Girls in Prison

It is nice to see B girl Adele Jergens have some fun right before she retired. This is pure camp, which is why we watch it. I Iove 1950s and early 1960s women's prison movies. They all have their roots done, perfect hairdos, tailored prison uniforms and are probably wearing girdles. The worst they do is use double negatives and pull each other's hair. I'm sure I watched these rerun on TV as a little kid thinking society was SO much better then, thinking, "Oh I see hippies on the street doing worse!"

Less-than-thrilling, the film drags but the ending is goofy enough to make it possibly worthwhile. Features earthquakes that come from nowhere, a boxing preacher, and girls in prison who seem not to have been quite locked up. Trouble ensues.

For those of you that enjoy mindless but fascinating "theme" movies of the '50s, then this one is for you. Adele Jergens steals the film as the prison bully that befriends Ann. The best scene is at the end of the film where Richard Denning, a minister that was a star boxing champ at college mind you, dukes it out with the bad guy. There's an earthquake (makes no sense) and a windstorm. For highlights on the making of the film, check out American International's producer/founder Sam Arkoff's book, "Flying Through Hollywood by the Seat of My Pants," and he'll explain the reasons for the natural disasters. Overall the film is interesting, since it makes you wonder how the prison women manage not a hair out of place or smeared makeup after the fights. Cute stuff.

A pretty young woman by the name of "Anne Carson" (Joan Taylor) gets mixed up with two other men in a bank robbery and gets a 5-to-10 year prison sentence even though she declares her innocence. Along with that, $38,000 was stolen and since she left one person at the bank and the other person is dead, everybody thinks she hid the money. And everybody wants it bad. Anyway, for a women-in-prison (WIP) film made in the mid-50's this movie wasn't too bad. Not only did Joan Taylor give a pretty good performance but she was rather cute too. Along with that, I liked the way the director (Edward L. Cahn) depicted her lesbian cell-mate "Melanee" (Helen Gilbert). Although certainly tame by today's standards, it was rather racy for this particular time-period. I also appreciated the fact that her other two cell-mates, "Jenny" (Adele Jergens) and "Dorothy" (Phyllis Coates) weren't bad on the eyes either. After all, they could have looked a lot worse. All in all then, I rate this movie as slightly above average.

Edward L. Cahn was a master of some campy films in the 50s and early 60s, and this is one of them.

It's all about a large stash of stolen bank loot squared away somewhere, and the good gal versus the bad to get it all. But first, there's a classic prison escape, due to mother nature --EARTHQUAKE! Rare for 50s films, but a real treat with lots of shakin' and screamin' and cardboard sets rockin'.

Adele Jergens, popular blonde in lots of B films, plays the toughest cookie, and she's fantastic in this type of role. Many other familiar actresses on board, including veteran Jane Darwell and tv's first Lois Lane, Phyllis Coates. Richard Denning plays the good guy slash minister, following the trail which leads to the broken down house of an old man, related to one of the gals. The old bird is tough enough in his own way, and is the cash hidden with him?

There's lots of scrambling and gunplay, and somehow it all jives in classic black and white. Watch Adele Jergens right to the bitter end.

Cahn did an excellent job directing. His next classic would be THE SHE CREATURE.

The finale is memorable, in that sort of campy 50s style we all love. A special thank you to MOVIES Net for rerunning this classic on its late show lineup lately.

Always on dvd for collectors. A Must.