In this installment of Balladeer’s Blog’s recurring Forgotten Television segment I continue my look at Reel Wild Cinema (1996-1997). This time around it’s Episodes 8-10.
THE RUNDOWN FOR EPISODE EIGHT (June 9th, 1996)
Title: Kids in Peril
Truncated Films Shown:
UNTAMED FURY (1947) – A very early hicksploitation movie. This black & white movie’s stock footage is set in the swamps of the Deep South but everything else takes place on the usual cheap sets we all know and love from Producers Releasing Corporation.
As children, two swamp kids develop a rivalry over a pretty gal and over which one of them is “best” at getting dragged behind their fathers’ boats to lure out alligators for killing. Dubious honor to be fighting for. At any rate, the boy so good that he earns the nickname Gator Bait (yes, like the 1970s Claudia Jennings flick) goes off to college.
When he comes back years later, Gator Bait wants to do improvements to the swamplands to provide a better way of life for the locals. His boyhood rival in luring out alligators is opposed to the idea, as are a few other folks and conflict results. E.G. Marshall’s film debut. I’m NOT joking.
SANTA CLAUS (1959) – Also released as Santa Claus vs the Devil, this was another of the Mexican movies that K. Gordon Murray distributed in the U.S. with half-assed dubbing. Virtually EVERYBODY is familiar with this movie these days, but for newcomers I’ll give a recap.
Santa Claus and his workshop are in outer space in this film and instead of elves, children from around the world help him make toys for Christmastime. Unintentional laughs come from the depiction of Santa creepily watching children both awake and asleep via his technology.
A Devil named Pitch gets sent up to the Earth to sabotage St. Nick’s annual delivery of toys. Santa’s sleigh is pulled by a measly TWO reindeer – both of them mechanical – and Merlin the Magician aids Santa against Pitch.
LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND HER THREE FRIENDS (1961) – It should be no surprise that K. Gordon Murray also distributed this second of three VERY weird Little Red Riding Hood movies. An actual little girl plays Red but her trio of animal friends are again played by adults in grungy costumes that not even Furries would settle for.
At the end of the previous film in this series our heroine got the Wolf to change his ways and become a forest ranger. This time around the townspeople are still so suspicious of him that he returns to his old ways. Red gets her pal Skunk from the first film and her new friend Dog to help reform the Wolf. AGAIN!
*** TRAILERS – A look at campy trailers for Puss ‘n’ Boots (1961), Tom Thumb (1962) and The Brave Little Tailor (1964).
THE RUNDOWN FOR EPISODE NINE (June 16th, 1996)
Title: Just Say No!
Truncated Films Shown:
THE WEIRD WORLD OF LSD (1967) – One of the most storied anti-drug films this side of Reefer Madness and Cocaine Fiends! This is the b&w movie from which the world got the meme of the teen lying on a sofa waving his arms around while thinking he’s flying.
You know the drill in flicks of this sort. Like it’s a horror anthology we get a few overdone segments about the horrors that befall drug users as only non-drug using PTA members could present them. We viewers are treated to some rubber-masked monsters, dirt eating, and a tripping fool who thinks his mere sandwich is a multi-course banquet.
All that plus a narrator so solemn he makes Jack Webb seem like Robin Williams.
THE NARCOTIC STORY (1958) – Though it’s from nine years BEFORE the above movie this one is in color. It’s a police training film that made its way to theaters as a Public Service. A teen girl’s neglectful parents inadvertently drive her to experiment with marijuana and from there to hard drugs, leading to her ruin.
We viewers learn about grass and goofballs and how to recognize their effects on users. We also get an education in recognizing drug deals going down and related situations. It’s comical how the film makes it seem like its audience should start making arrests, which was okay for the original police viewers but hilarious if you picture assorted “Citizen’s A-REH-YESTS” being attempted because of this movie.
GIRL GANG (1954) – Cult favorite Timothy Farrell might as well be playing his “Scali” role that he assumed in other movies back then. In this one he’s “Joe” with no last name given. Farrell is an evil drug pusher who gets teen girls (and the occasional boy) hooked, then makes them commit crimes to pay for their fix.
The entrepreneurial Joe also serves as the fence for the stolen goods the ladies bring him and pimps out some of the girls when need be. He’s a one-man crime wave with the line delivery of a calculus teacher and fans of bad movies wouldn’t want Farrell any other way!
Joanna Arnold steals the movie as a sort of female Scarface making her way up the felony ladder, sneering and vamping all the way. She knows the rules to get into the Girl Gang – put out for five males who frequent Joe’s house, which we viewers feel like we’ve moved into given all the time spent there.
*** TRAILERS – A look at campy trailers for Something’s Happening (1967), The Cool and the Crazy (1958) and High on the Range (1924).
THE RUNDOWN FOR EPISODE TEN (June 23rd, 1996)
Title: Dope Pushers and Vice Dolls
Truncated Films Shown:
THE VIOLENT YEARS (1956) – Ed Wood wrote but didn’t direct this Juvenile Delinquent schlocker. It’s a much milder version of Girl Gang complete with a much less stylish gas station robbery. There’s more making out – in full top & bottom pajamas – than toking up in this camp classic.
Wood’s most noteworthy twist on the J.D. genre forever ensured the cult status of The Violent Years. That twist? America’s juvenile delinquency epidemic is run by communist spies through jaded adults who manipulate the teenage criminals.
DAMAGED GOODS (1961) – Charlotte Stewart debuted in this exploitation film that’s like a Frankie and Annette Beach Movie seen through the looking glass. Things start out with a car race, surfing and a carnival.
“Good” couple Jim and Judy plan to get married right after graduation. Unfortunately, their no-good, slang-spewing friend Monk lures Jim to a weekend at the Vegas of the coast – Seaview. The drinks are cheap there and the women are cheaper and days later Jim develops a sore on one of his organs.
The Jimster confides in his coach, who sends him to a v.d. doctor. That MD assures our hero that he can “lick his syphilis” in a spit-take moment for modern viewers. From there, doc shows Jim a vintage v.d. educational film and we end without even getting to see Jim tell Judy he gave her the clap.
TEENAGE GANG DEBS (1966) – Also released as Leather Jacket Jungle, this J.D. movie is remembered as the screen debut of Eileen Dietz AND for its footage of Brooklyn locales that no longer exist. Terry, the new girl in the neighborhood, starts hanging out with the tough girls.
Those ladies are the female, or “deb” chapter of a violent boys’ gang. Terry uses her charms to get her current beau in the gang to challenge the present leader, and when that gets her beau killed she just moves on to seduce his killer.
Like she’s in a movie called Teenage Lady MacBeth, Terry then pushes the gang leader to move in on other gangs’ territories, ultimately unleashing disaster.
*** TRAILERS – A look at campy trailers for LSD-25 (1967), Devil’s Harvest (1942) and Lost, Lonely and Vicious (1958).
I’LL EXAMINE THREE MORE EPISODES NEXT TIME.
Balladeer's Blog 
Great posts as always. I haven’t heard of any of these episodes but I found your post to be extremely engaging to read. Out of the episodes you discussed, I found the Narcotic Story to be the most interesting. Drugs and their effects on teenagers have always fascinated me. I don’t do drugs myself but I have seen its negative impact on peers in school. It brought to mind great teenage movies that I have seen. For instance, it reminds me a lot of the classic movie “The Breakfast Club”. It tells the story of five teenagers spending time in a detention together. Drugs are an essential part of the story with Bender being an addict. One of my favourite films of all time.
Here’s why I recommend it if you haven’t already seen it:
Thank you! I should watch The Breakfast Club!