Target: The Corruptors (TV Series) The Malignant Hearts (1962) User Reviews

A very interesting episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 30 June 2023]

A group of five youths set about and kill Francis Jones, a young man who was out walking with his girlfriend one night,Paul Marino is called in to get justice for the dead boys.

I would imagine The Malignant Hearts had quite a big impact when it was originally transmitted, as a story it still packs a punch, but it's the prevailing attitudes at The Trial that made this one such an interesting watch.

I liked the structure of the episode, we see the crime and trial, but it goes beyond that, we see the case made for mitigating factors, notably their young age, the final pleas make for some interesting viewing.

Paul Marino features very little here, it's the prosecuting and defending legal teams that have the biggest part to play.

They are some of the oldest looking teenagers I've ever seen, I think one or two of the youths may have looked a little too old.

Pretty good.

8/10.

The Malignant Hearts

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 24 June 2023]

Paul Marino tackles the wild ones. A young man out with his girlfriend is taunted by a gang of youths, aged mostly about 16 years of age.

They attack him like a pack of dogs and leave him for dead. His parents want justice and call in Paul Marino. He puts pressure on Terran, the District Attorney. He has been seen to be soft on crime before. Now he is under pressure, threats are made to his daughter by an associate of the hoodlums.

Shot like a drama documentary, you have the aftermath from the murder when the youths are interrogated. They seem to be boastful and without remorse.

Then there is the trial and afterwards the sentencing. The lawyer for the youths urging for a lenient sentence.

It was all very heavy handed. I assume there was a moral panic about feral youth gangs back in the early 1960s. Although that kind of story is also relevant today.

Juvenile hearts corrupted to the bone

[searchanddestroy-1 · 10 July 2015]

A bunch of juvenile hoodlums make an assault on a young couple, in a big city, at night, and kill both of them, just before they are arrested, put under custody and in waiting for their trial. The main question of this story is WHY those youngsters committed such a crime. The real reason why they killed those two people in cold blood. It's a social drama we watch here, more than a crime tale. It speaks of the parents responsibility towards their kids. But it remains some suspense elements although, when some of the accused friends threat the prosecutor of the trial. Not bad, a story that makes you think, watch closely to the real world, the society of this time. But is it so different from the modern one? Directed by Don Medford.