Rating: C-
Dir: Sid Melton
Star: Misty Ayers, William Page, William Marks, Heather English
The IMDb says this was actually made in 1954. Sitting on the shelf for eleven years has to be close to a record, and especially in the sexploitation genre, can’t have worked in its favour. What might have seemed racey and explicit at the time this was made, became tame and innocuous by the time it was released. Even though Ayers was a stripper, who in the fifties appeared in the likes of Tijuana After Midnight, she never goes further here than her underwear. And that only on a couple of occasions (top). She plays Sally Downs, who moves to the big city – specifically, Hollywood – in search of fame and fortune. No prizes for guessing how this quest ends up going.
Specifically, the “modelling” gig she goes to, ends in her being knocked out, and shot up with dope. In the next scene, she’s a hooker, being kept captive in a house of ill-repute run by Nick, along with a slew of other fallen women. [They’re all American, this dating back to a time before immigrants came and stole all of our jobs as whores] One of her clients, Tommy, falls for Sally and hatches a plan to get her out. After his first attempt fails, he’s sternly warned off, yet there’s no competing with young love. What results is surprisingly dark in tone, albeit in line with the Hays code. It was firmly in place when Bad Girls was made, though well on its way out by the time the film was eventually released.
If the story is decent enough, the flaws in the execution are numerous and obvious. The most glaring one is audio, which it’s painfully apparent was not recorded at the time of filming. Being dubbed-in later is bad enough; what grates worse is the blatant attempts to avoid shooting the mouths. For instance, there’s almost an entire conversation, with multiple cuts, shot from behind the head of the person who is speaking at that point. [If you’ve seen any Doris Wishman films, you will be familiar with the technique] The foley work is no better. When Sally is “knocked out,” it sounds as if she was slapped with a moist towelette. The limited stock music is terrible too.
Director Melton had a long career in Hollywood, spanning almost sixty years, albeit much more as a character actor than a director. [He was Bea Arthur’s father on The Golden Girls] Much as I try to make allowances for the dubbing, it’s clear that Ayers was hired for her looks, rather than her convincing acting ability. Mind you, that’s still an improvement over the other women here, who are largely bereft of both talent and beauty. Matters are only marginally better on the male side, albeit only because they’re not supposed to be particularly attractive. Short of an hour in duration, it could feel considerably longer, especially if you don’t share my appreciation for the finer points of bad cinema.