Girls in Prison (1956)

Touches You

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

**SPOILERS** Woman prison flick involving sweet and innocent Anne Carson, Joan Taylor, who ends up taking the rap for the notorious Medesto Bank robbery where one of her partners in crime ended up getting killed in a police shootout. It's the surviving member of the robbery trio Paul Anderson, Lance Fuller, the actor not the 1950's and 1960's world champion weight lifter who set Anne up after he fled a night club that both he and Anne were hiding in during a police raid.In prison it's the prison Chaplin Rev.Fuller, Richard Denning, who feels that Anne got a raw deal and is determined to straighten things out for her. That's quite a job for the good Reverend since Anne is shearing her cell with tough as nails Jenny, Adele Jergens, and Melanee, Helen Gilbert, who are determined to find out where Anne hid the cash, $38,000.00, from the bank robbery that's never been recovered. There's also convicted murderess Dorothy played by Phillis Coates the former "Adventures of Superman" TV show's Lois Lane as one of Anne's cell-mates. The severely mentally deranged Dorothy suspects every woman in prison of being the one who took off with her husband and child whom she ended up up murdering. And with Anne no exception she's targeted by Dorothy for death as soon as she turns her back on her.It's in fact Paul Anderson who goes all out to find the stolen cash by crashing Anne's pop's Pop Carson's, Raymond Hatton, shack in the country and holding him hostage until his daughter, who's now behind bars, can come up with the stolen cash. Pop for his part is so cool and unafraid of the gun toting Anderson that at time he almost challenges him to shoot him! That's probably so he can have an excuse to finally get himself out of this corny movie by being killed off in it.***SPOILERS*** It's Rev.Fulton who ends up saving the day as well as Anne & Pop Carson by tracking down Anderson in Pop Carson's place and then duking it out with Paul Anderson. By then both Jenny & Mclanee were history with Dorothy, who just dropped out of sight, no where to be seen. Not much to recommend here but actor Raymond Hatton's amazing and almost effortlessly performance as the nonchalant and I don't give a you know what Pop Carson! The guy is so cool that he takes coolness up to higher level as well as lower temperature. As for the big hero in the movie Rev. Fulton he, wearing a bullet proof vest, has no trouble dispatching Lance Fuller who's played by actor Paul Anderson. But I couldn't keep from wondering if he would have had such an easy time dispatching that other Paul Anderson who back in the 1950's and 1960's was considered to be the strongest man in the world!

Going by the title and the cover, I was expecting a straight-up Girls-In-Prison flick (duh!), but this film seems less concerned with daily prison life than with the plot that has several characters, operating in & out of prison, looking for the still-missing loot of the bank robbery which got the heroine, Joan Taylor, in prison in the first place. Everybody thinks that she has the money hidden somewhere and....spoilers follow....everybody is right! That's quite a twist on most pictures of this kind: the innocent-looking heroine thrown into the cesspool is actually guilty! But don't worry, there's a kind preacher there to help her regain her conscience. The film does have some prototypical elements of WIP movies (including a very short and shot from a great distance mud fight that reminded me of Roberta Collins vs. Pam Grier in "The Big Doll House"), and there are subtle but unmistakable clues that Helen Gilbert's character is a lesbian who gets angry at Taylor for rejecting her. There is also an earthquake sequence, pretty well-done, and an IMPRESSIVE stunt of a woman climbing onto the back of a moving truck and then getting thrown on the ground. It's too bad that between these moments the film is actually quite boring. (**)

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.

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.