Over the course of the last ten years or so, I've watched a lot of bad movies, and I have to tell you that "The Violent Years" is right up there with the worst of them!
Welcome back to The Dungeon!
"The Violent Years" is an extremely simple story as written by Edward D. Wood Jr., and I can't see mocking it, because it's already a mockery of itself! It's that ridiculous!
When I was rooting around looking for more info on "The Violent Years," I found out that there was an MST3K version. I haven't seen it, but that had to be like shooting fish in a barrel!
This vicious gang of four girls include Miss Citizenship Paula Parkins. Paula was played by Jean (The Amazing Colossal Man, Attack Of The Puppet People, Atomic Submarine) Moorhead!
Phyllis is Miss Self Restraint! This was Gloria Farr's one shot at fame!
Miss Politeness was Joanne Cangi as Geraldine! Joanne's only other foray into acting was as a telephone switchboard operator in "It's A Great Life."
Last but not least is Miss Loyalty also known as Georgia as played by Theresa Hancock. This was also Theresa's only ever role.
On the right is Barbara Weeks as Paula's Mom Jane Parkins. She is so busy with her social life that she has no clue that her daughter is a conniving juvenile delinquent. If your daughter is 21 and still in high school, you just might need to start wondering if her and her friends are up to no good, don't you think?
These girls are really bad, and Ed would never try and explain anything like where they got all these guns from! They like to rob gas stations!
They like to harass people! They make this gal strip, then they tie her up, and make off with her boyfriend!
All four walked off into the woods with him, and unless he got killed or beaten pretty bad, he just might have kind of had a good time!
The innocence of youth? Not this time!
Pajama Party? This is a smoking and drinking makeout party!
In every one of the couples spit swap, they are also all holding cigarettes between their grubby juvenile fingers!
For a cheapass movie, "The Violent Years" has some pretty cool music in it. No composer is given credit for it, but the Music Director was Michael (King Dinosaur, The Unearthly, The Devil's Hand) Terr.
When offered an opportunity to trash the school for pay, it's like a dream come true for these bad girls, and they go right to work!
A security guard hears the racket they're making busting stuff up, and calls the cops, and everything goes South from there. First Phyllis gets shot and killed, and then Paula shoots one of the police officers!
Not until the end that is!
It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt, then suddenly it's a stark, cold and lonely world!
Next time kids, dare not to be stupid, or you might end up here too!
This has been a public service announcement from Eegah!! and Tabonga!
Next time kids, dare not to be stupid, or you might end up here too!
This has been a public service announcement from Eegah!! and Tabonga!
The MST3K episode is a great one (not so much for the insult jokes as the jokes in general).
ReplyDeleteThanx Grant! Maybe I'll give it a shot. I don't know what my problem is, but I've tried more than once, and I just don't enjoy any MST stuff at all. Tabonga loves them, but I just don't get it! Maybe it's just a bad case of comedy envy!
ReplyDeleteThey thought the first season was so bad, the episodes were never released on DVD. It took until about the third season to really get cooking, and when Mike Nelson took over it went off the rails - My favorite MST movie is RED ZONE CUBA, then probably INVASION OF THE NEPTUNE MEN... That fucking record!
ReplyDeleteAs a writer, it showed me how to think about humor.
I guess I'm with EEGAH on the topic of MST3K. Making low-budget films is hard enough as it is, but to have people making fun of them who never tried to make a film of their own, is pretty rude, and just shows their insecurity. It's an easy way to make themselves feel superior to something they can't do themselves. Like the kid next door who knows that he can't build a snowman of his own, so he waits until you build one so he can come along and knock yours down instead. I have zero respect for MST3K and frankly, very little for the people who get off watching it. I'm not a big fan of Joe Dante (who has made fun of lots of low-budget films, in both his writings and on "Trailers from Hell" cheap shots) but deep down, I think he's got the right idea on the MST3K mindset.
ReplyDeleteEven though it's a sensitive subject, some of their best VIOLENT YEARS jokes are about the scene where the gang molests that man. Include a really priceless joke toward the end of the story.
ReplyDeleteDidn't mean to offend anyone here, and I'm sorry. I've had a few friends who had their low-budget films "riffed" on MST, and I guess I'm just protective of them and their hard work. In the case of Katherine Victor, she wasn't fond of Jerry Warren's films herself, but some people make fun of her personally, her appearance, etc. That's the part that is hurtful. She was so sweet...
ReplyDeleteI love Katherine Victor a lot, just watched CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS again a week ago, one of my very faves...
ReplyDeleteI agree, personal attacks on actors are not cool (I know there was one actor that got into a big fight with them) but the situations are fair game and the stuff that's really funny... Again, that damn record!
Eegah!! and I see things differently a lot of the time but we've been bestest pals since 1959!
Heck, Katherine Victor sent us a very nice wedding gift when my wife and I were married in 1991. I took some pretty nice photos of Katherine around 1990...I should put one of them up on the IMDb, she was beautiful inside and out. So humble, kind, and generous she was... I wrote a script for her but we never did get to make that film. CCM is a cool, fun little film. It was her favorite! She and Bruno VeSota and Bob Clarke did so many Warren films.
ReplyDelete