TEENAGE JUNGLE (1959) **

A stern-faced District Attorney (Herbert Heyes) calls the parents and guardians of various juvenile delinquents into his office and chastises them for their lack of parental supervision.  We then see flashbacks of a teenage party being raided by the cops where two delinquent car-thieving brothers are arrested.  More flashbacks of other juvenile delinquents, hard-luck gamblers, and assorted underworld types follow.  All these characters are connected in some way to Jim Murray (Wheeler Oakman) a gangster, who after a long prison stretch, now wants to set his wayward son (Johnny Duncan, Robin from the old Batman and Robin serial) on the straight and narrow. 

Teenage Jungle is a cut-and-paste Juvenile Delinquent movie.  The wraparound footage with the D.A. is new, but the long chunks of flashback footage is from Gambling with Souls and Slaves in Bondage.  The effect isn’t exactly convincing to begin with, and the editing only gets worse as it goes along.  (Things get particularly choppy in the last act.)  The cinematography between the three films doesn’t match either, which only adds to the cobbled-together feel. 

Teenage Jungle works up to a point.  The early dance sequences are good for a few laughs.  I mean, nothing says “Juvenile Delinquents” like a pair of twins doing gymnastic dance numbers in someone’s living room.  The Gambling with Souls scenes play out rather well in their condensed form too.  The fact that the running time is less than an hour certainly helps as well. 

The problem is this thing was a half-assed, re-edited attempt at a Juvenile Delinquent movie.  Instead of catering to the genre demands, the narrative is filled with scenes from old “Scare Pictures”.  In lieu of things like hot-rodding teens, bobbysoxers, and malt shops, we get a lot of baloney about the dangers of drinking, gambling, and crime.  In the process, the film falls somewhere in between a scare picture and an honest to goodness Juvenile Delinquent pic, and winds up failing to hit the highlights of either genre. 

The highpoint of the movie is Oakman.  He also appeared in Gambling with Souls and Slaves in Bondage and seeing him turning up in all three sections of Teenage Jungle gives it a bit of consistency.  (Even if he is called by three different names.)  It’s kind of a kick seeing the slightly older and wiser Oakman trying to repent for his past sins in the other films.  In a way, it’s kind of like Boyhood, as you see the character gradually age before your very eyes.  That doesn’t exactly save the flick, but it is pretty neat.

AKA:  Teen Age.