Main Cast: Mamie van Doren, Mel Tormé, Paul Anka, Ray Anthony, Maggie Hayes
Release Year: 1959
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
This sexually explicit, low-budget film makes no pretensions about being anything other than offensive. There is no plot since none is especially necessary. Director Charles Haas (his last film was the following year), opens with a scene of sexually active men and women at a party. Then one of these women, Silver Morgan (Mamie Van Doren), is mistakenly accused of a crime and sent to an institution, run by Catholic nuns, for wayward young women. As it turns out, the inmates in the institution actually run it through sadistic means. One of them is even more seriously mentally disturbed than the others, and so the nuns welcome her as a novitiate, making even a non-Catholic viewer grimace. The content of this story, such as it is, is made all the worse by an accompanying disregard of the craft of filmmaking. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Review
Bad girl trash films are certainly not to everyone's taste, so if you're not "tuned in" to that particular wave, definitely skip Girls' Town. It's a rotten movie -- sheer exploitation, featuring excessively melodramatic, clichéd writing; horrible "period" dialogue that reeks of someone's father trying to be "hip;" plot twists that are from hunger; characterizations that are skin deep at best; direction that is from hunger; and performances that range from inept to embarrassing. In other words, this is a great film to laugh at, for those of us who enjoy staring in open-mouthed amazement that such films exist at all. Any film led by Mamie Van Doren is automatically a contender for this kind of great fun, and Girls has Van Doren at the "top" of her game. There's also an atrocious Mel Torme (as a tough gang type of kid), and an even more atrocious Paul Anka; you haven't really lived until you've seen these two in a fight together. Speaking of which, there are plenty of cat fights as well, not to mention nuns, some "rock" songs, and more bad slang than you shake a stick at. As with many similar films, the fun wears thin halfway through, but it picks up again toward the end. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Jack T. Collis - Art Director, Hans Peters - Art Director, Charles F. Haas - Director, Leon Barsha - Editor, Van Alexander - Composer (Music Score), Van Alexander - Musical Direction/Supervision, John L. Russell - Cinematographer, L. John Russell - Cinematographer, Albert Zugsmith - Producer, Robert Smith - Screenwriter, Robert Hardy Andrews - Short Story Author
Girls Town is a 1959 film produced by MGM, starring Mamie Van Doren, Mel Tormé and Ray Anthony; Paul Anka also appears in his first acting role. A juvenile delinquent is sent to a girls school run by nuns, where she finds herself unable to help her sister. The film capitalizes on the 1950s rebellious teen exploitation films, full of cat-fights, races, music from Anka and The Platters, and sexy outfits.
Girls Town was lampooned in September 1994 on movie-mocking television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. About 15 minutes of the actual film was cut from this version.
Plot
The movie opens as a young woman, fending off her grabby date, watches him accidentally fall over a cliff to his death. Circumstantial evidence places 16-year-old delinquent Silver (played by a 27-year-old Van Doren) at the scene and she is sent to Girls Town, a rehabilitation village run by a group of nuns. There she lives with Serafina (Gigi Perreau) and two tough chicks. Trouble and misunderstandings ensue. Troublemaker Fred (Tormé) saw the cliff incident from a distance and realizes it was Silver's sister who was there: Mary Lee (Elinor Donahue, from Father Knows Best). Fred blackmails Mary Lee into being his partner in deadly "hands-off drag racing," then prepares to take her to Tijuana to sell her into the slave trade. Silver finally wins the respect of her Girls Town friends, but can they rescue Mary Lee?
A side plot involves Serafina swooning over famous singer Jimmy (Anka). While visiting town, as well as Girls Town, he sings "Lonely Boy", "It's Time to Cry", "Girls Town Blues", and "Ave Maria". A scene set in a night club features The Platters singing "Wish It Were Me".
