THE
VIOLENT YEARS (1956)Director: William M. Morgan
THE
VIOLENT YEARS (1956)Our good buddies at Image Entertainment and Something Weird Video have done it once again, folks! This time 'round, they've brought us a Drive-In Double Feature of vicious teenage girls on a binge of destruction! Like Image/SWV's previous release of THE BEAST THAT KILLED WOMEN/THE MONSTER OF CAMP SUNSHINE (see my review if you dare), this new DVD contains the option of watching both features and all of the extras as one big long attraction.
THE VIOLENT YEARS is an absolutely terrible (but lovable) JD (that's Juvenile Delinquent for those of you with no imagination) film which is only recognized to this day since it was written by an uncredited Edward D. Wood, Jr. (yes, you may scream and run now if you wish). The story concerns young Paula Parkins (Jean Moorhead). Her father is a busy newspaper editor who is always working late and her mum is always at meetings or going out or something along those lines, so poor Paula has no one to guide her in life and winds up working for a really bad lady who employs young teenage delinquents to vandalize and terrorize and vulcanize and circumcise... (oh, wait, that's not right).
Anyway, Paula and her three buddies rob gas stations (hey, who doesn't these days?), throw a pajama party with guys and booze (look closely and you might even see some flesh underneath those big jammies... whoo-hoo!) and, in every male human's favorite scene, kidnap a young guy and take him back in the woods to "rape" him (um, excuse me, but how in the hell do they do that? And why is the guy resisting? I spend ALL day waiting for something like that to happen and NOTHING! IT DOESN'T HAPPEN! THEY LIE!).
Finally, the girls wreck a classroom (it turns out her "employer" is working for the most dreaded enemy of 1950's America: THE COMMIES!!! Oh, the humanity!) in which Paula KILLS A COP! Well, in the end, the shit hits the fan and things go from bad to worse for poor Paula. Her parents receive a long, boring lecture on being bad parents by judge I. Stanford Jolley ("The Crimson Ghost" himself) following her arrest and conviction, she finds out she's pregnant, gives birth in prison and dies--her bastard baby left on it's own, alone in the world. Doesn't it just make you wanna cry (or commit suicide)? Wow, pretty heavy stuff.
The DVD print of THE VIOLENT YEARS isn't all too terrible, with opening credits different than those we've seen in some prints (the Rhino VHS release and the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version both had credits with a painted backdrop of the city whereas this version has plain ol' backgrounds and a picture of the girls for the title credit itself). The film has its fair share of grain and scratches, but hey, it's still good! The sound is very decent, with occasional pops and hisses that you'd expect in an old film like this.
The second feature is the even worse GIRL GANG, produced by George K. Weiss (producer of Ed Wood's GLEN OR GLENDA? if that tells you anything) and starring the great Timothy Farrell (who also plays a cop in THE VIOLENT YEARS) as Joe, a sinister druglord who loves introducing high school kids to marijuana and heroin. He also encourages them to steal cars (which they do in the opening scene) and just be JDs in general.
Take Joe's semi-girlfriend June (Joanne Arnold) for instance. This ball of loveliness sleeps with just about every guy, and does a lot of heroin. She seduces her day job boss, robs him and later accuses him of raping her to get more money from him. Sounds a lot like ladies we read about these days, huh?
Well, after the longest, most boring "party" in drug film history (where one guy screams "Oh, no!" as his girlfriend takes him into another room to have sex --what's HIS deal?), the kids go and rob a gas station. The attendant isn't going down alone, however, and shoots a girl (who escapes in the car with the others) and a boy (who doesn't). The police find out from the dying boy where the rest of the gang is and head there.
Meanwhile, Joe and his right-hand man force their unemployed alcoholic doctor friend (whose license has been pulled) to pull the bullet from the girl. First he steals her ring and takes his precious sweet time with the operation. She dies anyway. The police raid the joint as June and another chick are having a catfight and arrest everyone except the doc who has fled and is later gun downed by the coppers, who discover the one girl's ring clutched in his hand. Okay, whatever.
GIRL GANG is notable, however, for scenes of the middle aged high schoolers preparing (nothing like showing the youth of the 50s HOW to do it, guys! No wonder the hippies screwed us all up in the 60s! Geez!) and, briefly, shooting up heroin, which is rather unusual considering the year that this was made (1954), but that probably helped bring in an audience. The sound and picture quality on GIRL GANG is about as good as THE VIOLENT YEARS--good, but not fantastic. But, considering the film, it's not surprising.
Also featured on here are two shorts: GOOF BALLS AND TEA seems to be part of a series and shows all the kids how to prepare marijuana (you see!). The second short subject is one of those Centron produced gems WHAT ABOUT JUVENILE DELINQUENCY?, which some of you may have also seen before on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (FYI). Several trailers are included as well: THE VIOLENT YEARS, THE CHOPPERS starring my personal favorite, Arch Hall, Jr. (gotta love the man), JACKTOWN, SLIGHTLY DAMAGED and STRANGE COMPULSION (which features boobies).
One of my favorite features on here is the Drive-In Intermissions (which made me hungry for burnt, yucky looking hamburgers once again). These promos are a wonderful relic of a golden age that's passed us by [tear]. A good ten minutes of JD film adverts are included as an extra, set to radio spots for SLIGHTLY DAMAGED.
And finally, aside from the wonderful menu (complete with cars moving rather suspiciously in a drive in), there are two Easter Eggs: One in the Trailers section (click Right to see a condensed version of every man's fantasy from THE VIOLENT YEARS... IT DOESN'T HAPPEN--GET OVER IT!) and the other in the Goodies section (a right click gives you a 5-minute trailer for TEENAGE MOTHER which includes a scene of an actual childbirth from the 60s--which means poor Dad isn't there since this obviously had nothing to do with him).
So, those of you with a flair for this kind of crap and are looking for over three hours of fun should pick it up. Or, you can always return to that road in the woodswaiting for Paula and her pals (it simply will not happen to you, trust me). (Adam Becvar: bastardo@thegrid.net )