Violent Playground

Violent Playground is a 1958 British film directed by Basil Dearden starring Stanley Baker, Peter Cushing and David McCallum. A British take on the popular genre of J.D. films, Violent Playground centres on a Liverpool street gang led by Johnny Murphy . When local Juvenile Liaison Officer Sergeant Truman visits the Murphy household he becomes romantically involved with Johnny's sister . He also finds considerable points of similarity between his previous investigations into the activities of an arsonist known as the 'Firefly' and his investigation of Johnny Murphy. Cushing plays a local... priest attempting to heal the social problems of the locality. In the final sequence, Murphy holds a classroom full of children hostage at gunpoint. The film has an explicit social agenda. Inner-city estates are represented as a breeding ground for youth crime, the success rate of Liverpool's juvenile liaison officers is lauded in the prologue. The film owes much to U.S. films in a similar genre. McCallum's character, in particular, references roles played by James Dean, Marlon Brando, and especially Vic Morrow in Blackboard Jungle.
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