I Watch Films: Jacktown

 

Jacktown

Frankie’s a delinquent who gets caught with a girl in his car. He claims he didn’t know she was underage. He’s sent to Jacktown, the biggest prison in the world!

Seems the other inmates don’t like nonces and the warden thinks he deserves another chance so he gets the job of working in the warden’s garden. This goes well until he makes friends with the warden’s (legal age) daughter. Then he’s transferred away. Seems there are limits to the warden’s attempts at rehabilitation.

A peculiar film where Frankie knowingly commits a mugging, is definitely guilty of statutory rape, and his friends try to intimidate witnesses, while everyone we see treats him as a victim of circumstance. Another oddness is the use of a real prosecutor who explains the law in a slightly stilted manner. It’s the only film appearance of him, as well as the actor playing Frankie and several other cast members; in contrast the warden’s daughter is played by former child star Patty McCormack, whose career continues to this day.

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Don’t Watch This: A peculiar 1960s issue film