Gun Girls

In the 1950s, Timothy Farrell appeared in a string of exploitation films, such as "Glen or Glenda", "Jail Bait" (both by Ed Wood) and "Racket Girls". The films were universally trashy, poorly made and highly salacious....just the sorts of cult films bad film fans love to watch! So, when I saw he was one of the stars of "Gun Girls", and I am a bad film buff, I knew I had to see it!

The film purports to be a film about the 'teenage problem' by showing a lot of actresses (all appearing to be in the 25-40 year age bracket) engaged in various petty as well as violent crimes. And, as the narrator says, the girls(?) know how to 'roll a marijuana'! For the most part, the ladies in the story confine their criminal activities to armed robberies and assaults...with the help of a sleazy fence (Farrell). However, when they get tired of splitting the loot with the fence, they considering going into business for themselves. What's next? Watch the picture and find out for yourself.

While there is some very bad acting by some of the folks in the film, it's not nearly as awful as the worst of Timothy Farrell's work. Now I am NOT saying the acting is good...just not as awful as it could have been. The same goes for the script--it's bad but could have been more salacious and slap-dash...though it's far from great! I laughed at how poorly written these 'teen bad girls' were...and are among the stupidest criminals you'll ever see...leaving many witnesses, fingerprints and even a gun at the scene of a crime! Master criminals they are NOT!

If you love bad exploitation films, "Gun Girls" is worth seeing. Plus, being not THAT awful, it's also a bit more watchable than many in the genre. Still, the average person would not enjoy the movie and would find it very tough to finish the picture. Watch at your own risk!

By the way, if you'd like to play a drinking game while watching "Gun Girls", take a shot for each instance where one of the girls takes off her top for absolutely no reason!

Gun Girls (1957)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Joy (Eve Brent) and Dora (Jacueline Park) are juvenile delinquents who decide to step up their game by buying a couple guns from local hood Joe (Timothy Farrell). Before long the two ladies rob a gas station and then set their sites on something bigger.

If you're wanting a hard-hitting drama that takes a look at how troubled youths can go bad then I'd highly recommend REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. The success of that film pretty much blew the doors down for low-budget filmmakers who could show teens doing bad things and of course paying a price for it. There were countless exploitation movies in the 1950s that had the whole "violent girls" thing going for it and GUN GIRLS is one of the more entertaining ones.

I called the film entertaining but there's no question that it's far from a good movie. The amount of entertainment you take from it will certainly depend on your tastes but me personally, I really enjoyed the film for what it was. This was 67-minute movie with some campy performances, a melodramatic story and a fun nature that at least managed to keep me entertained. There are some campy moments throughout the film but I'd say the biggest laugh comes from them trying to place the film in New York when it's clearly California.

Both Brent and Park (working under different names) are entertaining enough in their roles and at least add some fun to the characters. Of course, the highlight is Farrell who once again plays a chain-smoker who is pretty much kept to one setting for the entire film. You have to wonder if all of his scenes were simply shot in one day with just a couple costume changes to make it look different. I've always had a lot of fun whenever Farrell is on screen during his movies and that is true here as well.

If you're looking for a movie to convince yourself that Russ Meyer was a true auteur of the highest order, this is one for you. Three girls who wear very pointy brassieres get their hands on some handguns and go on a crime wave, sometimes netting as much as $14 from a payroll robbery, and selling the loot to high-class fence Timothy Farrell, who's always necking on a couch with some woman, except when he needs to go to the liquor store to get another bottle of Vat 69. He also keeps what seems like half a million dollars in cash in an open trunk in his living room.

Farrell gives the best performance in the movie. He always sounds like he's irritated at having to shout his lies at the deaf morons he's dealing with. After that the quality of line readings collapses to the level of lobotomized semi-literates who need better glasses. You might find the camerawork more interesting; DP William Thompson seems fascinated by a series of ashtrays filled with butts.

After that, I've run out of good things to say about this film, so I'll stop here.

"Gun Girls" is a pretty sorry entry in the 50's juvenile delinquent potboiler parade. The story is pretty typical: teens girls ignore their probation officer's advice and pull burglaries and robberies, until they get in too far over their heads, and must pay the ultimate price. The acting, dialogue, sets, and even the editing are strictly amateurish (some scenes end too abruptly, others linger way past the point where the director should have yelled "cut!!"). But the film's biggest problem (or highlight, if you're into camp) are the gun girls themselves. To put it rather bluntly, these girls ain't girls. There isn't one of them who looks to be under 40. When the film opens with a shot of some pretty hard boiled looking gals in a police line-up, and the narrator starts talking about juvenile delinquency, you have to wonder who he's talking about. These "teenagers" look old enough to be the parents of teenagers!!

All this, plus a death scene at the film's end that goes on longer than Ali MacGraw's in "Love Story", make for pretty rough sledding, even for lovers of bad cinema.