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21 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
"So what!", 4 June 2000
10/10
Author: pan-10

The 1956 sociological study of the serious, but rarely spoken about, problem of armed robbery of gas stations perpetrated by affluent young women in tight sweaters during the mid 1950's is one that should surely receive further serious study. The footage of the "criminal attack" on the innocent young man on lovers lane by the beautiful, but depraved, bandits is one that I found highly disturbing. The expose became even more shocking as the pulchritudinous quartet were enlisted into the service of a foreign power, and during a particularly nefarious mission to overturn chairs and tables and knock over books in a classroom, they almost succeeded in doing something terrible to our flag. Also, during the latter mission, policemen, guards, and members of the evil gang were shot during a ferocious gunfight. At the end, the leader of the gang is finally sentenced to the state penitentiary where she gives birth to an out-of-wedlock baby. She dies and the baby is rightfully made to serve out the remainder of her sentence. Meanwhile, the affluent, but self-absorbed, parents of the wayward gangster are given several severe talkings to by the same judge who sentenced their daughter, and they are told to attend church more frequently in the future. This shocking expose was written by Mr. Edward D. Wood, Jr. I for one definitely intend to give a great deal of thought to the problem of bad girls in tight sweaters.

10 stars...or zero stars...? I don't know how to rate Ed Wood's anti-masterpieces. They're so freakin' bad that they go all the way around the dial and become great! Hilariously bad. Not as hilariously bad as Plan 9, but then what is?

Pan-10

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
1950's delinquent scare film, 8 June 2005
5/10
Author: rosscinema (rosscinema@cox.net) from Oceanside, Ca.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

You might think that this is going to be one of those films that's "so bad it's good" because Ed Wood is involved but the truth of the matter is that while it's undeniably silly it's still nowhere as bad as other efforts by Wood. Story is about a seemingly "good girl" named Paula Parkins (Jean Moorhead) who has nice parents and does well at school but the truth of the matter is that she's involved in an all girl teen gang that robs gas stations and assaults innocent couples necking at lovers lane.

*****SPOILER ALERT***** Paula along with Georgia (Theresa Hancock), Geraldine (Joanne Cangi), and Phyllis (Gloria Farr) commit these crimes and sell their loot to an older dame named Sheila (Lee Constant) who has connections(!) but the truth is that Paula enjoys her bad behavior for the thrill of it. They assault a man and his girlfriend and they end up dragging him into the woods where Paula rapes him! A few days later while ransacking the high school the cops show up and during a shootout both Phyllis and Geraldine are killed. Paula and Georgia are the only two left and they end up killing Sheila but they also crash their car into a plate glass window which kills Georgia. During the trial Paula learns that she's pregnant and her parents want to adopt her child but Judge Clara (I. Stanford Jolley) decides that they have proved themselves to be bad parents and the child will become a ward of the state.

This small "B" film was directed by William Morgan who was a very good film editor (Song of the South, Tarantula) but as a director he had modest success and I guess the best thing you can say about his talent in this field is that he was capable. Ed Wood wrote the script and while this may be thought of as one of his better efforts there are still enough funny lines to keep your expectations up like the detective who barks out "They're not kids, they're morons" but the most monotonous speech comes at the end of the film with the judge. After denying the parents wishes to adopt their granddaughter Judge Clara starts getting a glazed look in his eyes and starts this long and meandering speech about moral obligation and mutters things about families getting back to respecting the 10 commandments and taking care of matters by using the good old woodshed. I'm guessing that Wood was just trying to add padding to an already very short film! A couple of things also stand out for me like the Madonna torpedo bra's that are worn and the fact that Phyllis gets shot by a shotgun but acts like she was hit by an arrow instead! How about the guy who gets raped by Paula? What was he screaming for? Maybe he had never gotten to home plate with a girl before but I came away thinking that Paula must have been very horny! Because Wood's name is in the credits most will automatically think that this is one of Ed's bad films but the truth is that Morgan's direction is adequate and Wood's script has a good edge to it considering it was made in 1956. Sure it's laughably outdated but for me that's part of it's charm and appeal and those who are interested in scare films involving juvenile delinquency this effort probably deserves a peek.

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Simply a Classic, 6 October 2002
7/10
Author: awayfromthesun from Somewhere, Nowhere

Written by the legendary(that's right) Edward D. Wood Jr., this movie stands high above all of the crap that came out during that time. Possibly one of the best stories Ed Wood ever wrote. Who could ask for more than beautiful young girls going around robbing gas stations and causing mayhem? No one.

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8 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Ed Wood, you've done it again!, 11 November 1999
4/10
Author: Brian Manville (Sterno-2) from Frederick, MD

Ed Wood, purveyor of class and dignity with a veneer of exploitation, gives us a great story about the consequences of parental neglect, albeit wrapped in nice, tight sweaters.

The movie deals with a newspaperman's daughter (who looks about the same age as her parents) who has become a wild child because her father is too busy at work to notice that he keeps giving her the same birthday present every year. In addition, her mom's continuously on the charity circuit, so she's never around for those heart-to-heart talks that young women need. So, left to her own devices, she has a gang of other females in need of thrills who rob gas stations and rape young men.

While this tragedy is at times overly done, the point is still well made that parents need to be involved in their children's lives. Sterno says give The Violent Years some time from your life.

