Girl in Trouble

Exploitation films were meant to titillate and push the boundaries of good taste. Because of this, the older ones are terribly entertaining, as their stories about good boys and girls gone bad are downright hilarious because they are anything but subtle. Bad acting, bad direction and terrible stories are pretty much the norm and bad movie fans enjoy the heck out of these flicks. However, when it comes to bad taste and crappy stories, "Girl in Trouble" is a bit lacking--as it's amazingly slow and tame for this genre. So, if you are looking crazy over the top scenes like you'd see in "Sex Madness" or "Reefer Madness", you might be a bit disappointed.

When the film begins, it appears as if the film was shot using either a Super 8mm or 16mm camera--and a cheap one at that. It shows an ambulance crew taking away a woman to the hospital and then she begins narrating--doing a voice over description of her lurid tale from start to finish. It seems that she was a nice girl from farm country but longed for the excitement of the big city. En route to finding her fortune in New Orleans, our sweetheart kills a man in self-defense, is spied upon by an evil lecher and ultimately becomes a stripper and addict.

The film is cheap. The actors are all inexperienced and it shows. The soundtrack is very generic and doesn't really fit the action. The story throws breast shots into the story for no particular reason (typical for 1960s exploitation movies) and the overall production comes off as creepy and dull--a strange combination! For exploitation fans, there's enough to keep them mildly interested but no more. For everyone else, it's a slow, dull piece that probably doesn't offer enough to merit your time.

This B/W film about a naive young woman moving to the big city is not half-bad for this type of stuff. The main actress is boringly realistic in her quest for a more exciting life. The first flop-house she goes to has has incredible wallpaper in the lobby. The character of Mona is very good and when she's wearing her wrinkled evening gown she looks like she's about to attend an Ed Wood premiere. THe entire film is post-dubbed and almost everyone wears wrinkled clothes.

Some decent location shots and music and it's quite the morality tale with a nice closing shot. A 4 out of 10. Minor nudity with lots of bad hairstyles and big underwear. Not bad!

This quickie exploitation pic tries too hard to be legit and tell the story of a small town girl trying to bust into the big city. As a look at USA circa 1963, it's interesting, but as an exploitation pic, it's a bore. Too little story too coy in the telling make this one of the few genuinely boring Something Weird Video releases. The opening makes the claim that it is a true story; and, as dull as it is, that's very believable. The strippers don't even strip.

To its credit, the leading lady is a genuinely good actress, whose narration, while used too much, is quite well done. She's also very good looking (if you don't mind a bouffant) and gets topless a few times, but it goes nowhere.

Poor Judy runs away from home and quickly gets pawed by a motorist and spied on by a hotel manager. The descent into decadence that follows is painfully slow and prudish. The real 1960s had to swing a lot more than this. Judy claims to be pretty smart, but she's shocked that a man who has requested a girl to model lingerie in his hotel room would try to have sex with her.

Poor, dull Johnny walks the streets in hopes of finding her, and eventually does, with moralistic disappointment. On the other hand, I loved the character of Mona. She was like the Bad Advice Fairy. You say a man tried to rape you? Hey, why not become a stripper?

Girl in Trouble (1963)

* (out of 4)

Judy Collins (Tammy Clarke) is just a small town girl who has dreams of heading into the big city and making it big. On the way to her dream Judy hitches a ride where the man eventually tries to rape her, which leads her to killing him. From here things only get worse for Judy as she falls in with a bunch of perverts.

GIRL IN TROUBLE is the type of exploitation film you'd expect from this era. The film was shot silent and we have the typical awful narration that gets us from one scene to the next. Once again I must say that I feel really bad for people of this era who had to sit through movies like this one in hopes of getting some sort of nudity.

There are all sorts of problems with this one including the fact that there's about fifteen minutes worth of "story" here and it's pushed out to 81 minutes. The film is a real drag from start to finish, although there are some campy moments that get some laughs. The performances are all pretty bland as you'd expect and there's just nothing entertaining here. Even worse is the fact that scenes just drag on without much of a point.

Judy Collins escapes from her home town--she's in love with local boy Johnny but doesn't want to marry him--yet. On the way to New Orleans she kills a man who tries to assault her. She gets there, tries to get a job and MORE men assault her. She finally ends up a stripper and one day Johnny walks into the club...

This was given the 1963 equivalent of an X rating--no child under 16 was allowed in the theatre. Today it would be given a soft R mostly for some casual nudity. This seems to want to be taken seriously but the pointless nude shots and a violent rape make it clear what this really is--an exploitation picture. For that it's pretty well-made--well-directed and shot. The voice over narration is OK (if overdone) but the badly post-synced dialogue is obvious. Also pretty badly acted--only the one playing Mona showed any talent.

If you're into early 60s exploitation you might like this. Otherwise, stay away.