Teenage Gang Debs

1966 directed by Sande N Johnsen

by Klon November 17, 2025

The SWV catalog is filled with obscurities, that’s part of what makes it such a captivating group of films. Many were made with no intention of preservation, just quick cash; decades later even the cast and crew only recall faint memories of them or had hoped that they’d never resurface. It takes a clever and clued-in weirdo to look at a film as obscure and out-of-date as Teenage Gang Debs and think “I’ll bet I can make some bread off this thing.” Part of the genius of Something Weird was to categorize their films into totally invented or inverted genres. Gone were the tired video store designations of COMEDY, THRILLER, HORROR, DRAMA, replaced with NUDIE CUTIES, GRINDHOUSE FOLLIES, FRANK HENNENLOTTERS SEXY SHOCKERS, JOHNNY LEGENDS UNTAMED VIDEOS. It was a primitive version of the algorithmic recommendation model - “If you like X, then you might like Y.”

Some titles sell themselves, while others require some context. Just take a peek at the UNTAMED VIDEOS titles. You can probably figure out what Girl Gang (1954, Robert C. Dertano) is all about based on the title, but you’d never know what you were getting into with It Won’t Rub Off, Baby (1967, Herbert Danska). And while these two movies aren’t incredibly similar you can begin to understand the vibe when you look at the rest of the category. Here’s the introduction from the catalog:

Welcome to the wonderfully wacky world of Johnny Legend’s Untamed Video! Take a walk on the wild side when troublesome teenagers, sleazy sex kittens, way-out hippies, country bumpkins, big bad bikers, Mexican wrestlers, and the other social deviants who populate these films live life fast and hard!

Sounds like a great time, right? In the 1990s you could sell a lot of leopard print and an old exploitation movie with a title like Tarzana the Wild Girl (1969, Guido Malatesta) or Swamp Virgin (1947, Ewing Scott) is bound to wind up in the VCR of a rockabilly with a few extra sawbucks in his pocket. And indeed rockabilly is the world that curator Johnny Legend lives in. Born as Martin Margulies in 1948, Johnny Legend was a familiar figure in underground culture. Calling him famous or even influential would be a stretch, but he’s undeniably made a mark in American pop culture even if American pop culture doesn’t know it. He belongs to the contrarian slice of Baby Boomers that should’ve been barefoot in the mud at Woodstock but preferred Link Wray to Jefferson Airplane and would rather stay home and watch Brain from Planet Arous (1957, Nathan Juran) on the late show than going to see Zabriskie Point (1970, Michelangelo Antonioni). Much like The B-52s, John Waters, The Cramps, or painter Robert Williams, Johnny Legend was helping to create an American trash aesthetic from thrift stores, discount bins, and flea markets. It’s hard to say what he’s known for because he threw himself into so many different projects, he was a rockabilly singer, a wrestling promoter, a filmmaker, an actor, and a general cultural curator. He never truly broke through in any of those worlds, but he developed a persona that stuck - long grey hair and a beard that went past his chest, wraparound shades and loud colored sequined suits, plus an excitable personality that forces fun down your throat. His collaborations with wrestler Classy Freddie Blassie are probably the most widely-known of his projects, particularly Blassie’s song Pencil Neck Geek written by Legend with Billy Zoom from the band X on guitar. Legend had known Blassie since he was child sneaking backstage at LA wrestling matches and Blassie had grown to trust Legend’s opinion and go along with his crackpot ideas. Blassie also co-starred in the 1983 film My Breakfast With Blassie co-directed by Legend and starring comedian Andy Kaufman. Set entirely in a Hollywood restaurant during a breakfast meeting between Kaufman and Blassie, it’s a parody of the arthouse hit My Dinner with Andre (1981, Louis Malle) but instead of thoughtful discussions on the New York Theater world, Blassie and Kaufman verbally assault other restaurant patrons and discuss the perils of celebrity. Legend cooked up the idea for My Breakfast with Blassie while sitting through a torturous screening of My Dinner With Andre, afterwards he pitched the project to his friend Kaufman and took him to a screening of Andre where the comedian fell asleep. Kaufman, of course, was a huge Blassie fan, but on the set of the film he would meet Legend’s sister Lynn Margulies who was one of the actresses that’s insulted by the pair onscreen. The two would go on to date until Kaufman’s death and her efforts since then have helped to keep his work in the public eye. She directed the documentary I’m From Hollywood (1989) about his wrestling career and she assisted and advised on subsequent Kaufman projects like Man on the Moon (1999, Milos Forman).

Similar to Kaufman, Johnny Legend has used wrassling showmanship and bluster in his own output. Hosting Something Weird’s Untamed Video series seemed like a perfect fit in some ways. Throughout the 80s he’d had a relationship with Rhino Records who’d re-released the Freddie Blassie EP. Through Rhino Home Video Legend created compilation VHS that were perfect for late night reefer sessions. He put together a few collections of b-movie trailers called Sleazemania, three volumes of animated obscurities called Weird Cartoons that featured the warning “some of these cartoons may seem offensive by today’s standards but, what the hell, this is America.” There were also tapes like Dope Mania and Commercial Mania. Plus Legend was a director and actor in just the kinds of films Something Weird was putting out. He appeared in the film Pot, Parents, Police (1972, Phillip Pine) also known as The Cat Who Ate the Parakeet from 1972, an indie anti-drug movie made to be shown at Jerry Lewis’ short lived family film theater chain. Legend appears in a substantial acting role as the dope smoking hippie boyfriend. He also directed the rockabilly porno classic, Young Hot and Nasty Teenage Cruisers (1977), starring Serena, John Holmes and the unlikely appearances of rockabilly performers Charlie Feathers and Ray Campi. Existing in this world of rock and roll, sex, wrestling, weed and counter culture comedy, Johnny Legend was the perfect person to host the Untamed Video series for Something Weird and after all, how far of a leap is it from Hot and Nasty Teenage Cruisers to Teenage Gang Debs?

