So Evil, So Young

So Evil So Young has a great title and an early appearance by Jill Ireland, but at heart it remains what it is: a Danziger Brothers production. That means a poor script, a largely unknown cast, and a minimum of thrills. The film hearkens back to similar American films like Caged (1950) but is, of course, a much more genteel affair. Nonetheless, this film is relatively interesting, being one of the few Technicolor films the Brothers produced. Perhaps the Eadie money arrived early that month. It's always fun to see these glimpses of pre-Beatles coffee bar culture in England, especially when you can see how bright red the glace cherries are on the buns, and there are a couple of brief snippets of early '60s rock and roll, performed by John Charlesworth as Tom, Jill's love interest whilst she's behind bars in a girls' borstal serving time for a crime she did not commit. Not to worry--justice is ultimately served.

One of a couple of colour co-features the Danziger Brothers made around the turn of the 1960s, this was written by an American and follows the American "women in prison" stereotype except that of course it has no teeth. The reform school inmates are all well turned-out young ladies and it's absurd that one of them is described as having "a distinct Cockney accent" because everybody uses RP. There's a brief riot; but the main appeal for lads at the time would have been the girls in bed scenes. There's also a hint of lesbianism. The coffee bar looks nothing like one and the pop star who's performing (John Charlesworth) doesn't open his mouth while the track is playing! (Charlesworth finished his role then killed himself). Watch out, during the penultimate scene, for the actress who flinches before she's slapped. The film probably inspired "House of Whipcord". Some of the lines are identical and the parts of the lesbian wardress played here by Ellen Pollock and in "Whipcord" by Sheila Keith are basically the same. The film's currently on You Tube.

An innocent girl, Ann (Jill Ireland) is framed by an evil girl, Lucy (Jocelyn Britton) and sent to a borstal (British girls prison). There we have an evil prison guard, suicides, cat fights, riots and a strong suggestion of lesbianism.

For what it is, it's not bad. It's made in bright, strong colors and has a fairly decent script. Jill Ireland is actually pretty good as Ann, Sheila Whittingham is equally fine as a fellow inmate and Ellen Pollock amusingly chews the scenery as the evil Miss Smith. Also the lesbian suggestions were pretty strong for its time. But I can only give this a 5.

For some reason, they play sleazy music almost constantly in the background. It never matches whats playing on the screen and totally destroys any dramatic impact. Also, you can tell the actors are doing a good job, but the music is really distracting. At some points the music almost drowns out the dialogue! What's the point of all that?

So, without the music I would probably give it a higher rating but, as it stands, I can only give this a 5.

This one is pretty tame. One usually watches these old exploitation pix for their camp value. You know, girls/women in prison with girdles and push up bras under their tailored uniforms and perfect bought hairsmdos. This one is pure as the pink pressed dresses they all wear.

The plot picks up by way of the usual melodramatic misunderstanding and a riot ensues.

Jill Ireland is very lovely but what this film really needed was a Diana Dors type, in a tight uniform, cotton colored hair and walking around slinging her hips in a tight uniform chomping gum and chain smoking.

This was bad, but no reason for John Charlesworth to gas himself over.

A watchable British exploitation quickie incongruously shot in extremely pretty Technicolor, most of which takes place in a reform school for young ladies where common sense and self-control among both the inmates and the staff prove in unfortunately short supply; but where none of the girls otherwise live up to the film's lurid tabloid title. All the usual women's prison clichés are present and correct - the well-meaning matron (Joan Haythorne) whose good intentions are undermined by her brutal second in command (Ellen Pollock), lots of hair-pulling when the dormitory lights are out, and so on - but all presented in a genteel British fashion far from the unflinching brutality currently being depicted so graphically in the St.Trinian's films. The film keeps you sufficiently interested for the plot holes to be ironically more glaring than they would otherwise be in a less engrossing film.

The last of five productions on which The Danzigers had recently splashed out on Technicolor; the girls look incongruously pretty in their pink uniforms, as well as the pink pyjamas they wear in the numerous scenes set in their enormous dormitory, which cameraman Jimmy Wilson never tires of showing off, energetically dollying back and forth and up to the ceiling to give us a good view of it. Unfortunately, as earlier commentators have complained, the film has also been saddled with an insistent jazz score of the kind ubiquitous in British and Continental crime films of the early 60's (in this case lifted from previous Danzigers productions) which keeps barging in when least called for, and providing just the requisite trashiness lacking elsewhere.