So Evil, So Young

Well this is not John Cromwell's CAGED nor Lewis Seiler's WOMEN'S PRISON, the best of the best in terms of gals behind bars, in the can, but this one is different of the exploitiation stuff that will emerge in the seventies, providing nude, sex, violence - maybe realistic though, regarding what really happens in jail - but unfortunately meaningless, destined to male audiences seeking girls else than law abiding students living in a quiet suburb dating for the first time. This film is definitely smoother, nearly destined to family audiences, than the previous movies which I first talked about here. And Jill Ireland had an actress life before meeting Charles Bronson.

Lucy Owens robs a safe in a mansion where she used to work. She is spotted by the butler but the other girl Claire gets away. She's jealous of Ann Turner (Jill Ireland) over a musician named Tom and frames her as her accomplice. Ann is sentenced to three years and gets imprisoned along with Lucy. The Matron is trying to be a modern reformer while the brutal Miss Smith has other ideas. Mary becomes Ann's only prisoner friend.

Tom is really dumb. His ex is caught stealing and his new girlfriend is supposedly her partner. Sometimes, I call movie characters too dumb to live. Tom starts out as one of those. In the real world, he would be called to testify. In order to make the movie not dumb, he needs to be scared of being pulled into the whole affair. He wouldn't want to be called a co-conspirator. Anyways, it would be better for the story to have him abandon her. It needs to be her alone against the world. As for her escape, she needs a better reason like Miss Smith telling her that she is going to hang her next. Like a lot of this movie, the writing is not quite well thought out. This is not good enough to be taken serious and it's definitely not camp.

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.

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.

Before I talk about the movie, there is a bit of confusion that Americans might feel when they see this film about a women's reform school. Apparently, the person running the prison is called the 'matron' and the women working under her are called 'wardens'. In the States, it's the other way around...there is only one warden and that's the boss of the prison.

The story is about Ann Turner (Jill Ireland), a nice young girl who is sent to prison for a crime she didn't commit. Her adjustment to the prison life is tough at first, as the lady who lied and got her sent to prison is there! Fortunately, the nice Matron takes a liking for her and gives her a chance. But this chance is jeopardized when one of the wardens pushes one of the ladies to kill herself. Ann refuses to help her or the matron because she feels the riot that resulted from this was justified.

This film is an incredibly mild women in prison sort of picture-- nothing like the American versions such as "Caged". So, while the treatment by the warden is supposed to be harsh, it all seems incredibly lame when compared to the much tougher and more violent American women in prison films. American films have a strong suggestion of lesbianism and sadism...whereas this one looks like a prison film written by a charm school graduate! Not a bad film...but one that is incredibly tame and 'nice'!