The Warped Ones (1960)

More breathless than Breathless and fifty times more wild than The Wild One, this is the most insane and gleefully offensive juvenile delinquent film of its time. Director Koreyoshi Kurahara won’t keep his camera still and won’t let his lead actors be anything less than 100% monstrous. The whole film, which clocks in at a mere seventy-five minutes, is twitchy and impatient, out for dark laughs and wired up on screaming, bawdy jazz. Its three psychotic anti-heroes would handily beat up the bad guys in other juvenile delinquent movies and then cut out their hearts. Here, the group—two guys and a girl—tear out for revenge on the reporter who helped put two of them behind bars for a short spell over a petty theft. One highlight among the many jaw-dropping moments includes the prelude to a rape of the reporter’s fiancee when the girl in the gang pouts away from the scene, annoyed that she can’t properly take part in the sexual assault, and says “I wish I was a man”. There’s also a good chance that this the ONLY film of 1960 with a climax set in an abortion clinic.

The US release title—Radley Metzger’s sexploitation house Audubon Films picked it up—is great: The Weird Lovemakers.