Girl Gang

This film when watched on a Ultra HD screen takes on a a whole new viewing experience, if one can put aside their predilections for what the film "should" be, they will uncover an existentialist nightmarish allegory of the complacency and conformity of the nuclear age. Previously I viewed this film as a standard "exploitation" film. I viewed it a second time , late one night after 13 energy drinks, 7 cups of coffee and sleep deprivation of 49 hours; and came to a far different conclusion. When examining Ed Wood's subconscious one can see that he was comparing the heroin addicted life style that the Girl Gang was engaged in to that of the prescriptive feminine standard of living in the 50's where every female was racing through life trying to imitate one another and never taking time for introspective review. Wood's conclusion was that this conformity led to death, or a mental prison that was inescapable. While viewing this celluloid sociological warning to women imprisoned by the etiquette and mores of the nuclear age, those who would give up their careers and dreams for a marriage and the security of a husband with a pension, it is good to remember the wisdom bestowed by Ed Wood's own words," Live life because life is to be lived."

Timothy Farrell runs an operation where he gets boys and girl hooked on marijuana and heroin, then sends them out to rob and commit prostitution.

When the most prominent name on a cast and crew list is Farrell, you know you're in for a dire time. No one can read a line with any conviction, the mise en scene is obvious and dull, and even the sound effects, provided by Dale Knight are poor; the sounds he offers bear no relation to what is seen on screen, save the occasional jangling of harp strings to indicate a high.

Like most exploitation films, this one promises a lot of titillation, but the cheap and sordid production doesn't offer much beyond some necking, a view of Joanne Arnold's garter belt, and a poorly shot, fully clothed catfight between her and Mary Lou O'Connor. If that's all you require for a major turn-on, then you've got an imagination that sets a very low bar.

Wow. I didn't expect much before I began watching, but still 'Girl gang' surprises with how terribly inauthentic it is, from the very start. Only a few individuals in the cast have any additional credits to their name, but at that, no one involved demonstrates convincing acting skills. To be fair, it's not necessarily their fault; the material is desperately thin, and Robert C. Dertano's capacity as director seemed to be little more than pointing a camera and feeding his cast lines.

In both how scenes are written and certainly in their realization, one senses not the slightest tick of bother for how the presentation looks from an outside perspective. Was there more than one take at any point? Dertano's editing leaves much to be desired; did he actually do any meaningful work in this regard, save for cutting from one shot to the next?

In another time, with a more capable creative team, this could have been a feature that meaningfully explored degradation and corruption. Alternatively, why, it could have been given a different angle, and become a subversive feminist delight. Instead, 'Girl gang' is effectively an extension of the 1936 propaganda film 'Reefer madness,' and nothing more. Marijuana is depicted as inherently addictive, and capable of producing a fatal overdose. Marijuana is of course an instant gateway to heroin, prostitution, theft, robbery, and more.

I suppose this could be exciting if one has never seen any other movie or TV show before. It could be shocking if one had such prudish, uptight, ill-informed moral sensibilities that even the merest suggestion of controverting societal norms was terribly offensive and alarming. For anyone else, however, this is emphatically not worth the 62 minutes it takes to watch it. There is no genuineness to be found in 'Girl gang,' and no value, either. Under no circumstances could I possibly recommend this to anyone.

Girl Gang is so bad it's good. The acting is sub-par, yes. The direction isn't great. But the plot is actually pretty well thought out: Drug dealer uses a couple of his regulars to recruit young 'greenhorns' to his 'candy'. Once they get hooked on weed, he moves them on to heroin and all of them eventually find that the heroin habit is more expensive, therefore they 'owe' the dealer more and more money. He then basically forces the girls into prostitution and 'rape' allegation shakedowns to get the money to pay him back. Time goes on and they get deeper in debt to him and get into worse and worse criminal activity to support their habit. This is certainly not a family night movie, what with all the sex and prostitution and blackmail. There is even a point where it shows step by step how to freebase heroin...you learn something new every day! If you have no sense of humour, or the slightest understanding of the time period in which this film was made, I don't suggest you waste your time. On the other hand, if you love 'Teenagers Going to Hell' delinquency films of the fifties and sixties as much as I do, you'll love this monstrosity! It's a campy cheese-fest worthy of Mystery Science Theater 3000 that actually holds up decently on it's own!

First off, the title is wrong. There are girls and there is a gang but they're only incidental to the story. Most of the movie deals with a bunch of very overage "teenagers" getting hooked on heroin. Purportedly this movie is supposed to be a warning against it, yet it shows them all having a great time while on it! They're singing, dancing (a sequence that goes on for 10 minutes. Why? To eat up running time!) and having sex...so what it they're hooked? There's even a sequence which shows--step by step--how to inject heroin!

Very cheaply done, all horrible acting with uproarious dialogue. Also the worst use of music ever! Most of the time it doesn't even fit the scene! It's really hard to explain how totally worthless this movie is. Not even bad/good. Skip it.