Teenage Bad Girl

Talking Pictures ironically advises parental guidance for this museum piece, in which bobbysoxer Sylvia Syms gets plenty from concerned parent Anna Neagle. Directed by a 65 year-old veteran of silent films, as the daughter who learns the hard way that Angry Young Men (even those in tweeds and a cravat) mean trouble Sylvia Syms was supposedly seventeen but actually 21 when she made this (and is now 86)! And the sum of money that causes all the grief is just £40. Another twenty years still lay ahead before one of the other teenagers - Wanda Ventham - would give birth to Benedict Cumberbatch. I could go on, but I think you get the picture...

The first problem with this film is that Sylvia Simms does not look or act like a 16 year old and Anna Neagle is about 10 years too old for her part.The second is that the fact that the film doesn't really acknowledge that teenagers as a group had arrived.Everything about this film is old fashioned.You think of all the American films coming out at this time with Dean,Presley etc and this film feels like it was made in the thirties.

In most juvenile delinquent films, the teens usually do something horrible or at least somewhat nasty. For most of this film, they stay out late and dance to the same song ("Get With It") in smokey clubs. And they yell at their Mom that she doesn't understand them. It isn't until near the very end that the Bad Boy (Kenneth Haigh) sets out to get money from an old aunt -- and when he steals it, she drops dead of a heart attack, no less! Talk about tame! There are far too many scenes of Mom Anna Neagle going "what will I do? why doesn't she obey me?". But it's a good-looking film courtesy of cinematographer Mutz Greenbaum (especially the club scenes) and Sylvia Syms shines as the Teenage Bad Girl in question. Also, Haigh is first-rate as the Bad Boy. So it's worth seeing, but don't expect real juvenile delinquents.