So what! Two tales of Juvenile Delinquency
Guest-curated by Roger K. Burton, costume designer and former mod.

Saturday 31 May, 18.20
The Horse Hospital

The media of the 1950s and early 1960s were obsessed with “rock’n’roll & out of control” juvenile delinquents. American and British filmmakers responded to this debate by producing a number of low budget teenage exploitation movies, most containing a strong moral message.

The Violent Years
USA 1956. Dir William Morgan.
With Jean Moorhead and Barbara Weeks. 56 min. DVD.

Set in status-conscious mid-50s Los Angeles, and from a screenplay by the one and only Edward D. Wood, Jr. (Plan 9 from Outer Space, 1959) comes a rare girl gang B-movie The Violent Years. As an act of rebellion, spoilt teenage daughter Paula becomes a thrill seeker and turns to crime together with her gang of untamed high school girlfriends. These girls might look sweet and innocent in their California sports styles of tight sweaters, pointy bras, waspy waists and sneakers but don't let their pretty faces fool you, as they are really cold-hearted criminals, and out to do anything that's bad.

The Boys
UK 1962. Dir Sidney J. Furie.
With Richard Todd, Dudley Sutton, Robert Morley. 123 min. DVD

The Boys readily illustrates the widespread discrimination directed at post-war youth by a conservative Britain. This gripping film centres around the media controversy that engulfed capital punishment at the time, and was one of the first British social melodramas to acknowledge the rise of teenage gangs and the resulting juvenile delinquency. The title characters are four working class teenagers, described here as “Teddy Boys,” all implicated in the murder of a night watchman. Furie makes a close study of the sartorial choices made by the boys who all sport the latest Italian slim-line style suits, made fashionable in the UK by Cecil Gee during the late 1950s, becoming a precursor to the mod style of the early 1960s.

The Violent Years, dir. William Morgan, 1956.

The Boys, dir. Sidney J Furie, 1962. Courtesy BFI

Get Carter
UK 1971. Dir Mike Hodges.
With Michael Caine, Britt Ekland. 112 min. 35mm.

Thursday 15 May, 18.30
ICA Cinema 1

With an introduction by Alistair O'Neill, Senior Lecturer in Fashion, and writer.

Zoot Suit Riots
USA 2001. Dir Joseph Tovares.
Documentary. 60 min. DVD.

Monday 26 May, 20.00
The Horse Hospital

Tovares’s captivating documentary, part of the “American Experience” series on PBS, explores zoot suit culture through LA's infamous “Sleepy Lagoon” murder (1942). The killing of a boy at a party triggered a ruthless police manhunt and the subsequent show trial resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of a group of young Mexican American "zoot suiters" that many—including high-profile figures such as Orson Welles—thought to be innocent. The sensational trial added to the growing anti-zoot suit and anti-Mexican feeling in LA. The baggy attire was condemned as unpatriotic, and those who wore it as ignorant of the war effort. This sentiment eventually led to street beatings and ritual strippings of boys as young as 14.

With grateful thanks to American Experience and PBS.

The Zoot Suit Riots, dir. Joseph Tovares, 2002. Courtesy Corbis/Bettman