Street fighting, bike riding, belt whipping TEENAGERS - so saturated with soda pop that even their zits are bubbling with fizz. BAH! And who can understand their hipster patois?? One girl says “nuts to you, buster” and if I wanted to “cool it” as they say then I’d just drink a refreshing iced tea. If I’m being honest, a lot of these kids seem better suited to a society cotillion than a back alley rumble, but that’s part of the goofy charm of Teenage Gang Debs. It’s the story of Terry, a vicious ambitious social climber from Manhattan making her way up the ranks of Brooklyn girl gang The Rebels and she won’t rest until she’s at the top- no matter who she has to step on to get there. She based so closely on Lady Macbeth that the filmmakers actually gave William Shakespeare a tongue-in-cheek writing credit. The cast seems plucked out of hair salons and garages and many of them didn’t have careers in acting ahead of them, though it features the debut performance from Eileen Dietz who is credited as Eileen Scott. Horror fans will know her as the demon Pazuzu in The Exorcist (1973, William Friedkin) or from any of the indie horror films she’s been a part of in the last 20 years. Also in the cast is Janet Banzet who made the rounds in the New York City exploitation scene, appearing in films by Michael Findlay, Barry Mahon, Doris Wishman, Joe Sarno, and the Amero Brothers. She supposedly appears in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961, Blake Edwards) and most notoriously in The Party at Kitty and Stud’s (1970, Morton M Lewis) also known as The Italian Stallion starring a young and hungry Sylvester Stallone.

In the mid 60s the filmmaker C Davis Smith had found himself as the cinematographer and editor on a few sexploitation films from directors like Doris Wishman and Barry Mahon. Eventually he would come up with the idea to use some scraps and unused footage from a few of these films to compile a too-hot-to-be-screened mix called BANNED (1966, Sande N. Johnsen, Tony Orlando, Jerry Denby). The poster had this quote credited only to “ASST DISTRICT ATTOURNEY,” “Everytime this film is played it’s another crime - the people of Philadelphia must be protected!” Banned was the first film from CIP, a production company formed by Smith, and other New York City exploitation upstarts Jerry Denby, Tony Scaretti, and Teenage Gang Debs director Sande Johnsen. Confusingly, CIP was originally called Crown International Pictures until they heard of Harry Novak’s company and changed it to CIP. Many of their films were foreign pickups with additional sex scenes spliced in, but Teenage Gang Debs was their first original feature. Each of the members were able to take on various duties to get the projects completed, making credits and authorship confusing. It didn’t take long for the partnership to break down with Jerry Denby making a few more films and C Davis Smith having a long career behind the scenes. Director Sande Johnsen left the world of film and moved to Chicago, unfortunately he would be killed in an auto accident in the 70s. The person on the crew with the most impressive career, however, was the composer Steve Karmen. Karmen started out on the folk music circuit in the 50s and eventually began writing film scores for movies like Girl on a Chain Gang (1966, Jerry Gross), Teenage Mother (1967, Jerry Gross), and Nudes on Tiger Reef (1964, Barry Mahon). Eventually he would stumble into jingle writing where he’d make a fortune writing themes for Doublemint Gum, Budweiser, Nationwide Insurance, and many many more. For Teenage Gang Debs he would write the score and two dance songs sung by Big Lee Dowell, an obscure R&B singer who lived in New York and recorded with Epic Records. The songs “You Make Me Mad” and “(Be A) Black Belt” are played during the film in their entirety during goofy dance numbers and were released to no notice on a 45 at the time and have since been compiled on the excellent Something Weird compilation album.

Teenage Gang Debs was unsuccessful during its initial release in 1966 which should come as no surprise since it’s a black and white film about teenage gang violence at a time when teenagers were watching The Monkees and Batman and listening to The Beatles sing Good Day Sunshine. And it couldn’t succeed in the grindhouses since it had no sex or nudity and it certainly wasn’t going to play around the block at arthouses that were showing Warhol’s Chelsea Girls (1966, Andy Warhol, Paul Morrissey). Although it seems closer to the distant druggy world of The Velvet Underground who would release their first album just a few months after this was released. But just because Teenage Gang Debs wasn’t popular doesn’t mean it wasn’t onto something. In addition to releasing it on home video and a recent blu-ray deluxe edition, Something Weird would put out Teenage Gang Debs shirts and release vintage pressbooks, a few years earlier a short lived punk zine of the same name would pop up out of Bethesda, Maryland and in recent years musicians have started covering the Lee Dowell songs. None of these are consequential pop culture signifiers of success, but they’re…something. It’s a film out of time and perhaps that’s what’s made it so watchable decades later, proof of the endurance of switchblades and rock and roll expressing both the past and the future without being ahead of its time or of its time.