Friday A/V Club: The Skateboarding Menace

A '60s spoof of the skating scare

How long have local regulators been tangling with skateboarders? For at least half a century, to judge from Claude Jutra's 1966 film The Devil's Toy. The tongue-in-cheek short, made in Montreal, mocks the moral panics that have often greeted the sight of kids skating around town. It also features a lot of stylishly shot footage of young people on skateboards—maybe too much stylishly shot footage of young people on skateboards, but hey, it's good to know the filmmakers were having fun too.

Jutra went on to direct the great 1971 movie Mon oncle Antoine, which you really should watch if you've never seen it before.

(Hat tip: Chris Morgan. For past editions of the Friday A/V Club, go here.)