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.

"Girls Caged Without Their Guys!" That's what the poster for this movie promises, with some kind of leering suggestion of depravity. The film is about a young girl--Ann, played by a young Jill Ireland--who is falsely accused of a crime. She is sent to a reformatory where there is another girl who is out to get her. But the real villain of the film is Miss Smith, a vindictive martinet who seems to enjoy punishing the girls in her care. A regular Captain Bligh, she runs her tight ship solely for the pleasure of exerting power over the young women. She uses a cane and exudes a flawed psyche like Nurse Ratched or the commandant of a Nazi POW camp.

The story is simplistic--suitable for a cheap drive-in double header. The acting is satisfactory, but uneven.

What most annoys is the cheery jazz score that accompanies every scene, regardless of the dramatic content. It proves very distracting and laughable at times. It's not that the music is bad; it's just inappropriate, undermining the emotional impact of scenes.

This rather reminds me of Boys in Brown because the inmates,who would be in their teens,are played by actresses who were in their mid twenties.Some of the dialogue is priceless eg"tell it to the marines".As has been mentioned by others the music is a major irritation,drowning out dialogue.Ellen Pollock as Chief Warden is a real hoot.She reminds me of Cloris Leachman as Nurse Diesel in High Anxiety.

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.

When framed-for-burglary good girl Jill Ireland is put into isolation in an all-girls reformatory, the already unfitting mellow jazz soundtrack suddenly explodes into a bedlam of vibes and horns, almost seeming like that very music's being pumped into the room to drive her crazy, as she starts grabbing the bars, desperately wanting to get out...

Contrasting to what begins as a rather tame earlier version of THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER but involving girls... and yes, SO EVIL SO YOUNG is a women's prison movie taking place in more of a boarding bunkhouse... and there are some pretty ingenues including Ireland's JUNGLE STREET co-starlet Gillian Watts: But one scene-stealing inmate gains much-needed momentum during the third act...

And that's when this otherwise surprisingly dull, stagnant camera melodrama gains urgency and actually has a purpose: the token bullying guard lady, provided a cane and limp to add to her repressed villainy, becomes a target for a particular inmate who's both friendly (defending the cliche vulnerable girl who winds up taking her life) and a kind of revolutionary in tall and intense Olive McFarland...

So the pot-boiling plot really comes down to when she'll eventually go against bratty antagonist Joceyln Britton, initially responsible for framing Jill Ireland, who, while being the main star, gets somewhat lost in a vehicle where ultimately, neither she as an actress or her character truly belong - because while she's YOUNG like the others, she's never EVIL, not even ambiguously.