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.)

Comments

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Gleaming the Cube is one of the greatest films in the history on cinema.

I have it on VHS, but alas, no VCR.

[CZmacure]

I hear there is a really high quality HDTV rip of it out there on the internet.

If a person wants to understand what it is like to be reviled and feared by those around them, and to always fear uniformed police and security... it's simple. Ride a skateboard in a city.

"What if we treated all athletes like we treat skateboarders?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM8LZdDzs-8

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

Found it. DVD rip, which is the best I could have hoped for.

[egould310]

I have a VCR, but one night I was drunk and mistook it for my microwave. No matter how much bread, cheese and butter you jam into a VCR, you will not get a grilked cheese ssndwich.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

But you still have it?

[Crusty Juggler]

Gleaming the Cube couldn't carry Thrasin's griptape.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

You know not of what you speak.

[Lord Humungus]

I was a 70s skateboard kid - back when the affordable boards were these little plastic things. Not many tricks to learn on those little decks and there weren't many nearby skate parks, so it was more of a suburban toy.

In the 80s I got my first real board - wood, large enough for my big feet.

Even as a middle-aged geezer I can still skate and keep my balance better on a skateboard than I can walking. Though I don't like the new stunt boards with the dual kicks.

[egould310]

Skate and destroy!

[zacharyfsargent]

Im making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do,

...................... http://www.richi8.com

[Mongo]

In my post-graduate French class, tha teacher told me to yell out the window at a bunch of sk8ers making noise.

I told her "Desole, mademoiselle...c'est contre ma nature."

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Skaters are ne'er-do-wells. Trust me, I used to be one.