June 1: Junesploitation’s topic of the day — as suggested by F This Movie— is Free Space! We’re excited to tackle a different genre every day, so check back and see what’s next.
Dr. Paul Furman (Jerome Thor, whose trenchcoat from Foreign Intrigue is in the Smithsonian; he’s in a lot of later Bronson movies like 10 to Midnight, Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects, Murphy’s Law and Messenger of Death) takes over a reform school and makes some big changes, including easing the discipline, trusting the inmates more and, perhaps most importantly, making it co-ed.
Eddie Bassett (Scott Marlowe, who was in The Cool and the Crazy and had a long career of TV roles) is enjoying all this freedom and the interest of the girls that have arrived, like the shy Kitty Anderson (Virginia Aldridge) and the more in your face Babe (Dorothy Provine, That Darn Cat).
Everything goes bad when Kitty and Babe fight over him, which turns into a big rumble and even Dr. Furman gets involved when she’s punched by Eddie.
The governor fires Furman and brings back Col. Ernest Walton (Lance Hoty), who was a strict believer in the power of discipline. One of his guards, Quillan (Richard Reeves) beats on Eddie, who decides to start a riot — a Riot In Juvenile Prison — that can only be stopped by Furman.
I mean, in the real world, they’d just tear gas these kids and shoot them, but go with director Edward L. Cahn (The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake, Invasion of the Saucer Men, Creature With the Atom Brain) and Orville H. Hampton (whose career started in 1950 with movies like Rocketship X-M and ended in 1983 with The Dukes cartoon series; he also wrote Friday Foster) and watch a world where juvenile delinquents and authority can walk hand in hand into a sunshiny brand new day.
I first watched this thanks to the always amazing and wonderful White Slaves of Chinatown 3D YouTube page.
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