Riot in Juvenile Prison (1959)

What you really want to know: Does this live up to its great title? No, but it’s not bad. It’s a social drama wrapped around a tangy teen sleaze center. A straight-laced doctor takes over a boys reform school after a shooting incident there makes the news. Like a more square James Cagney in The Mayor of Hell, our good doctor has a vision for the school as a place of earnest rehabilitation rather than the straight-up prison that it was under the previous head (reliable movie and TV creep John Hoyt). He gets rid of the armed guards, closes down the solitary confinement wing and, most importantly, brings in GIRLS. Everyone thinks he’s crazy, but then his ideas start working. Too bad one of the boys turns out to be a wannabe rapist. Co-star Virginia Aldridge got two strong roles in juvenile delinquent films in 1959, a good girl in this movie and a bad girl in High School Big Shot.