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.

This mid-50s low budget juvenile delinquency-themed film is about the very improbable story of four rich, bored, beautiful teenage girls (they look like their actually pushing 30 though) who get their kicks by robbing gas stations, trashing schools, and attacking young people on lover's lane. The characters (especially that of Paula, their leader) are very unbelievable - the scripting is wooden and amateurishly acted, especially the hammy "he/she shot me!" scenes which must go down in cinematic history as the fakest ever to appear on film. The filmmaker simply wanted an excuse to film beautiful, busty girls wearing sweaters two sizes too small and put them in a contrived juvenile delinquency story. My score is 8 for the super-tight sweaters minus 3 for the silly death scenes and a minus 3 for the horrible dialog equals a 2. No wonder this was used by MST3K...

I saw this Ed Wood written film as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Typical Ed Wood film, though it looks better than the other films that he not only wrote, but directed as well. This one is like a female, I Accuse My Parents, only in this one you are going to have a hard time trying to sympathize with the lead girl in this one, because while the boy in I Accuse My Parents is a dope, he is not trying to go out and intentionally hurt anyone, unlike the leader of the gang of girls in this one. The parents of this girl were not quite as negligent as his parents either as his mother was constantly getting drunk and stuff, while here their major crime is the father works a bit too much and the mother likes to do charities. Meanwhile, they shower her with gifts and money and don't question what she is doing at night. Of course a girl is going to go wild, that is what females do when they are teens. It does not matter what the parents did, even if they coddled her it would have made her rebel! Oh sorry, that was a bit of a rant, just comes from the experience of living with a sister that was crazy during her teen years I guess.The story has a group of girls performing various crimes throughout a small town. Robbing gas stations, trashing schools, attacking couples and raping young men. Wait, what? Yes, you heard me correctly, they are very bad girls. The leader, as I have stated is basically the daughter of every well off parents. She even uses her dad to help her with her crimes as the father is the head of a newspaper and is covering the crime spree so she gets information from him that he gets from the police. They have a chance at a big score that apparently involves trashing a school by doing very minimal vandalism and this somehow leads to a shootout with the police which leads to a very long winded courtroom session that features Judge Pad Film.As an episode of Mystery Science Theater, it is one I find very funny and one that kind of is one of the main reasons I prefer Mike Nelson as the host of the show to Joel Robinson. Do not get me wrong, I like both and it is not a huge gap or anything, it just seems I find that Mike hosted shows hit the ball out of the park more often. From the bumps which includes one of my favorite sketches of a radio station named Frank to the very funny riffs that litter the film. Joel did an Ed Wood film too, but it was not quite as good. I always feel the jokes come at you at a better pace with Mike than Joel, which is one of the reasons I lost excitement over the show's revival as Mike has nothing to do with it. I will probably give it a chance, but I just do not think the show will be as funny without him, because even when he was not the host, he was the head writer.So, the film is not good; however, what do you expect? It is an Ed Wood film. That being said, I say Ed Wood was a much better film maker than another Mystery Science Theater regular in Coleman Francis. Ed Wood's films looked cheap had some bad acting and were generally bad all around, but they at least had tangible plots for the most part and while they looked cheap they looked like films. Coleman Francis films were all over the place and at times resembled someone just recording random things! So, a not so good film that at least had a plot going for it and a great film for the gang to riff. Now, I should go before that judge comes to my house and starts telling me about how society and parents are why Ed Wood films exist.

Please note: My score of 2 does NOT mean that this film isn't fun. In fact, THE VIOLENT YEARS is a wonderful film to watch. Just don't assume this makes it a good film or a picture made by competent film makers! No, its watchability is because it is so bad...so incredibly lacking in any subtlety that make it a must-see for bad movie fans. In other words, if you like laughing at films such as PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, then this film is definitely for you! The film begins with a judge lecturing two parents and basically saying that any time a teen goes bad it is because the parents are to blame! While this is true in some cases, the film pounds home this contention with all the subtlety and grace of a 2x4 being smacked repeatedly against your head!! As the judge is talking, the mother begins to think back about recent events and wonder if she DID have anything to do with her daughter becoming a menace to society.This daughter turns out to be like a Jekyll and Hyde sort of person--acting sweet in front of Mom and being an evil thrill-seeking idiot outside the home. For kicks, she and her three friends rob gas stations, destroy schools and rape men. Oddly, however, they are not caught for the longest time because you can only assume everyone in the town (especially the cops) are idiots! The girls leave lots of fingerprints and other evidence behind but the cops conclude at one point that it's the work of a gang of men from another town!! While the girls DID disguise themselves for one of the robberies, it's pretty obvious they weren't guys!!! And, when they raped a man and left him and his girlfriend as witnesses, don't you think they could have identified the girls?! And, later in the film, when one of the father's co-workers comes to the house and one of the girls' boyfriends pulls a knife and threatens the visitor, don't you think perhaps this MIGHT have clued somebody in to the fact that the girl and her friends were up to no good?! Regardless, the bad acting and silly script is very watchable in a salacious and laughable sort of way--particularly if you enjoy laughing at such films as REEFER MADNESS, SEX MADNESS or HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL. Plus, it is just funny seeing the actors(?) having trouble with their lines (such as the judge who appears to be reading his lines as he talks to the parents) and the inconsistent and brainless writing (for which Ed Wood was responsible). I particularly loved it when two of the bad girls just told a crook that they shot a cop---and then this crook picks up the phone and tries to call the police! Didn't they just say they killed a policeman?! Didn't you think perhaps they might do the same if you made this phone call?! Duh.Overall, because the film is so earnestly stupid, it holds a near and dear place in the heart of every bad film fan--you know, the sort of people who enjoy laughing at horrible films as an exercise in self-torture. If you aren't the sort of person who likes to do this, then my advice is to steer clear!!