Teenage Gang Debs

This film begins with a young man approaching a prostitute by the name of "Rosie" (Janet Banzet) to purchase some of her time. Although she considers him a bit too young, she reluctantly agrees since business is rather slow. However, once they get to her place a small group of men led by a man named "Johnny" (John Batis) appears and beat her up for informing on one of their friends. As it so happens, Johnny is the leader of a motorcycle gang in Brooklyn known as the Rebels and he is highly respected among the group. The next scene then shifts to one of the Rebel's hangouts where a young woman from Manhattan by the name of "Terri" (Diane Conti) has appeared and wants to join the gang. Although she is quite attractive this causes a serious internal problem since all of the men in the gang already have girlfriends. Recognizing that Johnny is the leader she convinces him to allow her to fight his girlfriend named "Angel" (Linda Gale) for the right to replace her. Yet even though Terri wins she still isn't satisfied with her status in the gang and from that point on trouble soon follows. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this low-budget, grade-Z, quasi-biker film had a good plot and some adequate acting. Unfortunately, it was seriously limited by extremely weak camera work during the action scenes and very poor lighting. In short, this film had potential but it wasn't quite realized and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

Teenage Gang Debs (1966)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Terry (Diane Conti) is a troubled girl from Manhattan who moves over to Brooklyn and soon goes after the leader of a gang. She cuts his girlfriend off and begins having sex with him but she then seduces another member of the gang and talks him into killing the leader. This here sets off some events that shows how mean Terry is.

TEENAGE GANG DEBS certainly doesn't look or feel as if it was made in 1966. I'm going to guess that this film was shot sometime during the 1950s when REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE broke loose and caused all sorts of low-budget rip-offs to follow. This film certainly doesn't look like anything from 1966 so I'm going to guess that's when the film finally got a theatrical release.

With all of that said, this here is a pretty bland movie and there's really nothing here that makes this film stick out from the dozens of others that were released back in the day. Basically you've got the Diane character doing whatever it takes to be a "leader" and she doesn't care who she hurts or how much damage she causes. The film never bothers to tell us why she's like this but I doubt it would have mattered.

The performances are all rather bland, although I will say that Conti was at least decent in the lead role. The soundtrack, editing and cinematography are all forgetable and there's really nothing here that you'd consider good. If you're a fan of this genre then you'll want to check it out but others should feel free to skip it.

Let's face it. This movie sucks. It doesn't even fit in the "so bad it's good" category. Low low budget, horribly staged fight and rumble scenes-c'mon guys, somebody take a punch! This is another one of those movies where you can be shot or stabbed and there is never any blood. How this can be called exploitation is beyond me. Just because it's from the early 60's, is shot in black and white and has "teenage" in the title does not make it an undiscovered classic. Something Weird has so many better titles along this same ilk. Nothing happens in this film. The sex and violence and even the language are all rated G. Pass on this timekiller. Even the soundtrack music leaves much to be desired and you've heard it a million times. Every 60's porno loop lifted the same music and it was put to better use!

Surprisingly well directed considering its ephemeral trashcan image. I liked the photography of the fight scenes, almost worthy of Kurosawa. I liked the Jacobean amorality and black humour. And in its genre it was quite dramatic. No doubt hundreds of minor films like this are ignored by the critics and banned by the authorities, only to be resurrected on C4 Eurotrash-cum-Exploitica slots. Of course the nasty heroine had to have her come-uppance in the end, but there was enough action and atmosphere of a non-prurient satanic sex'n'violence to make the ending a pure palinode.