Mad Youth

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.

Nothing really mad going on here at all, of course, apart from the heavy-handed moralizing as delivered by gigolo Count Willy Castello which will have you laughing out loud. And that is the point of these type of films - they are unintentionally hilarious in parts. It's what makes them good entertainment.

The story starts with Betty Compson (Lucy) phoning up for an escort as usual. On this evening she gets Willy Castello and she is not shy in coming forward! She takes him home where they meet up with her daughter Mary Ainslee (Marian). Big mistake. Castello takes a shine to the daughter and they start dating behind the mum's back. Ha ha. This must have happened so many times in real life. Well, the youth party and dance away but there is a new storyline introduced when Ainslee's best friend Betty Atkinson (Helen) absconds from home in response to an advert. The reality is that she has become a prossie and Ainslee unknowingly gets caught up in her plight when she pays her a visit. We need a hero to come and save them.

Meanwhile, Compson ends the film as she started it - by calling up an escort/gigolo to spend her evening with. She really has got life sussed. A good role model.

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.

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.

Shapely sweater-clad Mary Ainslee (as Marian Morgan) enjoys wild nights partying while "lonesome" mother Betty Compson (as Lucy) prefers quieter evenings playing bridge with "dedicated and refined" gigolos like accented immigrant Willy Castello (as "Count" DeKoven). With her alimony check spent, Ms. Compson can't afford the extra charge for Mr. Castello's "love" on their first date, but future funds mean "necking" sessions. Then, when Castello meets Ms. Ainslee, both mother and daughter desire the same man. Are Castello's intentions good, or "strictly dishonorable?"

"Mad Youth" takes an unexpected turn for a last act, after skirting with some actual depth. The performances of Ainslee and Compson become quite good, and intriguingly natural. It's nice to see women portrayed as interested in sex (for a change). After the rival mother and daughter share a marvelous scene, the story returns to its lurid roots. The dissolve and double exposures used for Ainslee's "drunk scene" and Compson's discovery of her daughter's diary are well done. The uninhibited dancing of Tommy Wonder and the "Jitter Bugs" is another highlight. Watch for the slinky blonde prostitute to stand in front of a revealing lamp, and one of the fighters to split his pants, in the film's final minutes.

****** Mad Youth (5/5/40) Melville Shyer ~ Mary Ainslee, Betty Compson, Willy Castello, Tommy Wonder