The destructive effects of poverty, ignorance and poor social services leading children to become criminally bent as they mature is given the Dearden treatment. The location work is excellent. The same social conditions that created these fictional twisted kids still exists today, in fact it's worse today than ever around the world yet the public and the world's governments are even more apathetic than ever. The acting is uniformly excellent. Johnny's gang of aimless, violently psychopathic boys (and one blonde female playing at being a sexbomb), are dangerous but have free reign to terrorize anyone they want to while the police and social services do nothing. David McCallum is too mature. However, his characterization is entirely believable. Stanley Baker has little to do but glare at everyone for the entire movie up to the ending. His portrayal of a Juvenile Liaison Officer is based on fact, a sub-department of cops assigned to steer kids away from criminality. His fellow cops sit around their headquarters and do little. Ann Heywood, an under-appreciated actress side-tracked into sex films later in her career, plays the misguided, stubborn sister who refuses to get what a dangerous psycho brother McCallum is. It was a tricky performance for him. This was the kind of part that could have typecast him as a maniac in the eyes of movie producers as it did Anthony Perkins. Fortunately, Illya Kuryakin came along 7 years later. What's irritating about the authorities in this film is how inert, slow-moving and unresponsive they are, especially during the hostage taking. This climactic closing was a scene that is even more disturbing now then when it was shown in theaters. Typically, only a handful of cops surround the school, instead of an army of officers and snipers. The ultimate message of the film, relayed by Baker to Heywood, is that child criminality in a poverty stricken environment needs to be spotted and rechanneled into productive activities and after a certain age is reached, punishment as a deterrent to other kids is needed, not criminal coddling in a hospital after a devastating act is committed. The BBFC ordered cuts made in 1957 but the details are hidden. The film tries to provide a "happy ending" for the small child Johnny machine-gunned but it's unconvincing.
Review of Violent Playground
