What's with all the 2 and 3 star ratings? Are people judging this movie in comparison to Citizen Kane or The Godfather? Me, I had a blast watching this goofy mix of teen exploitation and southern prison genres.
Arresting 'vagrants' and exploiting them as free/cheap farm labor is sadly something that was quite common in rural areas of the U.S., so give this movie credit for at least touching on a serious issue. Maybe some reviewers felt it's jarring to raise a real issue and then show the young inmates partying all night in their prison barracks, which are practically co-ed, with only a thin plywood wall separating the men and women's units. But you have to take the movie in the context in which it was made. The producers knew that it was rock and roll and Mamie Van Doren's chassis that was going to bring in the drive-in movie crowd, not an earnest appeal for prison reform.
Speaking of Mamie, I don't think she's as horrible a singer as some reviewers state, and her numbers are fun in a kitschy way. Her final calypso number shot in the TV studio is pure camp magic, with that awful fake Caribbean accent. There actually was big calypso craze at the time, so lots of performers were jumping on the bandwagon, without any concern for accusations of "cultural appropriation." For lovers of early rock'n'roll this movie also gives us a rare and much appreciated glimpse of Eddie Cochran ("Summertime Blues"), whose death in a London taxi accident at only 21 is still one of the saddest of all rock musician deaths.
The scenes of the frumpy middle aged judge making out with her much younger secret husband are pretty icky, and in the end she gets off scot free for her major role in a criminal enterprise, which caused the death of a young girl. And would the nice guy cook, who baked pies and dispensed free philosophical and show biz advice, have really allowed the inmates to be served dog food? But I guess you can't think about this movie too much. You just have to go with the loony flow.
In the end, I think this is easily one of the most entertaining of all the youth "exploitation" movies of the period, in large part because the filmmakers didn't take themselves seriously. There is no preaching about the issue of juvenile delinquency, common in movies of the period. (Actually the "youth" in this movie don't seem all that young, and are hardly "untamed." They just want to party). I don't think you need MST3K to realize that a lot of this movie was meant to be taken tongue-in-cheek. So sit back, relax, and let yourself be transported back to 1957 with Mamie and the gang.
Arresting 'vagrants' and exploiting them as free/cheap farm labor is sadly something that was quite common in rural areas of the U.S., so give this movie credit for at least touching on a serious issue. Maybe some reviewers felt it's jarring to raise a real issue and then show the young inmates partying all night in their prison barracks, which are practically co-ed, with only a thin plywood wall separating the men and women's units. But you have to take the movie in the context in which it was made. The producers knew that it was rock and roll and Mamie Van Doren's chassis that was going to bring in the drive-in movie crowd, not an earnest appeal for prison reform.
Speaking of Mamie, I don't think she's as horrible a singer as some reviewers state, and her numbers are fun in a kitschy way. Her final calypso number shot in the TV studio is pure camp magic, with that awful fake Caribbean accent. There actually was big calypso craze at the time, so lots of performers were jumping on the bandwagon, without any concern for accusations of "cultural appropriation." For lovers of early rock'n'roll this movie also gives us a rare and much appreciated glimpse of Eddie Cochran ("Summertime Blues"), whose death in a London taxi accident at only 21 is still one of the saddest of all rock musician deaths.
The scenes of the frumpy middle aged judge making out with her much younger secret husband are pretty icky, and in the end she gets off scot free for her major role in a criminal enterprise, which caused the death of a young girl. And would the nice guy cook, who baked pies and dispensed free philosophical and show biz advice, have really allowed the inmates to be served dog food? But I guess you can't think about this movie too much. You just have to go with the loony flow.
In the end, I think this is easily one of the most entertaining of all the youth "exploitation" movies of the period, in large part because the filmmakers didn't take themselves seriously. There is no preaching about the issue of juvenile delinquency, common in movies of the period. (Actually the "youth" in this movie don't seem all that young, and are hardly "untamed." They just want to party). I don't think you need MST3K to realize that a lot of this movie was meant to be taken tongue-in-cheek. So sit back, relax, and let yourself be transported back to 1957 with Mamie and the gang.