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10 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Unique, 12 August 1999
Author: Quetzl from Detroit

This film is pretty steady and mediocre (you can tell Ed didn't direct it), lacking the weirdness and spastic nature of Wood's other films. But, it also happens to be the only film you'll ever see where a MAN IS RAPED BY A GANG OF GIRLS! A truly unique moment in film history.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Girls gone somewhat askew., 26 February 2007
1/10
Author: JoshSpurling from Greenfield, IN USA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Four teenage girls, who are well into their twenties, disguise themselves as boys (they wear bandannas) and "run rampage" through the city by pushing their sexual advances on a weaselly boy on Lovers' Lane and hitting a gas station employee with a handgun, not killing him of course, but, as one policeman remarks, "Not for lack of trying."

After enduring a friend of her father's who shows up at their slumber party, trying to hold a conversation with the "teens" as they make out robotically, Paula leads the gang on their most heinous crime of all: breaking into their classroom in order to slightly disrupt the furniture and even erase the blackboard! Fortunately, the cops show up before they can finish the job, and a shoot-out ensues. One of the girls, after being blasted with a shotgun, announces, "It wasn't supposed to be like this," before lying down gently with no visible signs of damage whatsoever. The other three girls high-tail it out of the school but stop directly in front of the cops to chat long enough for another girl to be shot down as well. Day and night lose all meaning as the remaining two girls speed off at a snail's pace past the police.

After another shooting, the girls have a wonderfully ridiculous car crash into a plate glass window, killing one of them. Paula receives some cuts on her face, but manages to live just long enough to give birth to her illegitimate child. A judge refuses to grant Paula's parents custody of the child and further punishes them by reading a speech so long and pointless that even he seems to be dozing off by the end. In short, it's the fault of the parents that Paula turned to a hobby of crime because they didn't give her enough love or force religion upon her. Let this be a lesson to us all.

"The Violent Years" isn't nearly as inept as "Plan 9 From Outer Space" or "Glen or Glenda?" (possibly because Ed Wood only wrote it, didn't direct it) but it's still terribly entertaining.

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Hot Chicks, Tight Sweaters, Fast Cars!, 23 January 1999
9/10
Author: EBK from Alberta, Canada

Another social commentary from the mind of Edward D. Wood Jr. As in _Glen or Glenda_, Ed tries desperately to make an _On The Waterfront_ or _Wild One_ and, as usual, fails again. In _The Violent Years_, Ed addresses parental neglect and small-town boredom as the motivations behind a girl-gang's reign of terror. Ed emerges as a moralist who doesn't shy away from the hard issues arising from the result of criminal actions. The parents must face their failure, but the girl must face the results of her actions. As a filmmaker with a social conscience, Ed is truly without peer. A confirmed liberal, Ed also understands the balance between the needs of society and the needs of the individual. The problem is, he can't translate his inchoate emotion into a functional script. This film hangs together better than the (surprisingly) later film _Plan 9_, having consistent story and less than painful acting. And the rape scene is truly a unique moment is cinematic history. A strong film marred only by the Curse of Ed Wood.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Proof You Don't Have To Be Ed Wood To Direct Badly, 4 November 2007
5/10
Author: HalRagland from United States

I was concerned when I saw that "The Violent Years" was only written by Ed Wood, but was directed by William Morgan. I was concerned that it might come off as something other than an Ed Wood movie. Yet if you had to guess who directed this one without know anything about the movie, then I'm sure most b-movie lovers would guess it was Ed Wood.

"The Violent Years" has everything you could want out of an Ed Wood directed and written movie. Bad dialogue, bad editing and ham acting plague "The Violent Years" as much as any other Ed Wood production.

"The Violent Years" follows the exploits of a gang of four school girls led by the daughter of the local newspaper publisher. The "girls" all look like actresses who are closer to 30 than 20, but nobody should care since this is an Ed Wood written production. The girls get their thrills by staging armed robberies of gas stations and unarmed lover's lane couples. Along the way we get to see hilariously bad shoot out and crash scenes, an even more hilarious scene where the girls "rape" a man they discover making out with his girlfriend at the local lover's lane, and arguably the most hilarious monologue by a judge in film history.

The aspect of an Ed Wood written film that provides me with the most amusement is the dialogue. Like the above mentioned monologue by the judge. No judge would write a decision in a court case like the one we hear in "The Violent Years", except if he were at least as drunk as Ed Wood was when he wrote it. People just don't talk like they do in an Ed Wood movie, and this has provided many an Ed Wood movie viewer with many laughs over the years.

"The Violent Years" is there for the Ed Wood fan. It doesn't have much to offer to people who like to see good film making when they see a movie. However, if you're looking for an exercise in film making ineptitude for laughs, then "The Violent Years" is your movie.

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6 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Silly, funny and very very BAD!, 22 July 2002
3/10
Author: Wayne Malin (wwaayynnee51@hotmail.com) from United States

Incredibly dumb and utterly predictable story of a rich teen girl who, not given love by her parents, starts a girl gang. They rob gas stations, rape guys (!!!) and kill a policeman.

All the "teenagers" in this film are easily in their late 20s/early 30s, the acting is all horrible and the script has every cliche imaginable with hilarious dialogue--it comes as no surprise that it was written by the immortal Ed Wood Jr.!

Worth seeing for laughs. Best lines--"They're shooting back!" and "It ain't supposed to be like this."

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8 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
A BAD movie about bad girls robbing gas stations dressed as boys and using boys' names!, 24 May 1999
3/10
Author: Peter Burgess Griggs from Essex County, New Jersey

With a script by the infamous Edward Wood Jr. and the sleaziest of juvenile delinquent plots - Voila! Instant camp classic!

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