Carry On... #Rad Element

Last week's film (Beat Girl) was a shocking and unflinching exposé of the radical beatniks of London's coffee houses and nightclubs in the early 1960s. I'm sure everyone who attended the screening was appropriately shocked and... unflinched?

It was therefore interesting when I recently found myself coincidentally engaged in a lively (but completely unrelated) discussion about the problems and dangers associated with the "rad element". 

I had been devoting quite a bit of thought to the rad element while preparing my remarks about Beat Girl, so I was able to make what I considered to be some very salient and perceptive points about the beatniks and their specific form of rebellion; pointing out that they were actually reasonably benign and non-violent, and not nearly as "radical" as the older generation had made them out to be.

My arguments, which were of course thoughtful, cogent and exquisitely articulated, ultimately failed to convince my plumber. The "rad element" he was talking about turned out to be the heating element in my radiator.

I knew that.

Semantic ambiguity aside, I stand by my larger point about the beatniks. Beat Girl may have portrayed them as the "problem" generation, but it completely failed to notice that the wild, rebellious teenagers in question weren't actually doing anything particularly wrong, or bad. They were all portrayed as law-abiding youngsters who liked to hang out in coffee bars, dancing to loud music and not drinking. The most transgressive thing they did was hold a slightly raucous party.

Clearly a society on the brink of collapse.

On the other hand, the "rad element" portrayed in our next film is truly a kettle of fish of a different colour.

Full disclosure: I wasn't originally planning to screen Violent Playground as part of this current series. 

It's a very well-made film with top-notch performances from all concerned, and it fits perfectly into the theme of "social change" that I have been exploring. But it also takes a much more judgemental attitude towards the "troubled youth" in question. 

I have added it to our programme at the last minute largely because of the recent death (aged 90) of David McCallum.

Violent Playground was a very early leading role for McCallum, then aged 25 (but playing younger). He stars opposite Stanley Baker, Peter Cushing and others as a very troubled youngster growing up on an impoverished housing estate in Liverpool.

Like the beatniks of Beat Girl, the youngsters here are rebellious and directionless, disrespectful of authority and very much a product of their specific time and place. 

Unlike Beat Girl however, these kids are not benign, and the film is ultimately framed with a very different message. 

Even their dancing is shown as an act of violence.

Beat Girl may have been a rather silly film, but it makes an effort to show society as it looks to the beatniks themselves. Violent Playground is more concerned with the collapse of law and order, and is thus a far more conservative (with a small "c") film.

Stanley Baker plays a Detective Sargent given the task of liaising with Liverpool's troubled youth in the hopes of preventing future crimes.

Although set in Liverpool, most of the film was actually shot in and around London, which partly explains the total absence of local accents. Peter Cushing (in a non-Villainous role) features as a priest endeavouring to offer guidance and purpose to the city's errant youth.

When developing this current film series, I confess I had grappled with the choice between Beat Girl and Violent Playground. Beat Girl is undoubtedly the cheesier of the two, and gleefully wallows in its sensationalism. Violent Playground is a more polished film, with a serious message and a respected director (Basil Dearden) but it takes a rather sanctimonious attitude towards the social problems it portrays.

The solution of course is to show both films, which the recent death of David McCallum has prompted me to do.

One final note: Many of the films I have chosen for this series are ahead of their time in the way they portray various features of modern society. Violent Playground is ahead of the curve in its portrayal of an extremely negative aspect of modern life that was far less common in 1958 than it is now (although happily still extremely rare in the UK).

The film is rated PG in the UK (which may or may not count as a spoiler in this context!).

In any event, Beat Girl and Violent Playground both illustrate the extent to which society was concerned with the Rad Elements of their communities as the nation's post-war youth came of age. Beat Girl is trashy fun, but Violent Playground unquestionably turns up the heat.

We will screen Violent Playground at 7.30 on Thursday, the 16th of November at the Victoria Park Baptist Church.