Teenage Rebellion

Supposedly shocking documentary on teenagers of the late 60s. The problem is that the purportedly real footage of teenagers drinking, making out and taking drugs is no longer shocking. Also it is coupled with the worst narration I have ever heard--it was just so insipid and stupid that I stared at the screen in disbelief. At first it's kind of fun (because it's so pathetic) but it quickly becomes dull. We see footage of teenagers all over the world (the U.S., Japan, Rome, Italy, Sweden) but there is very little conversation with them. Also there are two sequences dealing with Italian prostitutes which might be interesting, but they're speaking Italian and there's no subtitles! There are a few (very few) interesting moments--some actual footage of a drug party; an interview with a 17-year-old English girl prostitute and a surprisingly non-judgmental, open look at a gay Italian teenage boy. The movie ends with another--I think--real scene of an actual birth. Ugh. Also boys are almost completely ignored in this movie--the focus is on teenage girls and endless lingering shots of them in bikinis. All in all though, this movie is deservedly obscure. If you're desperate...

Towards the late-60's, a new breed of "rebellious teens" had supposedly emerged and as a result lot of great, fun movies were released on the exploitation circuit to give warning to "teenagers and straight people alike". Some of these gems include MONDO MOD, MALAMONDO and HIPPIE REVOLT. TEENAGE REBELLION is one of these films but in my eyes it is something of an individual. For one thing it's in black-and-white, has nothing to do with hippies and rather than just sticking to good ol' USA, we get to see rebellious teens from a whole lot of other parts of the world (mostly Europe).

There's never a moment of boredom as Burt Topper's serious narration informs us about teenage protests, revolts, prostitution, drugs and unwed mothers. There are lots of memorable (sometimes staged) scenes involving LSD, beatnik parties, young homosexuals in Italy, an interview with a British prostitute and a wonderful, surprising clay-animated scene depicting man's discovery of the wheel (great editing, too!). The groovy dancing scenes (from US, London and even Tokyo) and music (Mike Curb produced the Sidewalk lable soundtrack!) are unnecessarily picked on by Topper's narration and stills of old folks walking in the street with phony voice-overs ("Call that dancing? We had real dancing in my day!"). The flashbacks with people jitterbugging and dead movie stars walking across Sunset Blvd. represent how time has changed since then.

TEENAGE REBELLION usually played under the title MONDO TEENO (!) and was released several times during the late-60's and early-70's. One time it even played with H.G. Lewis' JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT! My video copy is from Something Weird who sadly had their copy deleted some time ago making it completely unavailable. If you dig this sort of 60's thing, you should definitely look it up because films like these are like nostalgic tours of and era which will never again be experienced.