Art imitates life. But life imitates bad art.
Pa. judges accused of jailing kids for cash
In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.
And as serious students of crappy cinema know, this is the exact plot of the 1957 B-movie Untamed Youth, which was featured in the first season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The only difference seems to be that the teens involved were not forced to pick cotton, and did not respond by dancing around the plantation bunkhouse singing “Oobala Baby” in their underwear, like Mamie Van Doren. Mores the pity.
One of my favorite MST3K treatments, if only for the immortal wisecrack: “I only peeped for eight hours today but I’m putting sixteen down on my time card.”
Left by Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. on February 12th, 2009