Talking Pictures TV are on some sort of a "youth crime panic flicks of the 50s" roll so I got these in:
Too Young To Love - 1960 - US - absolutely horrifying (in hindsight) treatment of the "problem" of "delinquent" young girls, neglected by their working parents, being sucked into a whirlwind of drunken partying, "heavy petting" and what we'd now call a grooming ring run by some dissolute 40 and 50 something businessmen. The solution offered by the courts? (it's set in a NY youth courtroom) - send those slatterns upstate to a reform school while letting their older 'gentlemen' off with a mild tongue lashing because they should know better and it's a bit sad that grown married men are still 'running around with young girls'. Gave me the shudders good enough.
and
Cosh Boy (aka Slasher) - 1953 - UK - almost equally appalling but far more ridiculous "throw up your hands in horror at youth crime" tale of a cowardly, spoilt, overindulged, callous teenage boy who manipulates his thicker mates into coshing people during robberies (or just for kicks), more or less rapes his girlfriend, and treats his mum and nan like dirt. His criminal trajectory picks up speed until he nearly ends up murdering his mum's Canadian straight-arrow fancy man. Much head scratching about how the youth of today (of 1953) seem aimless, violent and nihilist, but because the police "aren't allowed by the law" to "set them straight" physically, there's nothing much to be done. Problem solved in the end by having Canada Man move in and give the boy a good thrashing (I'm not kidding, it ends with his screaming sobbing pleading on the soundtrack and happy pictures indicating "it's all right now!"). Notable again for shocking sexism (everything is going wrong because "mum's too soft"), extreme brutality about street crime / beating kids / wives / miscarriage / attempted suicide - and its prurient, judgemental, Daily Mail style sensationalism. Also an extremely early turn by Joan Colllins who doesn't know whether to act posh or common.
After all that Silence (2016) by Martin Scorsese (three hours of deeply deeply serious moral reflection on the meaning of faith, alienation and will, via the tale of a couple of Jesuits trying to spread the Gospel in 17th century Japan) seemed almost like light relief. Well OK not really. It's a good and visually beautiful film and the slow, meditative, unshowy style - so unlike stereotype-Scorsese - is a perfect match for the subject matter, but some of it is a little silly and it's a tough sell to a post-religious 21st century audience.
