Reckless Decision

I love how this exploitation film was made by an outfit called 'High Arts Pictures'--that's a laugh! It's included as a bonus feature on the equally awful "A Virgin in Hollywood"--from Alpha Video.

The film is trying to send a message to allow your teens freedom. But it also does so in a rather muddled fashion and with excessively poor production values. It begins with a mother arguing with her wild daughter about her wicked ways. However, the father intervenes and tells his prudish wife a story about a family member who was brought up in an overly strict home--and how it led to disaster. It seems the girl was so repressed by her father that she was pushed into rebellion--and a HUGE mistake she'd forever regret. Then begins a long story about a nice girl gone bad--all due to her evil father. It's all a bit confusing--after all, some watching the film might get the message that kids should be left to do what they like--that way they'll make the best choices (I can't see any potential problem with that!!!).

Compared to many exploitation films of the age (such as "Sex Madness" and "Reefer Madness"), "Reckless Decision" is actually amazingly restrained and watchable. While its message is strange, it avoids the usual tactic of saying any minor slip leads to a life of depravity! Now I am NOT saying it's a good film...just good compared to other films of the genre--most of which were just plain awful and unintentionally funny. This one isn't awful nor funny--just cheap and dull.

This is an exploitation film produced by John Noble for High-Art Pictures, and has also been released with two other titles: PROTECT YOUR DAUGHTERS and SUSPICIOUS MOTHERS, highly cut while incorporating a large portion from an earlier feature, unfortunately not identified but also a pre-Code work, mild as it may be in delineating the differences between improper and socially correct behaviour. The long first scene is obviously a latter-day appendage and is marked by such poorly structured action and patently didactic dialogue that one is apt to view with cheer the subsequent evidence of a fall from grace on the part of teenaged Beth (Barbara Kent), daughter of a preacher (William Farnum), at the hands of her lover and friends. The acting is variable in quality, as Kent, Doris Eaton, Edward Woods, and Don Dillaway contribute their best considering the material, while Adele Riggs is excruciatingly bad with her delivery, but it all matters little, as the lesson to be delivered to the audience is lost as this morality play wobbles to a weakly happy ending.

After learning that a lost short film (similarly titled Tell Your Children, in which Alfred Hitchcock had worked in the art department) had scenes edited into this film, the only remnants of that film, I searched for it, found it, watched it, and ... was I ever disappointed. The footage from that film apparently amounts to a handful of seconds'worth of footage, and it consists of someone opening a Bible and leafing through it, and a scene of some girls riding bikes along a residential street. It is obvious those shots were taken from a different film, as they are of a different, more high contrast film stock, and have a choppy look to them.

The rest of the film tells the tale, in laborious detail, of strictly conservative religious parents attempting to keep their daughter away from the likes of marijuana and staying out late.

Stage-bound melodrama, might be worthy of watching just for a couple of unintended laughs at the expense of the ultra straight-laced screenplay, featuring putrid dialogue delivered with acting which can be best described as stiff-as-a-board; puzzling use of flashbacks; and the creepy and preachy dad with seemingly painted-on eyebrows and moustache (who says to his wife, who is growing impatient: "Keep your pants, your shoes, keep them on!") ..... and its abrupt, awkward ending.

As vintage exploitation films go, this one is pretty good at giving us a look at 1930's mores and attitudes. This is something these cheaply made melodramas expressed more frankly than the A product from the major studios, which is what makes them fascinating despite their lack of slick production values. If anything, it only adds a crude sense of realism befitting the sleazy subject matter.

It's also interesting to see actors like silent screen veteran William Farnum and Eddie Woods, who appeared in many reputable films during this era, notably as James Cagney's pal in THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931).

Protect Your Daughter (1933)

** (out of 4)

Listen up all you mothers. Did you know that if your daughter was a virgin yet you suspected her of being a whore and told her about it, the virgin daughter would "put the game in the name" and become a whore. This is a tragic, hard hitting and emotionally devastating drama that packs a punch like no other film from this era. Nah, I'm just bullshitting but this is a decent exploitation film that actually has a decent story. There aren't any over the top laughs but it's still watchable.