Like "youth gone wild" flicks? Then check out Teenage Bad Girl. This film was made in 1957, not far from the more popular Rebel Without a Cause, but equally interesting. Teenage Bad Girl follows the life of a young girl who falls in with the wrong element and eventually loses herself in a world of reckless chaos and free of consequence. Janet is a typical teen (at least for her time). She enjoys family, friends and going dancing. One day she meets up with a slick young man, Tony, who introduces her to jive dancing. Little did she know that the free-spirited, random choreography of jive, would soon become parallel to her own downward spiral. 

Janet's marks begin slipping in school. She comes home late at night. She becomes detached from her family and former friends. Instead, she replaces these things with jive, and a life of subculture. Tony is wild and fearless and Janet follows his lead into the belly of the jive scene. When she discovers that Tony owes money to a gang of thugs, she offers some of her savings to help him out. Unfortunately, her mother questions her about the matter and an argument ensues. Tony is then forced to visit a wealthy relative to get the money. When she refuses to give him any more money, Tony snatches her purse from her; an event that frightens her so much her heart seizes. 

Janet and Tony flee and are eventually arrested for the murder of the old woman. Janet, sits alone in prison thinking back on the recent events that have turned her formerly ideal life into the shambles that she is currently facing. During her trial, the judge drops the charges against her, but throws Tony's sorry ass in jail. He offers his advice, not only to Janet, but to her mother. Essentially, it was the fault of negligent parenting that lead to these ends. Janet cries and swears off jive and living wildly. She begins slowly reconnecting with her old life and discovers that the koolest thing to be is a regular, average girl.

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