Mad Youth

This is a sleazy little film about "white slavery"--in other words, women forced into prostitution. While the budget was obviously very low and the production values low, this film actually was pretty watchable due to decent writing--as the plot often surprised me and wasn't completely telegraphed (something usual for the genre). Oddly, while the writing isn't bad, portions of the film look like a second-rate talent show, as various acts (some good, some bad) parade through two scenes that are largely irrelevant. In the first one, there are two excellent jitterbug dancers (this makes sense at a "wild party") and a drum major (huh??!?!). Later, it's pretty much the same.

The plot itself concerns a very vain and stupid mother who is too busy running around with male escorts (the real type, not male prostitutes). Her favorite male escort begins dating her daughter on the sly and you assume he's up to no good--especially since she seems pretty "fast". However, where the film goes next and the actual character of this man was very unexpected--making this very low-budget film worth a peek. Aside from a few poor performances and the odd talent show portions, it's a pretty good suspense film about the seamier side of life.

By the way, for an exploitation film, this one does NOT have any nude scenes--the plot is rather adult and there are some women in lingerie but that's really about all.

This movie is quite mature in its themes, and i recommend it as a better than average "exploitation" film. It stars Willam (Willy) Castello, the suave, often villainous Dutch-born actor, as the Count de Hoven. This is not the same actor as William Costello, born in Rhode Island, USA, who voiced Popeye. It is also of interest to note that some scenes from "Mad Youth" were later excerpted and used alongside other Willy Castello exploitation film clips to make an entirely new feature, "Confessions of a Vice Baron," in which the Castello character narrates his life of crime and multiple name-changes -- as if every character he had played in each of the earlier movies had been one man in disguise. I have never seen another movie that uses this device, and so i have made an effort to watch every film that contributed to "Confessions of a Vice Baron." So far, "Mad Youth" is by far the best of the lot.

1st watched 2/19/2007 - 3 out of 10(Dir-Melville Shyer): Mediocre drama about a battling mother and daughter over the affections of a gigolo named "Count." Advertised as an exploitation movie about the horrors of youth but instead it's just a run-of-the-mill romance where it just happens that the mother and daughter are the competitors. The mother is trying to live out her youth all over again by hiring young escorts to take her to wonderful places but one young suitor is more impressed with her daughter. After a spat, the daughter decides to move out and hooks up with an old friend of hers who happens to be trapped in a brothel. The "Count" then comes to the rescue and the rest is cinema history(kind of…)!! This is a very bland drama with professional dancing thrown in to keep us entertained around the silly story. The problem is that the dancing is better than the story, so I guess they should have made the movie around them instead of using them as window-dressing. Of course, that would have been a different movie but possibly a better one.

MAD YOUTH is another morality fable which looks at the plight of young girls caught up in vice and prostitution. As usual it tells the tale of an innocent young girl who, through no fault of her own, ends up being imprisoned inside a brothel. Who can save her and will they manage to do it in time?

This film has a slightly different angle to the rest in that the focus of the drama is on the relationship between mother and daughter. In fact, it's the mother's actions - in particular her cavorting with male prostitutes (!) - that causes the daughter to flee from her familial situation and fall into something even worse. Thus the film's erstwhile moral question is whether parents are responsible for the behaviour of their offspring.

There's some cheesy, heavy-handed moralising here, alongside the usual low-rent production values common in such sensationalist dramas. The acting is fairly average, although a little better than I've seen elsewhere. The film also picks up in the last twenty minutes, becoming something of a suspense thriller, and it even offers up some fun fight scenes; sadly it's not enough to make this a good film overall.

Lucy lives with her rich divorcee mother Marian Morgan. Marian hires male escort Count DeHoven, but he has a fling with Lucy instead. Lucy's friend Helen got kicked out of her home and intends to marry. Marian is tired of her daughter's partying and jealous of her youth. Marian sends her to live with her father. She heads off to stay with Helen instead.

The filmmaking is poor. The acting is mostly stiff and average at best. I'm not sure about the intention. It is a B-movie. One can argue that it's better than most B-movies. That's not a high bar to clear. I am engaged enough to stay with the story and there are some fun dance scenes. In the end, this is not good enough.