Mannstoll und gefährlich

Reform School Girl (1957)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A good but troubled girl gets into a car with a psycho who runs over a man, killing him. The girl refuses to give the psycho's name so she's sent to reform school where she gets into more trouble but thankfully there's a teacher there who wants to help her. There were countless juvenile films released during the 1950s due to the success of Rebel Without a Cause and this one here was one of the more popular ones but it hasn't aged too well. The film is stupid, pointless and rather boring from start to finish, although the film does contain a few campy moments. The performances are all rather bad but this adds a little charm to the film.

David (Edward Bymes) steals a car and collects his friends for a night out. However, he runs over a man and then escapes from the scene of the killing leaving Donna (Gloria Castillo) behind. She is warned not to squeal by David and she is sent to Reform School. However, David does not trust that she will keep quiet and is put under pressure to kill Donna by a gangster acquaintance. He sets up Josie (Luana Anders) to be sent to the same Reform School in the belief that her former friend, Donna, has reported her to the police for car-stripping. The idea is for Josie to get even with her former pal and once inside, Josie leads the persecution of Donna .......... Meanwhile, David also takes it upon himself to quieten Donna for good......

The film has some good scenes, eg, when Donna is in her solitary cell and 4 inmates are coming to get her.....you get a sense of imminent danger........suddenly Josie's face appears at the grill staring back at her......Donna is moments away from a serious beating. However, the next part of the scene is a cop-out. The film ends abruptly leaving the audience with unanswered questions, most notably, what are the relationships between the girls and why has the governess gone back on her word and staged another party? There are some funny attempts at acting tough, eg, Roxy (Yvette Vickers) and David's amusing mouth gestures, but the cast act it out well.

Its entertaining while you watch it.

"Donna Price" (Gloria Castillo) is a teenage girl who lives with her Aunt Rita (Claire Carlton). The problem is that the man Rita has married, "Mr. Horvath" (Jack Kruschen) is always trying to make a play for Donna. So when Donna decides to get away from Mr. Harvath, by going joy-riding with a young man she hardly knows things begin to take an immediate turn for the worst. She soon realizes that "Vince" (Ed Byrnes) is a violent, hot-headed thug who has stolen the car she is riding in. To complicate matters, Vince kills a pedestrian while trying to evade the law leaving Donna alone to face charges. Fearing for her life if she testifies against Vince, she remains silent and is subsequently sent to a reform school for juvenile delinquents. But even there things begin to get out-of-control. At any rate, rather than reveal what happens next I will just say that this turned out to be a pretty good movie. The acting was decent and there were some attractive young ladies like Yvette Vickers (as "Roxy") and Luana Anders ("Josie") which certainly didn't hurt the overall scenery. I also liked the 50's slang the girls tossed around at every opportunity. Even so, this film may not suit everyone's taste. Slightly above average.

What I love about these teen movies from the 1950s: It doesn't matter how much of a cad you are ... or how much of a criminal you are .. or how poor you are ... or that you're out stealing a car ... or that you are armed with a knife on a murderous mission of vengeance ... or that you're still in high school. ... None of that has to stop you from dressing smartly in a neat sport coat and tie.

This movie is not fine cinema, but it's a fun watch, and does tug at the heart strings.

My one suggestion for the folks who run the reform school: Give the male teacher an office with an interior window.

This film makes be want to travel back in time and see if people in the '50s really dressed that nicely and spent that much of their household income on suit jackets. Or maybe I'll watch this again with my mom and dad and ask them.

Donna is a girl who got in with the wrong crowd; so much so that a car she was a passenger in kills an unlucky pedestrian. The driver, a young hoodlum acquaintance of hers, escapes justice and loyal Donna takes the rap, refusing to implicate him she is sent to a reformatory school.

Reform School Girl was released by the B-movie kings AIP in the high days of the drive-in, when the baby boomers were getting old enough to create a large market for teen exploitation schlock. This one was one of the movies that looked at the dangers that those teens faced if they pursued wayward directions in life. It's a juvenile delinquency melodrama that is an early example of a women in prison film. From the late 60's onwards, these types of pictures became staples of the sexploitation genre. Reform School Girl, obviously is considerably tamer than those given it was released in the more innocent 50's. All we get here are a few cat fights, implied lesbianism and a little bit of moderate violence such as an arm stabbed by scissors and a girl smacked on the head by flying baseball bat. But in the main, it's very understated by subsequent standards of the genre; although admittedly the heroine does have to put up with the borderline incestual advances of her aunt's boyfriend earlier on in the movie.

Once the plot-line kicks in, it focuses on the code of silence practiced in the school, with Donna being the victim of group bullying as a result of them wrongly thinking that she is a police informer. It's a pretty serviceable story-line with a reasonable amount of drama. It does end in a somewhat rushed manner though, with Donna escaping a beating by her antagonists on account of them merely being unable to find the right key! The film ties up the loose ends of the plot immediately afterwards in an abrupt and not especially impressive way. But hey ho, it was good while it lasted. The only actor on show that I recognised was Luana Anders, who played one of Donna's tormentors, she appeared a few years later to great effect in Francis Ford Coppola's debut feature Dementia 13.