Good movie but grossly overrated

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Ed Wood's name is synonymous for bad movies. It's not that he didn't try or even that all of them were intentionally bad. But most of them ended up that way with his film PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE being hailed as one of the worst movies ever made. But Wood had a passion for film (and for cross dressing in angora sweaters) that pushed him to make movies in whatever way possible.And so it is that AGFA (American Genre Film Archive) is now releasing THE VIOLENT YEARS to blu-ray. AGFA is making a name for themselves releasing movies that are not on the most watched list, not on the most wanted list and not on the best movie ever made list. What they've done is saved movies that have a historic value to film lovers, restoring them and offering them in the best format possible. It doesn't matter if the movie is a stinker, all movies deserve to be preserved for history's sake if nothing else. And in the end there is a certain fan base out there who will clamor to pick up a film like this, reveling in just how bad it is.The story here, as in most Wood films, is fairly flimsy. Paula Parkins is the once bright and shining teen who, due to neglect and no attention from her parents, turns down the wrong path. She leads a pack of degenerate girls into a gang doing things like robbing a gas station, pajama party orgies (if you can call them that) and eventually murder. If it weren't for the bad writing and terrible dialogue you might think this was one of those government films from the 50s warning of the dangers of girl gangs. Instead it's just a low budget movie that was probably a filler at some point.Just to be clear Woods didn't direct this film. Instead he was the writer on the film and that dialogue I spoke of becomes clear with each second of film that runs on screen. With such memorable lines as "I shot a cop. So what!" be read by actors in need of acting lessons it's easy to see why this film garners laughs today.If that weren't enough there's a second feature on this disc as well. Count them, two for the price of one! What a bargain! Well it would be if it were a good movie. Instead it's another movie along the same lines as the first. This time though we have a young man whose brother is a condemned killer sent to the electric chair causing him to seek vengeance on those who sent him there. More bad acting, bad dialogue and weak production values makes this a perfect companion piece to the main feature.To show the dedication AGFA has for movies like this consider the extras and work put into this release starting with the fact this is a 4k scan from the original 35mm camera negative. You'll also get a commentary track with filmmaker Frank Henenlotter and Ed Wood biographer Rudolph Grey, a collection of trailers from Something Weird, a memorabilia scrapbook and more.The honest truth is that most will not want to add this to their collection let alone watch the movie. But from a historical aspect it does make for a somewhat interesting viewing. Fans of all things Ed Wood will not want to pass this one by. Lovers of bad movies will want to have it on hand as well. All others be warned in advance.

This clear "message" movie begins with a hep jazzy score and a blackboard with inspiring socially-concerned words written across it as lead actress Jean Moorland and other women enter and make dismissive gestures as to the value of the epithets.When the film shifts to a court room with character actor as Judge handing down a lesson sentence to the parents we know we're in that fuzzy land of Ed Wood whose flat-footed aesthetic has now become legend and imitated for its value in what it can say about its subject as well as what it says about the source of the story it tells.Rich kid Paula Parkins (Jean Moorhead) and her gang of tough high school women friends spend their days and nights committing crimes, and getting away with it because she uses her parents car and fences stolen goods though and underground source. When not stealing they terrorize the citizenry with extremes like raping young men, and indulge in heavy petting parties at their parents house. When a local closet communist hires the girls to vandalize a high school police are tipped off and guns are fired. Paula finds herself in jail, pregnant from a one-night stand and her parents are left with the blame.The film was a modest money maker on the B circuit and one can only owe this to the titillating title and all-women cast involved in dastardly deeds against society. This may have been the closest Ed Wood came to monetary success, having written the script for the film.Many of the subversive ideas and themes can be ascertained in how the lead women refer to each other with men's names, making their rape of a young man all the more subversive. Writer Ed Wood was no dummy when it came to reusing successful formats. He later retooled the screenplay for Fugitive Girls which morphed into Five Loose Women in 1974.

Unless you're prepared to undergo the horrifying experience of a cingulotomy you're best advised to avoid this Ed Wood written movie. It's just terrible.The central figure of the rich girl, Jean Moorhead, who is drawn to armed robbery by the thrill of it all is attractive enough and the half dozen high school girls, whose ages run between twenty and thirty, wear tight sweaters and brassieres that seem to be made of traffic cones. But there the delectations end.Scenes don't move. The acting is out of some community college stage in Cranford, New Jersey. The staging is positively primitive. The dialog is ripped off from "Dragnet." "There's one thing you forgot, Mister.""Huh? What's that?" "This movie transcends the unkempt. It reaches for a black hole." Fortunately, everyone bad is brought before the bar of justice and told off in no uncertain terms. And -- whew! -- it's over at last.

"The Violent Years" deals with the theme of juvenile delinquency. This all-girl gang epic about a quartet of pistol-packing cuties is as hilarious as it is socially relevant. These high school age babes masquerade as guys to rob gas stations, vandalize school class rooms, swap lead with cops, and--check it out--they gang rape a defenseless guy in the woods named Johnny! Paul Parkins (Jean Moorhead of "The Atomic Submarine") lives for thrills and chills. Paula's misguided but conscientious newspaper editor father, Carl Parkins (Arthur Millan), devotes more time at the paper covering the exploits of her mysterious gang than at home with his daughter. Meanwhile, her social register mother, Jane Parkins (Barbara Weeks of "Randy Rides Alone"), cavorts at nightclubs and bemoans the plight of homeless children at her charity functions. Paula tramps around with three other desperate dames: Geraldine (Joanne Cangi), Georgia (Theresa Hancock), and Phyllis (Gloria Farr) who have no qualms about killing, robbing, and raping. Actually, Paula is the leader. She uses the information that her father obtains from the cops to keep her gals from getting caught. Crime is has no consequences for them until they try to trash a public school and make too much noise. The police arrive and they shoot it out with our anti-heroic heroines and left two on the pavement. Before they encounter the cops, these dastardly dolls take their stolen items and fence them to Sheila (Lee Constant) who saunters around in wearing a bra engineered to display her torpedo shaped breasts. "The Violent Years" focused on a topic which was the rage of the last 1940s and the 1950s: juvenile delinquency. Indeed, the subject matter provides some gravity to this film. Unfortunately, "Glen or Glenda" writer & director Ed Wood penned the screenplay, but he did not not helm this flick. Jean Moorhead achieved initial fame or infamy as the October 1955 Playboy Playmate of the Month. "The Violent Years" qualifies as a notorious little exploitation B-movie class that Mystery Science Theater 3000 could not resist ridiculing.