Customer Reviews

The Violent Years/Girl Gang

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've been a big fan of Something Weird's Drive-in Double Feature series and this disc is no exception. Both main films are of the Juvenile Delinquent genre which at its best features over-the-top performances and non-stop action. The first feature "The Violent Years" was written by Ed Wood Jr. (Plan 9 From Outer Space). Even though he didn't direct this film, the dialog is convoluted, clunky and hysterical.

The second feature is the real find though. "Girl Gang" never lets up. It opens with a pot/heroin party, features robberies, violence, a gang bang initiation, sneering dope pushers looking to get the kids "hooked", a drunken doctor who performs operations on the kitchen table, and ends just as suddenly as it starts. The tone is manic, it never lets up for a second, and it goes beyond "Reefer Madness" from 20 years earlier which is it's obvious influence. Despite both films' "shocking" subject matter they are very tame in that 50's sort of way and probably wouldn't go beyond a G rating today.

The extras on the disc are a blast. There are two shorts, one "Goof Balls and Tea" which is a police training film from the fifties tells us that kids begin with goof balls and then graduate to marijuana. The second of the shorts "What About Juvenile Delinquency?" is a centron production. Most likely directed by Herk Harvey, the director of the seminal cult horror film "Carnival of Souls", it's worth looking at to see how he made his bread and butter.

There are 5 listed trailers for other JD flicks and a hidden one for "Teenage Mother", which is the best of the bunch. (Just click around, you'll find it.) There is also a second easter egg which shows a brief scene from "The Violent Years". Wrap this all up with Something Weird's Drive-in feature which gives you the option to watch it all, drive-in intermissions, shorts, trailers, features, and you have a great little package. Overall this is a lot of fun and I'm very happy to have it in my collection.

If I have any real critique it would be that I'd like to see even more trailers packed onto the disc as they have with others in this series.

I highly recommend any of Something Weird Video's Drive-in Double Feature sets.

Something Weird Video has paired the Ed Wood classic flick "The Violent Years" with the similarly-themed movie "Girl Gang." Both films include Timothy Farrell, who also appeared in the Ed Wood classics "Glen or Glenda?" and "Jail Bait." In "The Violent Years" he co-stars as a police lieutenant, but in "Girl Gang" he stars as the head dope pusher - talk about a versatile actor!

My favorite scene in "The Violent Years" is when the women attack a couple parked in lover's lane. One of the gang asks the woman for her angora sweater, thus proving that the screenplay was indeed written by Ed Wood! Then, the 4 femme fatales take the hapless man into the woods to have their way with him. Just as the ringleader starts removing her clothes, the camera cuts away. Next, the newspaper headline proclaims, "Young Man Robbed, Criminally Attacked By Four Girls!" In a later incident, the police arrive as the women are vandalizing their school. The gang starts shooting at the cops, and the police return fire. A gang member exclaims in disbelief, "They're shooting back at us!" The ringleader retorts, "What did you expect them to do, throw powder puffs?" Great Ed Wood dialogue! "Girl Gang" is even more graphic, mostly dealing with drug addiction and its crime-related consequences. The drunken doctor who tends to that gang provides much needed comic relief. "I'm a respectable doctor, even if I haven't got a license!" Add in theatrical trailers, short subjects, etc., and you have another great Drive-In Double Feature from Something Weird Video.

Something Weird Video does it again with this great double-feature of girls gone wrong - teenage terror!

THE VIOLENT YEARS tells the story of rich kid Paula Parkins (Jean Moorhead) who rebels against her parents and joins a gang of devil-dolls who rob gas stations and take men up into the woods and rape them (....). Also featuring Barbara Weeks, Teresa Hancock and Joanne Cangi, it was scripted by the one and only Edward D. Wood Jr (PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE)!.

GIRL GANG tells the story of a group of girls who'll do anything for a hit of dope, and the disgusting old men who take advantage. When not engaged in marijuana make-out parties, they are committing robberies to feed their habit! Starring Joanne Arnold, Mary Lou O'Connor and Timothy Farrell.

Of course, the big advantage is the "Let's Go To The Drive-In" feature which couples the two films together along with concession stand ads, intermission shorts and two featurettes entitled "Goof Balls and Tea" and "What About Juvenile Delinquency?".

Be sure to check out the other fantastic double features from Something Weird Video, including THE NOTORIOUS DAUGHTER OF FANNY HILL/THE HEAD MISTRESS and BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL/ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER MAN.

Lovers of Bad Cinema can't go wrong with this high-camp double feature from the folks at Something Weird Video - complete with drive-in ads, juvenile-delinquency shorts and schlock trailers. Everyone knows that Ed Wood wrote the screenplay for "The Violent Years," even though his name was omitted from the opening credits. Nevertheless, this 1956 saga of Girls Gone Bad has enough non-acting and Woodian dialogue to satisfy his most ardent fans. Cut from the same low-budget cloth, "Girl Gang" is even more wretched and decidedly less fun. Don't forget to bring a six-pack when you watch this smorgasbord of exploitative celluloid.

I expect less from Ed Wood jr. The movie details the exploits of a gang of bad girls gone really, comically wrong. Robbing gasoline seems a bit unnecessary in the days of 25 cent premium, but we get the point. And how could the cops mistake bandanna masked women for male juvenile delinquents? I don't recall men wearing that much make-up in the 1950's but this movie does come to us from the creator of "Glen or Glennda". Better is the "ravaging" scene set on lover's lane. However, the movie ends up with some lengthy gratuitous moralizing that we just don't need. Where's the rubber octapus? Oh, wait. Maybe that's the scene we didn't see out on Lover's Lane.

I've been a big fan of Something Weird's Drive-in Double Feature series and this disc is no exception. Both main films are of the Juvenile Delinquent genre which at its best features over-the-top performances and non-stop action. The first feature "The Violent Years" was written by Ed Wood Jr. (Plan 9 From Outer Space). Even though he didn't direct this film, the dialog is convoluted, clunky and hysterical.

The second feature is the real find though. "Girl Gang" never lets up. It opens with a pot/heroin party, features robberies, violence, a gang bang initiation, sneering dope pushers looking to get the kids "hooked", a drunken doctor who performs operations on the kitchen table, and ends just as suddenly as it starts. The tone is manic, it never lets up for a second, and it goes beyond "Reefer Madness" from 20 years earlier which is it's obvious influence. Despite both films' "shocking" subject matter they are very tame in that 50's sort of way and probably wouldn't go beyond a G rating today.

The extras on the disc are a blast. There are two shorts, one "Goof Balls and Tea" which is a police training film from the fifties tells us that kids begin with goof balls and then graduate to marijuana. The second of the shorts "What About Juvenile Delinquency?" is a centron production. Most likely directed by Herk Harvey, the director of the seminal cult horror film "Carnival of Souls", it's worth looking at to see how he made his bread and butter.

There are 5 listed trailers for other JD flicks and a hidden one for "Teenage Mother", which is the best of the bunch. (Just click around, you'll find it.) There is also a second easter egg which shows a brief scene from "The Violent Years". Wrap this all up with Something Weird's Drive-in feature which gives you the option to watch it all, drive-in intermissions, shorts, trailers, features, and you have a great little package. Overall this is a lot of fun and I'm very happy to have it in my collection.

If I have any real critique it would be that I'd like to see even more trailers packed onto the disc as they have with others in this series.

I highly recommend any of Something Weird Video's Drive-in Double Feature sets.

I sent this back after finding out the drive-in trailers have the letters "SWV" superimposed onscreen! I bought this just for these trailers, the movies are unvandalized but I won't buy any more titles from Something Weird because of this.