Muchachas en libertad

"Imagine - they say I'm aged 25-30!" scoffs 28 year old Jean Kent in the role of 16 year old Gwen Rawlings. Without knowing her real age, you'd scoff too. If a 30 year old Patricia Roc can play an 18 year old ingenue, all sweetness and honey, then an almost 30 year old Jean Kent is the ideal for a teenage runaway. A young Diana Dors also features in the film, as the recipient of Flora Robson's warning tale. Though ten years younger than Ms. Kent, they easily both pass for being the same age, without any stretch of the imagination.

I'd watch Ms. Kent read the phone book so I am openly admitting that I am terribly biased towards her, but I do believe that she sure gave one of her best performances in Good Time Girl. The character is almost an extension of some of her bit parts - what might happen to them if Phyllis Calvert or Margaret Lockwood were out of the picture, and she was given the film.

Poor Gwen is a victim of circumstance if ever there was one. First she borrows a brooch from work and is caught returning it. Since she won't sleep with the manager to keep him quiet, and he won't believe the truth, she is fired and in turn beaten by her father when he discovers this. She leaves home to stay at a boarding house and gets a new job through another man there, who also has designs on her. At this point, Gwen is still a sensible young lady and she pushes him away until he beats her up in a fit of rage - and it's her black eye that gets him fired. Vowing revenge, he leaves for a time but then returns briefly enough to frame her for a petty crime, and Gwen is sent to a reform school for three years. You really have to feel sorry for her because she's not at all a bad seed, just rebellious and headstrong. She doesn't get on the wrong side of the tracks until nearly the end of the movie, when all the bad types she's been hanging around with finally rub off on her and she joins a small crime ring. Alas, it is this one change of heart that ultimately ends in tragedy for Gwen.

Good Time Girl is an absolutely harrowing story and certainly one of the most gripping movies I've ever seen. 10/10

England was in a terrible state in the late forties: the cost of the war had bankrupted the country, industry and employment was decimated and crime rates were through the roof. Not too different to America in the early thirties. So, to cheer us up - to give us some escapist entertainment Rank Films gave us this misery fest!

It's no GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933! Optimistic is not an adjective anyone would use to describe this but nevertheless it will keep you glued to the screen. It's not escapist fun, it's not sexy but it is beautifully made.

You'll be cringing as Gwen, 'the good time girl' played brilliantly by Jean Kent, makes stupid decision after stupid decision plunging her life spiralling down the toilet. Virtually every man she pairs up with is worst than the last one - indeed it doesn't paint a pleasant picture of men at all. What it does do is paint a picture of a land where the victory jubilation has given way to an utterly grim and cold reality.

If you've watched lots of pre-code Hollywood movies you'll be familiar with such plots but because it feels much more realistic than a lot of what Hollywood made during those lean years of the thirties, it feels more personal. You can really empathise with poor Gwen and think; there but by the grace of God go I.

Personally I think this would benefit from not having what feels like a morality lecture bolted on to the beginning and the end but the main body of this film is incredibly compelling. Unless you've just watched BICYCLE THIEVES, which manages to be even more relentlessly grim, you're not going to feel especially happy after watching this but it's very satisfying. It's a superbly well made film.

Good Time Girl (1948)

This movie has so many turns and developments it's hard to remember everything by the time you get to the sensational terrible end. A girl leaves home to escape her father's beatings and one thing leads to another down the line. It's post-war England, and there are fun echoes of similar post-war American movies, complete with thugs and nightclubs and G.I.s on the lam.

This leading actress Jean Kent starts off seeming a little strained, and you should make sure you give the movie a chance. It only gets better as it goes. It never quite strains credibility even though the events gets pretty unsavory. The photography, much of it at night, is vivid and fluid, the acting generally excellent, and the strength of ideas is wonderful.

This really is a harrowing tale of social mis-steps all along. It's meant to be a cautionary tale, too. Literally. It's all told in a flashback to another young woman who is about to repeat the fate of the main character. Kent turns out to be pretty amazing in this film, ranging through several phases of her young life on camera--from innocent girl to hardened juvenile to a kind of moll without a gang.

I liked it a lot.

Jean Kent plays Gwen--a poor girl from a screwed up family. Her sense of right and wrong are sadly diminished and her father is abusive. So, she leaves home at 16 and tries to make her way in the world. But, she always seems to hang out with low-lifes--the sort of jerks that are constantly preying on society. Eventually, she's caught for one of their crimes but she runs away from prison. At this point, she's a mess but she's not necessarily evil. But, soon after escaping, she begins to hit the bottle and becomes a very active and willing participant in a life of crime. And, in the process, she becomes a total mess.

All in all, an entertaining film. And, while it could have been made as a purely sensationalistic movie, this one is able to tell a gritty story and yet not revel in it. Enjoyable and entertaining.

When this film had been completed an official from the Home Office viewed it and as a result the Labour government tries to stop the film being released.The reason for this was the poor light in which the approved school system was shown.So the producers had to shoot the framing device with Flora Robson.It is clear that the authorities did not know what to do about teenagers.In fact this film shows Jean Kent's character in a favourable light and authority less so.After all because Kent has been beaten by her father and cant go home she is given 3 years in an approved school.So rather typical of the period Kent has a whale of a time till the last reel when she must pay for misdeeds.The last part of the film is based on real events which were portrayed in a later film with Emily Lloyd Pack.