The Violent Years (1956)

 

Director: William Morgan

Screenplay: Ed Wood Jr.

Cast: Jean Moorhead as Paula Parkins; Barbara Weeks as Jane Parkins; Arthur Millan as Carl Parkins; Theresa Hancock as Georgia; Glen Corbett as Barney Stetson; Joanne Cangi as Geraldine; Gloria Farr as Phyllis; Lee Constant as Sheila; I. Stanford Jolley as Judge Clara; Timothy Farrell as Lt. Holmes

Ephemeral Waves

 

Something from a different era - when teenagers were a new concept, drive-in films exploited trends like this, and or an entire sub-genre based on juvenile delinquency existed. In this particular example, from this point, you have Ed Wood Jr., the notorious director/writer of Plan 9 From Outer Space (1957), with his own take on the JD genre, but he is not the director. That would be William Morgan, a veteran of the likes of westerns and crime films though predominantly an editor in his career. As a result, whilst the resulting film is a lot of dialogue in static shots, not only are the flourishes of its screenwriter still there, but this is instead a pulpy story told by a director which strips away some of the touches Wood was notorious for as a director, his improvisations and on-screen mistakes, providing an interesting result. Its lack of Wood's more over-the-top flourishes is not to be complained about when the film is still this entertaining combining Wood and Morgan, with the added touch your lead Jean Moorhead was an early era Playboy centerfold.

More so as this is interesting is that, not tackling male teen delinquency as was common in this genre, even by Hollywood itself as an influence with Marlon Brando and The Wild One (1953), this is about young hoodlum women. Their stylish hairdos and skirts belay how dangerous they are as, led by thrill seeker Paula Parkins (Moorhead), the girl gang will gladly dress as men to rob a petrol (gas) station and nearly kill the gas attendant with a harsh thump to the head with a pistol barrel. Whilst the film does not have a lot of time to work with, it is rewarding in how, as a film recovered by Something Weird Video, this is as entertainment but a short, sharp shock to take in, as very much an artefact of its era, but an interesting one as a Ed Wood film not quite an Ed Wood film.

It is obvious, but well addressing, that this is from the type of exploitation film which sold themselves as moral tales to inform the audience, but was sell the lurid content at the same time. Here, the film in a book end structure in a court room in the aftermath of the narrative, you get a long monologue for a need for more family values, returning to the Church in belief, and taking kids to the woodshed more often, i.e. the punishments banned over the decades after as child cruelty. This is ironic knowing who the screenwriter was, Ed Wood Jr. an outsider let alone in mind to his pleasure in dressing in women's clothing contrasting the fifties values this film ends on a sermon of. Exploitation films themselves as a premise, especially this older type, were as much with morals to avoid getting into trouble for their salacious content, which this could be the case of too.

Here especially, there is something subversive about three female teens being degenerates, even with their perfect fashion and cars of the era, more so as whilst the film condemns teenage hedonism, it really hates bad and neglectful parenting. Lead Paula is frankly sympathetic, despite the film and her behaviour, the daughter of a male newspaper man and a socialite mother whose parents will not even clear their schedules for her birthday. The weird thing with Ed Wood is that, goofy as he was with his dialogue, he did try to be serious, and sometimes it hit in poignant ways as here. With one scene at a "sleepover" with men, he gets one of his best pulpy moments just with Paula admitting she is a person with everything, always a new car on her birthday, but lonely and attention seeking in a destructive way as a result.

At unless an hour, it cuts the fat off everything, but it is in itself full of idiosyncrasies, such as the plan for cash that leads to the gang's downfall, to trash their school, being hinted at as being anti-Americans or likely communists having contrasted them through another. And even today, there is the guttural shock, in spite of admitting sympathy for the lead gang leader, that this has a scene explicitly hinting at them deciding to rape a man off-camera. As they hold up a heterosexual couple, and tie the girlfriend in the car, stealing her fleece whilst they are at it, it is unexpectedly dark for this type of film to have that implied, as it a lot of the content still being about delinquents nearly killing gas station attendants or them even getting into a shoot out near the end with cops. More so as women as, even decades later, perceived gender biases of this era make this image of these women being aggressive and armed more striking. It is both the sort of film John Waters should have remade in terms of its inherently transgressive camp, but also, even in terms of moments like Paula getting intelligence on the police from a father all too willing to dish out confidential info, is the kind of film of its era of pulp, exploitation and Woodian curiosities. It is a movie which even as an okay film in terms of a narrative movie, but with unexpected levels of contextual baggage to consider.

Even how bleak the ending is, where life and death are literally exchanged but with no one redeemed in the eyes of the law, is something easy to forget for a film from this era. This is in mind of being one of many exploitation films like this, based on old tropes like the crime genre, likely made by people such as director William Morgan who worked in these genres decades before, which continued into the fifties in spite of there being other genres like sci-fi films, and still adding their fingerprints in the newer types of films which had new types of content and tones within them. Certainly, in terms of Ed Wood, this is honestly a minor work from his canon, in terms of not being the full experience of his idiosyncrasies as a director too, being restrained for him even as a script writer. In terms of being Wood being more straightforward as a result, this is however with its content something fascinating to see for a nice contrast.