| The Violent Years | |
| Director: | William Morgan |
| Producer: | Roy Reid |
| Starring: | Jean Moorhead I. Stanford Jolley Barbara Weeks Timothy Farrell |
| Cinematography: | William C. Thompson |
| Editing: | Gerard Wilson |
| Distributor: | Headliner Productions |
| Runtime: | 57 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $38,000 |
The Violent Years is a 1956 American exploitation film directed by William Morgan and starring Jean Moorhead as Paula Parkins, the leader of a gang of juvenile delinquent high school girls.[1] The film is notable for having an uncredited Ed Wood as the author of its screenplay.[2] It was released in 1956 on a double bill with the German import Conchita and the Engineer (aka Macumba).
Paula Parkins leads a gang of bored young women. The gang's core members—besides Paula—are Georgia, Phyllis, and Geraldine ("George", "Phil", and "Gerry" for short).
The gang agrees to wreck a school as the request of a local criminal, Sheila. (The film implies that Sheila is in league with the Communist Party and their anti-American movement.) Gerry and Phil are fatally shot while fleeing the wrecked school; Paula herself guns down one of the cops. Seeking refuge from the police, George and Paula return to Sheila's, where they report their wrecking of the school. But Sheila, who never had any intention of paying the girls, attempts to have them arrested as "loose ends"; as she reaches for the phone, Paula shoots and kills her. A highway patrolman notices the girls driving Sheila's car and wearing clothes from her wardrobe. In the heat of the ensuing car chase, the girls crash their car through a store's plate-glass window; George is killed and Paula is hospitalized. Because Paula is a minor and therefore ineligible for the death penalty, the judge sentences her to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. However, Paula gets a reprieve of sorts...dying from the complications of giving birth to a child she accidentally conceived during her make-out party with Sheila's fellow mobsters. The judge who delivered Paula's conviction also denies Jane and Carl custody of their granddaughter, based on the neglectful way they raised Paula.
The cynical tag line "So what?" is used repeatedly by the girls to underscore their uncaring, nihilistic attitude.
The film's working title was "Teenage Killers". The opening credits indicate that Headliner Productions copyrighted the film in 1956. The Violent Years was actually based on the story by Roy Reid.[3]
Film historian Leonard Maltin savaged the picture giving it a rare BOMB rating[4] calling it "tawdry and preachy" with "wooden acting all around..."
The industrial metal band Ministry incorporated many lines of the film's dialogue in their song "So What?" from the 1989 album The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste.[5] Long stretches of the judge's monologue are used in two different parts of the song ("you have had all that money can give you...", "kill for a thrill", etc), as well as multiple characters' readings of the song's titular line.
The film was mocked on a 1994 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Season 6, Episode 10). Subjects for jokes included the occasionally wooden acting, the same car-on-road shots being repeated, and the judge's rambling closing monologue.
The film was released on VHS several times, including a release under Rhino's "Teenage Theater" banner- hosted by Mamie Van Doren. The film received several DVD releases of varying quality, one from Something Weird Video, as part of the Ed Wood box set Big Box of Wood, and the box set of vintage exploitation films called Girls Gone Bad.
On November 21, 2017,[6] the film was released on Blu-ray through a partnership by Something Weird Video and the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA)[7] including a commentary track from Frank Henenlotter and Rudolph Grey.