STANLEY BAKER IN 'VIOLENT PLAYGROUND' WITH PETER CUSHING

Title: VIOLENT PLAYGROUND Year: 1958 Rates: ****

A year after playing brothers in HELL DRIVERS, making Stanley Baker famous and putting cameo David McCallum on the map, they both starred equally in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND, with Baker as a detective reluctantly demoted to juvenile liaison before he can close an arson case...

Little does he know McCallum's street punk Johnny is the fire-starter. And as the movie begins with a Rock Around the Clock clone inspired by BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, this gang not only fights but dances wildly...

Artwork of David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

And while Baker wields his usual square-jawed hero, he also displays a vulnerable side, keeping two children out of future trouble while falling in love with their hard-working, cop-hating sister Anne Heywood, who, like oldest brother Johnny, only trusts local priest Peter Cushing (channeling Dana Andrews from EDGE OF DOOM)... 

The best scenes involve the trouble Baker gets into by pressing the truth after figuring it out. Leading to an overlong but still intense third act as gun-wielding Johnny holds a classroom of children hostage, morphing from James's Dean to Cagney i.e. rebel to psychopath:Yet here the picture mostly belongs to the ingenue, playing mind-games to calm her brother, at which point both McCallum and Baker turn from lead actors to audience members. With front row seats. 

David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND with Sean Lynch

David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND with Stanley Baker

David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND with Peter Cushing

Stanley Baker & Peter Cushing in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND with Sean Lynch

David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Tough Film Noir font for VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Stanley Baker and Anne Heywood in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Stanley Baker in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Stanley Baker in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Stanley Baker and Anne Heywood in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Stanley Baker in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Stanley Baker and Anne Heywood in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Stanley Baker and Anne Heywood in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

David McCallum and Clifford Evans in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

David McCallum and Stanley Baker in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

David McCallum and Stanley Baker in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Stanley Baker in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Bad Blonde actor John Slater and Stanley Baker in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Peter Cushing in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Tsai Chin and Stanley Baker in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Brona Boland and Stanley Baker in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Stanley Baker and Anne Heywood in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Stanley Baker and Anne Heywood in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Stanley Baker in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Stanley Baker and Anne Heywood in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

David McCallum & Freddie Starr VIOLENT PLAYGROUND Sean Lynch & Bernice Swanson

David McCallum & Freddie Starr VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Freddie Starr VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Freddie Starr with Anne Heywood in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Freddie Starr with Anne Heywood in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Stanley Baker in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Anne Heywood in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Hell Is A City actor George A. Cooper with John Slater in Violent Playground

David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

David McCallum in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND

Future Hell Is A City's George A. Cooper and Stanley Baker in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND