teenage thrill kitten Mamie Van Doren (star of such classics as "Untamed Youth," "High School Confidential," and "Girls Town") who makes a series of lame jokes. But the theme songs for "Teenage Theater," which both starts and ends the tape, sets the stage for this camp classic and gets you in the proper mood. This is not a first tier Ed Wood film but it is still enjoyably bad and you can make up your own crude jokes and barbs even if, like me, you missed this particular turkey on "MST3K."
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1.0 out of 5 stars
The Vapid Years, Oct 7 2002
If Ed Wood had directed this film, as well as scripted it, the movie might have been a jd version of Jail Bait. But, alas, the direction is merely mediocre and thus doesn't rise to the top of the pond. The plot is stagnant and the dialogue so dry that any breath of camp would have evaporated in the actors' scowling mouths!
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