Les dépravées

Tawdry girls' reformatory stuff from United Artists, this potboiler came out shortly after "Caged" and shares many traits: hidden pets (a rabbit meets a sorry end), an inmate gets her hair cut and goes crazy, repressed sexuality runs wild. Subtle it's not, and the New York area location shooting looks cheap, but I reveled in it. As the sympathetic psychiatrist trying to bring humanity to the joint, Paul Henreid doesn't look that embarrassed, and his romance with another reform-minded official, Catherine McLeod, has a nice, credible arc to it. And some of the troubled youngsters making their debuts are clearly headed for greater things: Anne Francis as the young-hot-stuff miss who abandoned her baby and is overcompensating, Rita (here Rosita) Moreno as the Latino spitfire, Anne Jackson as the feisty troublemaker. The we-don't-give-an-inch bureaucracy is memorably hateful, and it's a fun caged-dames B flick that makes the most of its limited resources.

As a busload of new girls arrives at a young women's reformatory, it appears at first glance that they are going into an enlightened institution when they are met by the resident psychiatrist played by Paul Henreid who tells them that they are here to be helped. That impression is broken immediately when they are herded into the showers by the supervising matron played by Grace Coppin who, along with the other matrons, enforce the strict disciplinary policies of the institute's director played by Cecil Clovelly. From the perspective of someone watching this film, Coppin's character seems a lot more interesting to watch than does Henreid's. Her performance rivals the best of the cruel matrons that have been portrayed in women-in-prison films. A young Anne Francis plays one of the newcomers, seducing every man she meets including psychiatrist Henried. The well-known controversy about the institution's purpose of punishment or rehabilitation is fairly well-done, saved by the ending. The film has some real intensity thanks to the pace, which goes from one blatant injustice to another, but especially the photography, and much of the writing, especially for the film's smaller parts.

Most of these films only have camp value. This one has some, but it is basically a fairly decent B movie and well acted. A definite bonus is the appearance of Rita Moreno and Anne Francis when very young. You can see what talented beauties these two women would become.

"Dr. John H. Jason" (Paul Henreid) is an idealistic psychiatrist who accepts a job at a reform school for females which has a very high rate of recidivism. After getting to know some of the girls he makes some recommendations which are completely ignored by his superiors, namely "Mr. Riggs" (Cecil Clovelly) and Miss Beuhler (Grace Coppin), who believe that a reform school should be run like a prison. Eventually, this leads to a conflict between Dr. Jason and the assistant supervisor, "Ruth Levering" (Catherine McLeod) on one side and the aforementioned Mr. Riggs and Miss Beuhler on the other. Now, rather than disclose the entire plot, I will just say that this film will probably be considered "lightweight" by current standards. There is no nudity, vulgar language or anything else that might be considered "graphic". However, it is an interesting movie all the same with a very capable cast. In that regard, I thought both Anne Francis (as "Loretta") and Catherine McLeod probably gave the best performances. On the other hand, I must also admit that there were some parts which were a bit corny at times. But that's probably to be expected with most films produced during this particular period. Be that as it may, I enjoyed this film for the most part and rate it as slightly better than average.

Girls coping with sadistic jailers despite efforts of kindly, gentle, understanding psychiatrist Paul Henreid in a Jean Rouverol (Mrs. Hugo Butler) script. Rita Moreno is 19, Anne Francis is 20: so young! So good!