During the 1950s, films warning parents about juvenile delinquents abounded. While there were similar films made in the 30s and 40s, the 50s really took off. Again and again, films about leather jacket-clad hoodlums were offered because the films were cheap to make and somehow resonated with audiences. Seen today, most of them seem incredibly tame when it comes to these 'reckless youth'....and this is especially true of the most famous of these, "The Wild One". But "The Wild One" was a higher budgeted film starring some top Hollywood talent...the average one was ultra cheap and starred mostly unknowns. "Mad at the World" is ultra cheap but at least manages to have Frank Lovejoy (mostly forgotten today but a top talent in his day) in the lead. Otherwise...it's just cheap and could have been so much better.
The story is set in Chicago. A detective (Lovejoy) is working on a case involving a gang, 'The Wolf Pack'. Their latest outrage is tossing a bottle at a baby...and the child is now fighting for its life. The problem is that the baby's father doesn't think the cops are working hard enough...and he's out to find and punish the punks himself.
You can tell that this is a cheap and sensationalistic film when it begins with a mini-lecture from Senator Kefauver (a BIG wig in Congress in his day)...as well as a narrated introduction by Lovejoy. This means that it won't just be sensationalistic...but preachy as well.
One thing the film is not...and that's a law & order story where the cops believe in beating the teens into respecting the law. Instead, Lovejoy plays a progressive detective...one who is slow to anger and is concerned about root causes to the problems. This does, at times, comes off as very idealistic but at least it's not the usual heavy-handed story.
So despite the rough acting, lousy cinematography and an overall cheap look, is it worth seeing? Yes. It certainly is NOT good, comes off as preachy at the beginning BUT also picks up more as the story progresses...even if the vigilante father couldn't act if his life depended on it! Mildly interesting and worth seeing IF you like exploitation films.
By the way, like nearly all exploitation films, the 'teens' look to be about 25-30! One of them, interestingly, is played by Aaron Spelling...who later became immensely wealthy as a producer.
