Just for the Hell of It

A young teenage boy is blamed for a Florida neighborhood being terrorized. But the real culprits are a gang of four punks leading a group of local delinquents on a nihilistic lifestyle of destruction and mayhem.

What strikes me about the film is the parallel with "Clockwork Orange". This is obviously not intentional, but the gang accosting an old (apparently blind) man seems very much like the droogs attacking homeless men. Lewis approaches it in a far more gruesome manner, however, with some of the violence very much Ripper-esque. Alex (in "Clockwork") is somehow sympathetic, despite being a murderous rapist. But Dexter (played by Ray Sager) is just a pure sociopath.

Worthy of note is the appearance of musician Larry Williams. Williams is best known for writing and recording some rock and roll classics from 1957 to 1959 for Specialty Records, including "Bony Moronie", "Short Fat Fannie", "High School Dance" (1957), "Slow Down", "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (1958), "Bad Boy" and "She Said Yeah" (1959). John Lennon was a fan, and the Beatles and several other British Invasion groups covered several of his songs.

Not being a fan of exploitation films, but for years after violent, extreme, provocative films in general, I stumbled upon this little flick from the 1968. I hadn't yet seen any other film from Herschell Gordon Lewis {shame!), so I thought I should give it try.

It's quite strange this is not more popular, because, if this is what Herschell Gordon Lewis films feel like, then I would like to see more. It is probably one of the earliest samples of mindless politically incorrect cinema done pretty sloppy but effectively, a classic exploitation, if you ask me, and even if you regularly don't take it too seriously, it's quite daring for 1968. Some scenes might raise a smile to some, intentionally or not.

So, this quite unknown film is recommended for those after a nice old party film for a night with friends, pizza and beers {the music just feels great with this one), exploitation fans {this is a must) and in general, those who are looking for mindless fun, not shocked by somewhat explicit material.

This film has about the naughtiest juvenile delinquents ever shown in a motion picture. They do horrific things to their poor neighborhood. They destroy property and their school, dumb paint on people, torment a blind man, attack elementary kids playing soccer, put a baby in a trash barrel and roll it away, and axe and splatter paint all over newspapers about these things. What's their excuse? "We did this just for the hell of it." This is incredibly violent, and it sure served as a lesson to me when I saw it, I totally stopped carving my name on benches, writing messages on mirrors with marker, and drag racing.

This film starts with a strange scene in which several young men and women decide to completely destroy a room in a house for no clear reason, and they keep doing so even after it becomes tiresome to watch. Right after, this same small group begins to terrorize a couple of elderly men with various disabilities that prevent them from fighting back. It's then revealed that this gang is led by a young man named "Dexter" (Ray Sager), who, like the others, enjoys destroying things just for fun. Things get much more serious when one of his men picks a fight with an outsider named "Doug" (Rodney Bedell), who not only isn't afraid of them but also knows how to defend himself when needed. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was one of those counter-culture films made during that time period that relied more on shock value than on good acting or a solid plot. For that reason, several scenes run much longer than necessary and, as I mentioned earlier, become quite tedious pretty quickly. At least, that's how it seemed to me. Nonetheless, while fans of movies from this era might find some entertainment in this, I wasn't very impressed and have rated it accordingly.

For entertainment, Charlie Manson LOVED the goriest of magazines and movies or at least something hatefully abusive to women and/or children. He must of thought Herschell's 'hack-em up' films were an great option at the drive-in in the 60's, when they were released. It's coincidental that between Herschell Gordon Lewis filming on Charlie Manson's Spaun ranch in the late 60's and 'Charlie and the gang' getting revenge on the the recording industry (one school of thought), Just For the Hell of It was released. The actual events in the hills of Los Angeles and fictional events in this movie appear way too similar to be a coincidence (instead of 'pig' written on the wall in red, it was 'FUZZ'). Another troubling connection is that besides acting like Manson the cripple kicking, baby throwing White (Denny Fortune) got his albums title song internationally released with THE most controversial 1969 Charlie Manson tune (sung by the Beach boys???) on EMI's Ah Feel Like Ahcid.

All this should scare the public more than the connections of Just For the Hell of It, Burgess, Kubrick and the making of Clockwork Orange should interest them.