Violent Playground

Sadly when you watch a film that is 60 years old, you may be lucky if only one or two members of the cast are still alive. As of April 2018, Violent Playground has several members of cast not only alive but still performing such as David McCallum, Michael Chow, Tsai Chin, Freddie Starr and Melvyn Hayes.

Director Basil Dearden as he did in Sapphire and would go on to do in Victim, makes a melodrama dealing with social issues.

Set in post war Liverpool, Stanley Baker plays Detective Truman, he is unmarried, has no kids and he is assigned to work in the with a juvenile division, something he is not keen on. His brief is to stop youngsters living in the poverty ridden part of the city, entering a life of crime.

He ends up dealing with a pair of young twins who were caught shoplifting. Truman is comfortable at first dealing with the kids but as he takes them home to their block of flats he comes to a bunch of older unruly youths such as their older brother Johnnie (McCallum) who might be behind a string of arson in the city. Truman also gets involved romantically with Johnnie's sister.

Johnnie is rather unhinged, in the past he was feted a hero but the film climaxes as Johnnie holds young children in a school hostage in an armed seige.

The film is not totally convincing as it seems the director is uncomfortable in how to deal with the social justice aspects of the story. It wants to be The Blackboard Jungle but it does not get there. Many of the actors have non Scouse accents which is a surprise as McCallum was supposed to be an early British actor influenced by the method acting techniques. Baker's character gets too comfortable, too early as a Juvenile officer, able to understand the issues facing the young kids, although that might be just to expedite the story. Some of the scenes of the youths enjoying rock n roll music and dancing to it just looks silly, making a link to music and juvenile delinquency.

This movie pops up reasonably often on VERY late night TV in Australia on ABC TV (Not the american network).ABC tends to show very old British movies late at night, so I got to watch this one not too long ago.I quite liked it, it's certainly no worse than a lot of simular American films from around that time (Anything by American International for example). The locations and sets were good, Liverpool was an excellent choice for the movie.The fact that it was shot in black and white only enhances the mood and feel of this film. My only complaints about it are, I think that the romantic sub plot between the sargent and the older girl was tiresome and un necessary. The plot was strong enough without it, not to mention in real life, most policemen would be a lot more distant in the situation the good sargent found himself in. But hey. I'm not a policeman so it's only my opinion. My other complaint is that the title song was played throughout the movie ad-nauseum. It was ok for the intro, but after you heard it for the sixth or seventh time, it really started to get annoying. I can't help thinking that the movie was partially intended to be a promotional vehicle for whoever it was that sung it, the closing credits even mentioned that he/she was an artist with Fontana records. Obviously this ploy didn't work if that was the case. But the twins were absolutley gorgeous, especially Mary, it wouldn't have been as good without them. And David Maccallum was also very good as Johnny, happily he went onto much bigger things and deservedly so. It may seem a little dated now, not it's still an excellent movie, Well done!

1958's "Violent Playground" hasn't seen much airplay over the years, one of Britain's earliest answers to "Rebel Without a Cause" or "The Blackboard Jungle" (children in jeopardy too often a disturbing reality). The Johnny Luck recording "Play Rough" is heard over the opening credits (and throughout), as Det. Sgt. Jack Truman (Stanley Baker) switches from a case of arson to the Juvenile Liaison Division, unaware that his 'firebug' will soon reveal himself among them. Filming on location in the Gerard Gardens tenement of Liverpool (demolished in 1987), any clichés that pop up scriptwise are averted by strong performances, as the two young twins are surprisingly well played by real life twins Brona and Fergal Boland (never to do another film). Real life siblings Michael Chow and Tsai Chin (Lin Tang opposite Christopher Lee's Fu Manchu) are also cast as brother and sister, while the leads are portrayed by Anne Heywood and David McCallum, still seven years away from THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. but already displaying a smoldering, sullen presence on screen (if perhaps at 24, too old for a teen). Other commentators have complained about the love interest, but it's not that intrusive, while a surprisingly ineffective Priest, Father Laidlaw, is essayed by rising Hammer star Peter Cushing, who at least informs Baker's officer about some of the characters' backgrounds (the two actors would reunite for 1962's "The Man Who Finally Died"). Other Hammer faces on view include Clifford Evans, George A. Cooper, and Melvyn Hayes, the young Baron in "The Curse of Frankenstein," who again worked opposite Cushing in 1959's "The Flesh and the Fiends" and 1979's "Touch of the Sun."

This film was shot on location in Gerard Gardens in Liverpool, and was the UK's answer to films such as 'Blackboard Jungle'. The film stands the test of time quite well, with all the moral stories still (or even more) relevant today. The film feature some fine performance from some notable British actors such as David McCallum, Stanley Baker, Peter Cushing and Anne Heywood. Baker plays a Liverpool cop assigned to juvenile liaison duties, with the premise that if you catch the kids at an early age, they will end up being responsible adults.

Notable cameos in the film include Freddie Starr (Fred Fowell) and Melvyn Hayes (Gloria). Tsai Chin and Michael Chow play brother and sister (they are real life brother and sister) who are caught up in an arsonists web. Tsai Chin is still acting and can be seen in the latest Nicole Kidman film 'The Interpretor'.

Violent Playground features a gun siege in a school, so is unlikely to be shown on TV following similar events in Scotland / Russia.

I lived in Gerard Gardens where the film was shot (though was not born at the time), and have fond memories of the area. I have recently completed a documentary on Gerard Gardens which includes extracts from 'Violent Playground', and a small UK film 'Coast to Coast' which stars Lenny Henry and Pete Postlewaite. The tenements were demolished in 1987 and the films go some way in keeping the memory alive.

There were some complaints from the residents when the film was released, as the film portrayed the area in a bad light. Time has helped heal those wounds.

A little gem of a film, I would recommend you seek this out

Stanley Baker plays a Liverpool police detective who is reassigned to a special Juvenile Liassion Department, which takes this film into the world of a large public housing project teeming with youth of all ages who are seemingly teetering on the edge of becoming responsible adults or the criminals the movie portrays, played quite well by David McCallum and the other tough actors who play his hoodlum friends and followers. There's an awesome opening shot of McCallum and his boys within the confines of the project, and the film interjects Baker into this world through his relationship with two childhood twins who play McCallum's younger siblings, and their older sister, whom Baker begins to fall for. Things get a little bit unbelievable as the film progresses, but the focus on alienated youth bopping along to a rock and roll song isn't half bad, and the conclusion, which seemed to me to be too much of a stretch, was still shockingly well done.