YOUTH GONE WILD! (1955-1958)

“What’s wrong with you kids today?” is one of life’s eternal questions: are youngsters worse than ever when it comes to violent crime and antisocial behaviour, or did society simply have a higher tolerance years ago? Youth Gone Wild! – 1950s Juvenile Delinquency (1955 – 1958), which is a new Blu-ray set from Imprint Films, does not answer that question, but its alarmist take on troubled teens through the lens of cinema offers a fascinating look back.

Four features spanning just four years take viewers to the streets, but not the classroom, as we follow various sets of young people who are alienated from their community or who have embarked on a life of no rules.

Jill Winters is fed up with school and her rough home life, so she runs away and soon gravitates towards a hustler’s lifestyle and falls in with a criminal syndicate. While quite a slog to get through, despite a short runtime, this gangster-adjacent melodrama is quick to lose sight of the teenage angle in favour of a glamorised world of vice. Norma Eberhardt as Jill, along with her good-natured older sister Kim, played by Mary Murphy, turn in strong performances, but the drama wraps us very quickly for an abrupt bookend to the story.

Not the most accurate title, considering there is little jungle (unless you count beach shrubbery) and the “juveniles” are especially on the older side of young, but I give it a pass as the film shapes up to be an interesting little caper before morality takes precedence. Corey Allen stars as the mysterious Hal McQueen who blows into town and hatches a plan with some local beach-going youths for a ransom. Much like the previous two titles, these stories are not specifically oriented to people of a certain age group, but in the film’s defence, impulsiveness and anti-authoritarian traits are present among most of the characters.

After a teenage couple are harassed and assaulted by a rowdy group of hoodlums out on a joyride, their lives become fraught with danger at every turn as the police struggle to nab the offenders. I started with this title, and I recommend other potential buyers of this set do the same, as it’s easily the most accessible title with its cautionary examination of society’s view on juvenile delinquency. Young and Wild plays out in a very procedural fashion, much like a classic episode of Law & Order, as certain legalities seem to protect the perpetrators rather than help the victims. It’s a good little movie, but the climax is a little frustrating as all the protagonists seem to misplace their logic and common sense.

It’s a hostage situation with a delinquent girl, her no-good boyfriend and their accomplice who hold up in a farmhouse with an elderly couple and an innocent third party. Mollie McCart is a firecracker as our main pistol-wheedling antagonist, Terry, who is hopelessly devoted to being bad, and the poster child for this collection of films. Paced at a right 77 minutes, it’s an intense siege for the most part, as the criminal psyche of the deadly trio is tested, and as the situation deteriorates, we’re treated to a dramatic climax at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

SPECIAL FEATURES & TECHNICAL SPECS

Live Fast Die Young

1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
NEW Audio commentary by writer and film historian Rob Kelly
NEW Paul Henreid and the Teen Crime Wave – video essay by author and film scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
Theatrical Trailer
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Dual Mono
Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
Optional English HOH Subtitles

Juvenile Jungle

1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
NEW Audio commentary by author and film historian Samm Deighan
NEW The Rebellion of the American Teen – Thomas Doherty (author of “Teenagers and Teenpics: The Juvenilization of American Movies in the 1950s”) on post-war teenage culture
NEW Reconstruction of the original Theatrical Trailer
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Dual Mono
Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
Optional English HOH Subtitles

Young and Wild

1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
NEW Directed by William Witney – video essay by author and film historian Michael H Price
NEW In Naturama: A Guide To Republic Pictures’ Short-Lived Film Format – featurette with filmmaker Rob Murphy, director of the documentary Splice Here: A Projected Odyssey
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Dual Mono
Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
Optional English HOH Subtitles

Teenage Crime Wave

1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-ray
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Dual Mono
Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
Optional English HOH Subtitles

Booklet

“An exclusive 36-page hardback booklet featuring the brand NEW essay Wild in the Streets: the origins of America’s 1950s juvenile delinquent cinema by crime writer Andrew Nette, author of Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture.” – Imprint Films

Ironically, this box set about “kids” being too cool for school offers quite the education. With the exception of Teenage Crime Wave, there’s an even spread of bonus content that broadly covers the juvenile delinquency sub-genre, capped off with Thomas Doherty’s “The Rebellion of the American Teen” – a newly commissioned featurette by Imprint with a very funky opening tune. The new audio commentaries add a lot of re-watchability with all the tidbits of trivia and information. While teenagers today are unlikely to check out these movies, I’m sure film enthusiasts and ‘Uncs’ alike will get a kick out of the content.

VIDEO AND AUDIO

Rebel Without a Cause may have been in Technicolor but these B-side classics all look great in beautiful black and white for their debut in HD that appear to have come from recent scans. There’s really nothing to fault as the image for each film is pristine with no visible damage or defects, while the LPCM 2.0 Dual Mono tracks allow the teenage dirtbags to come through loud and clear.

Youth Gone Wild! Does requires a little suspension of disbelief when it comes to the casting, even though kids looked older back in those days. I know my grandfather was a somewhat weathered 19-year-old when he and my grandmother married in the mid 50s. Nevertheless, this is a fun and enthusiastic set that may go down as Imprint’s most underrated.

YOUTH GONE WILD!
(1955-58, director: Various)