Review of Reform School Girl

Introduction

Kings of the drive-in, American International Pictures was synonymous with classically cheesy horror movies in fifties America. Producers Samuel Z Arkoff and James H Nicholson made small-budget horror and exploitation pieces for the newly-invented teenage market and had little competition from the major studios. Never scared of hiring young (cheap) talent, AIP`s star discovery was Godfather-of-modern-cinema Roger Corman.

AIP films frequently starred Hollywood old-timers such as Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre, and gave early career breaks to names like Jack Nicholson.

"Reform School Girl" falls into the exploitation category of AIP`s output. Made in 1957, Gloria Castillo heads a cast of relative unknowns including Edd Byrnes (who would the following year join the cast of 77 Sunset Strip and become one of the stars of late-fifties television in the US). Boy meets girl, boy frames girl for fatal hit-and-run accident, girl goes to chokey and has wonderfully nasty but strangely naive adventures behind bars.

These little historical items do little to make what is a pretty turgid teenage potboiler interesting. There are a lot of catfights on the way, a lot of meetings of concerned adults puffing on pipes, and Edd Byrnes being startlingly nasty. Risque for the time, it is only the use of knives that can have hiked this movie into the 12 category. It isn`t a patch on Prisoner Cell Block H, and not half as well acted (!)

Video

This is another release that has suffered from the passage of time and little care. Presented in the original 1.33:1, the image is dark, grainy and suffers from much wear and tear.

Audio

Similarly to the video, the audio on the disc is nothing to write home about, a shrill 1950s soundtrack reproduced in DD2.0 Mono.

Features

As with all the releases in the series, the same nine trailers for the film and its fellows, the audio BFI interview with Samuel Arkoff, and foreign-language only subtitles. Once you`ve seen one disc`s extras you`ve seen them all.

Conclusion

In one word, turgid. The surprising thing is this kind of picture would have been absolutely scandalous back in 1957 when it was made. It really makes you realise how hardened we`ve all become since then. Little to recommend. Sorry.